YO BRO IT’S ME LITTY

Watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics was a bittersweet moment for me (and it had nothing to do with learning that the fireworks were fake!). I’ve so thoroughly enjoyed tuning in each day over the past few weeks that I’m sad to see it end. Perhaps the amazing accomplishments and worldwide interest in the Beijing games will lead to a revival for the Olympics in future years. Or perhaps this will be as good as it ever gets and we’ll all look back generations from now and remark how the Beijing Olympics were the best games ever.

I was lucky enough to spend time at the Winter Olympics in Torino in 2006. I had a blast. I attended the Opening Ceremonies and scalped tickets to a ton of cool events, saw American win gold medals (the flying tomato) and got to party with people from all over the world. But the Italians weren’t all that enthralled by the games (it was soccer season) and there seemed to be very little meaning to the whole thing. It was almost as if the Olympics was just a commercial tournament that was put together for tourists, sponsors and to make a few bucks for the organizers.

But these Olympics games were different from the start. Leading up to the games I was curious to see what would happen, and it wasn’t the sporting events that I was curious about. I had read about the air pollution, logistical issues, threats of major protests, boycotts and Chinese censorship. A few months before the games a major and deadly earthquake devastated central China and it seemed to put even more of a damper on the games. The world was planning to show up on China’s doorstep and nobody (even those that had a stake in the games) seemed to know for certain what kind of hosts they would be. As for the sports, I find it hard to get all that excited to watch sports that I don’t give a damn about and don’t follow regularly. I guess I’m just not synchronized for swimming.

I was in Mexico the weekend of the opening ceremonies and didn’t really have the patience to watch the Spanish broadcasts of the opening events. Then I heard about the tragic and random murder of men’s volleyball coach Huge McCutcheon’s father-in-law. It seemed as though these games might turn into the disaster that many had feared and dreaded.

But when I returned to NYC there already seemed to be some good buzz about the games. From there, the athletes took over and their performances were so good and so captivating that it had everybody I know tuning in and talking about it. For a few blissful days, Phelps and Bolt, Nadia and Kobe (Little Flying Warrior) took the spotlight at the water cooler and replaced Brett Farve’s work status, Lohan’s sexual orientation and pointless election banter about Barry O!

Here were my favorite memories…

Phelps
This couldn’t have been scripted better if it was a cheesy Disney movie. An innocent and likeable star, a prestigious and time-honored record up for grabs, a coach who is part jedi part drill sergeant and a mother who puts just about any cheerleader to shame.

Phelps played the part to perfection. He won with unbelievable natural skill, sheer determination and bold passion. He had trusty sidekicks in the relay that helped him bring home the Gold. It seemed like everybody was on Phelps “team” and both his teammates and competitors seemed more interested in witnessing his quest for eight golds than to stand in his way. His comeback victory in the butterfly by .01 seconds seemed to prove that the Olympic gods were on his side.

Phelps is like the modern day Chuck Norris with tales of his dominance a dime a dozen. His hands are as big as dinner plates. His size 16 feet are like fins. He eats more than a stoned Kobayashi. His dad is a Sea Urchin and couldn’t be at the games because he lives in the ocean.

In just one week Phelps entered athletic hero lore with the likes of Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan and was being anointed as the greatest Olympic athlete ever until…

Usain Bolt
About four months ago my company, Sportsvite, signed a deal with Puma to have the shoe company sponsor the running section on our website. Part of the sponsorship was to promote their track star, a Jamaican sprinter named Usain Bolt. A few months later Bolt broke the world record in the 100 meters and I mentioned in the office that we might just have a rising star on Sportsvite. Little did I know what a star Bolt was about to become.

The track & field events were on tape delay so unfortunately I already knew the result when I watched many of Bolt’s races. Fortunately, it didn’t matter because you have to see him run to believe it. Bolt is so much faster than everybody else that he either looks like he’s jogging (which he often is) or it looks like he’s moving in fast forward DVR mode. Bolt isn’t a machine and doesn’t run technically. He’s a young, playful and confident Jamaican who seems to be awfully irie before and after races and sometimes even during the race. Sports Business reporter Darren Rovell pondered if Bolt slowed down so he would only beat the record by a little so that he can continuously beat his own record in the future. The fact that theory may be plausible is unbelievable!

The Redeem Team
The name “Redeem Team” is so bad I love it.
Thankfully though, the US finally righted the ship and dominated with pride and passion in regaining the Gold Medal after pathetic showings in the last Olympics and World Championships. It was actually easy to root for them. Kobe, Lebron and D-Wade played like the best three players on Earth. Young guys like Chris Paul and Deron Williams took another step towards superstardom. The competition is stiff and Spain, Argentina and Greece can probably field formidable NBA teams. That makes the tournament even better. The NBA and USA basketball made a smart move by investing in the Olympic program. It’s great to see the best players in the world playing together and trying so hard. None of them have to be there, none of them are making millions directly from their dedication to USA Basketball. But it was easy to tell how much they love playing basketball and how much even rich and famous athletes are honored and excited to represent their country in the Olympics.

Races and Head to Head Competitions
Many of The Olympic sports are pretty damn random except for the Modern Pentathlon of course. It’s not like I’m tuning in to ESPN on a weeknight to watch a Diving tournament followed by a team handball competition. To avoid my imagination getting the best of me, I stick to watching sports that are easy to comprehend. Races = good. Their quick, make sense and you can pick a guy and root for them. Even if it’s not close you can root for the swimmer to beat the World Record line! The announcer just has to set the scene and give you the background and you can figure out the rest on your own. Team Sports = good. Volleyball, Basketball, even water polo are easy to watch and become engaged in the action while rooting for your teams. Their usually is a favorite and an underdog and national pride makes the matches even more exciting.

Following this paradigm, I would watch any sport that was easy to figure out. Ping Pong on CNBC. Enthralling. Never have I ever rooted for a Korean to fend off a Mongolian!

Bela Karolyi
Why can’t they let him announce every sport. He’s amazing. Wouldn’t it be great to see him provide commentary for a mid-season Knicks vs. Raptors game at the Garden!

Stuff that was whack
I can’t spend a lot of time on the wackness since it was so bad but my short list. Cris Colinsworth and Costas, all sports with judges, diving routines, the photo highlights on sportcenter, tape delays, the Chinese gymnasts, passing the baton, all medals being worth the same value, the two wrestlers who forfeited their medals for unsportsmanlike conduct, tennis, softball team losing.

A few other thoughts.

From a media perspective, I thought NBC did a pretty good job with the games. They turned it into a worldwide entertainment event that everybody wantecd to watch. I was amused a few times to get into conversations with girls who would never be sports fans but knew every single detail and factoid about the Olympics (Phelps is 6′4″ but has the legs of a 6′ foot man!). It didn’t matter if I knew the results, every night when I got home I turned on the Olympics. They do a solid job of keeping people interested and showing multiple events and editing the tape-delayed stuff to make it fun to watch. In addition, they had coverage on multiple channels so I was able to find something good to watch at any time of the day. In an increasingly fragmented and distracted world, the Olympics are a global event that grabs attention at a mass level.

I wasn’t that impressed with the NBC Olympics website. Yes, it was comprehensive with information and video coverage but for the most part there was little reason to go to their website instead of the normal sites you visit to receive sports updates and information. NBC didn’t allow you to embed or share videos so wasn’t much viral pull. In fact I don’t remember receiving an email, link or video clip from their site the entire time so obviously they didn’t make their website relevant enough. I would have loved to get more inside footage and blogs from athletes, been able to get alerts when cool things were happening live and have more of a community that would be able to shed some light on some of the more random sports and events in the Olympics.

As for the tape delayed stuff, I don’t think it was that big of an issue. They should definitely show everything live for the die-hard fans and I’m sure they will in future Olympics (hey, HowieHoops woke up at 2am to watch LIVE the US win gold against a team they had beaten by 37 a week earlier.) but I don’t think that matters for most people. The average viewer wants to watch the Olympics on their big-screen television when they get home from work. They want to be whisked away to an Olympic world where everything is perfect and they can have heroes if only for a few weeks. NBC doe a good job of that.

Finally, my thoughts on China. Perhaps, I’m a global optimist but I thought the Olympics were great and China was wonderful. They hosted the party and while it could get weird to be in their home at times, it was pleasant and everyone got along. I’ve been to a few Olympic cities after the games were played there including Sydney, Barcelona and Atlanta. All those cities greatly benefited from the infrastructure and jolt that the Olympics provide. Yeah, it would be better if they spent all their resoruces helping their people overcome poverty and opression but that’s not always how the world works. Insteead places like the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube become iconic stadium’s overnight and that leads to change or more development.

It’s apparent China is going to be a world power. Actually, it already is one. They have 20% of the humans in this world. Yeah, they might not be exactly like the West but it’s things like sports that bring people together and if we can all like each other it will be a lot easier to overcome differences. It was kind of mind boggling and surreal to see the Chinese cheer for Kobe and Lebron with such knowledge and excitement. Is an NBA China that far off? And once we get accustomed to dealing with China on a sport and entertainment level we’ll maybe it will be a bit easier to understand their way of life. maybe.

I read lots of griping form journalists about censorship, detained protestors and a concerted fraudulent front by the Chinese that everything was just peachy. I’m sure all that’s true but that is how China operates and the rest of the world needs to figure out how to deal with it. I bet China also made huge concessions that made them a bit uncomfortable at times as well. Hopefully, everybody was able to see that the other side isn’t all that evil and will allow for more collaboration and success in the future. Yeah, we do need to figure out how to get China to invest more in personal freedom and human rights and hopefully we’ll be able follow up on the momentum of these games to accomplish more important real world challenges. Isn’t that what the Olympics are really all about anyway.

Like most other independently wealthy struggling and chubby entrepreneurs I summer on the east end. But last weekend I found myself in Fire Island. Despite Miss Matt’s insightful and potentially life-altering psychoanalysis, there was only one reason I took the fairy to FI. I wanted to get as far away from the Montauk Monster as possible!

Many of you might have heard about the Montauk Monster. It’s been all over the news over the last few days. Gawker broke the horror story a few weeks ago and CNN is covering it with this investigative gem. Check out the photo below.

I have a fervent conviction in the truthfulness of bizarre news stories. I’m still trying to locate Bison Dele on the high seas aboard the Hakuna Matata and the only hoax with the Cambodian Midget Fighting League was the cover up. I’ve also personally vowed never to let a monster incite fear into my people as the Kibbutz Monster did to us many moons ago.

So naturally I’ve scoured the wire, reading everything from legitimate news sources to insane blog post theories on the true nature of the monster.

The Monster is more than just an albatross to humanity; it is in fact all of our dilemmas. Not since Nessy or Jason Lillian, has such a beast terrified humanity. It has the mysteriousness of a spider’s web, the versatility of a liger, the dexterity of a blue collar butterfly and the ferocity of Matt’s bodyguard Rocco.

The Montauk Monster eats just about everything except Chicken Marsala. It especially enjoys late night cheese steaks, Twix ice cream bars, random sausage and parmiGINA cheese. It also snacks on Chicken Salad.

No one has yet figured out how to conquer the monster when it attacks or how this one washed up on the shore. Actually, nobody is sure if this one is dead or has just been perfectly still since it was discovered. A prevailing theory is to attempt to sedate it with a mixture of “advil”, tussin and Excedrin Migraine medication and then trap it with a Roman Helmet and a barrage of jelly fish. If that doesn’t work, mankind’s last hope is to send out fearless Roy to befriend it with his natural charm and charismatic delivery and a piece of string (this despite a limp labrum). To prepare for his Moby Dick moment, Roy walked 13 miles over the weekend!

The monster is not circumcised and has never faked an ACL injury.

Some people (joel mazur) don’t know if the monster stands for good or evil, peace or destruction, prosperity or bankruptcy. Even if they did know they wouldn’t know the difference (how would he even knoooooow). As long as it has a gentile appearance to the untrained eye, likes to play backgammon and isn’t afraid to take a flyer on Eddy Curry it gets a bid to Delta Sig.

Little guys across the globe are petrified of the monster and are especially overcome with fear when in the dark. They hide under their soiled sheets and if there are no sheets they bash their backside into spackled walls and dry heave from the bottom of their coreless core’s while they hide in fear. Hey, there’s one in every crew.

A group of scientists tried to contact the remaining monsters by SMS but received perplexing replies that bordered on erotic perversion. Apparently the monster likes to procreate but has been trapped in a sea of creatures with conflicting sexual orientation.

We all hope this story has a happy ending. It’s quite a cutesy beast after all.

Full Disclaimer: While this story is in fact accurate to each and every fact, Bonez hired me to pen this post for your edification and pleasure.

I moped off the subway last night a bit dejected as a result of a first round playoff loss in my wiffle ball league. In the second inning, Sitman’s little bro threw a change up that hung like Nathan Hale and that, along with a healthy dose of Tim Donaghy like umpiring, was the difference in the 2-0 defeat.

But the pain of another season without a ‘chip didn’t last long. As I was walking home from the subway stop I had the good fortune to run into my old pal Levine. Although he wasn’t delivering any any night club passes, he did let me know he was heading over to the Hunter College gym to watch the Pro City summer league. Then he mentioned Artest and his team was playing. Without any hesitation, I turned around and walked the half block back to Hunter College with him to check it out.

When I got to the gym I felt like I had just entered some kind of underground basketball mecca. The gym was packed, the atmosphere electric and Artest’s team (Queensbridge) was locked up with their opponents late in the third quarter. The intensity form both teams was notched up way higher than what you would expect for an exhibition game. In fact, Artest was going at it pretty hard at both ends of the court and at one point even received a technical for jawing with another guy. Artest shared the scoring load with none other than the one and only Daryl “Showtime” Hill. Hill never panned out at St. John’s (mostly because of a bum knee) but he was around for a hot minute to pull off this cutesy move — http://youtube.com/watch?v=oDGvNI8RHw0.

The obligatory streetball DJ was in full effect and the gunshots sample after every basket seemed to unnerve Levine. The crowd was roaring and was strongly behind Artest and his squad. Ron Ron had a few key buckets down the stretch to help pull the game out for his team.

Afterwards, Artest entered the stands to sit with his boys in the as the second game began. Artest was rocking a Mets cap and, damn it, he actually made the blue and orange look cool. Literarily, a few minutes after he left the gym solo (Levine wanted to follow him to see if he jumps on the FV and heads back to Queensbridge) a buzz went through the crowd that Artest had been dealt to Houston to pair up with T-Mac and Skip (and don’t forget Yao!). At this point, I was in total amazement. I wasn’t sure if these guys were talking about the NBA or if Artest was just swapped to the Houston (as in the street in downtown Manhattan) Tru Warriors summer league squad. Levine was thinking that two guys in the crowd might have just made a fantasy trade. Lo and behold, it seems that Artest actually was dealt last night.

The second game featured a talented team that starred Smuch Parker, Omar Cook and first round picks Michael Beasley and Donte Green (who ironically was part of the Artest swap). Smush was having it out with some fans that I believe may have carried over from last game when he hit a buzzer-beater trifecta to win the game. I was shocked to see Beasley on the court as he has no obvious ties to New York City and it baffles me how NBA teams let their guys play in these kind of leagues/tournaments. Although he had some jaw dropping dunks in warm-ups, Beasley didn’t really do much in the game. Even more baffling was the bench warming skills of Marco Jaric who looked totally overmatched on the court, spent most of the time nestled on the bench, and stuck out like a Serb at a Croatian day parade. Doesn’t the dude have better things to do like collect his paycheck and spend time with his way to hot wife, Adriana Lima.

Interestingly, when I left at half time that team was being spanked by a squad led by Eugene Lawrence (worst four year starting point guard in history of college basketball) and bruiser turned ball handler Tyrone Grant. If you’re into the streetball scene you might have appreciated the battle between John “The Franchise” Strickland and “Big Chicken”.

Games are played at the Hunter College Gym every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30 and 8:30pm. Playoffs actually start next week. Bounce Magazine has a blog that does a decent job of covering the action.

Hit me up if you want to check out the basketball this Thursday or next Tuesday.

The moment my toddler brain was actually developed enough to comprehend Sports (thanks in part to a few Boo Harvey buzzer beaters) Sportscenter replaced Sesame Street and Thundercats on my television set. Twenty years later, I’ve yet to change the channel. I even remember exactly where I was and who I was with (Colby, brett and my sis) the night Sportscenter graphics turned into the trippy turbine crunching, spherical encompassing grooviness that seems more appropriate for an Ibiza rave. These days, I watch Sportscenter every night like a stay at home mom hopped up on Zoloft watches As The World Turns each afternoon. I never in my life fathomed watching Seinfeld repeats because those always aired at the same time as the 11pm version. Speaking of repeats, I’ll watch virtually the same show at 11 and 2am and then wake up to the replay in the morning. I would rather watch Sportscenter for the third time than listen to the annoyingness that is “Mike and Mike” on ESPN. When I go on vacation, the first thing I check in the hotel is if they have ESPN. A vacation without Sportcenter just isn’t a real vacation.

All this Sportscenter watching often puts me into a slight trance. Heck, it took me four years to start paying attention to Sportcenter’s NASCAR coverage but now that I do I’m addicted (what up Mike Massaro). So I admit, I’m not always the most attentive Sportscenter watcher as I often daydream to the da-da-dah, da-da-dah…

So for weeks the Titletown USA segments had been harmlessly airing to my ignorant bliss. Unfortunately for me, my lack of critical analysis was recently and rudely interrupted. During some downtime in Vegas a few weeks ago I was hanging with Bersin in our hotel room when he commented on how stupid the whole Titletown thing really was. Immediately, like a Kyle Farnsworth 1-2-3 inning, I was shocked into amazement. TitletownUSA IS the wackness!

I don’t want to get too into describing all the reasons why it sucks. I’m not even sure exactly how it works or what the point of it is. If you’re a regular Sportscenter watcher I’m sure you’ve had the same painful brain cramp each time some cheesy random chick starts blabbing away on a makeshift set with fans cheering in the background (is that real? What are they cheering for?). That’s even before the montage starts which ends up being more like a bizzaro sports-infused wikipedia entry on the town than anything at all inspiring or exciting. Basically, the whole thing blows. I would rather watch a four minute highlight of Around The Horn then have to suffer through the Titletown cheseball fest.

The other day I watched in amazement as Valdosta, Georgia was nominated for Titletown. It’s the 11th largest city in Georgia and the hometown of the composer of Jingle Bells! I texted Bersin and I think that is when he hit his tipping point as he couldn’t believe my text was serious until he saw it a few hours later on the left coast. If that wasn’t bad enough, at this very instant I’m watching a Titletown feature on Parkersburg, West Virginia. Holy Moly. I almost expect to see Great Neck featured tomorrow night with a segment applauding Little Teheran for having the most summer camp color war victories and the most impressive parking lot in high school automotive history. Perhaps Mike Massaro can do the segment from the sushi bar at Daruma.

To be honest, I’m not sure what the heck Sportscenter has been up to with these corny ass specials over the last few years. “Who’s Now” was as arbitrary and ridiculous as the scoring system used in Around the Horn. “50 States in 50 Days” must have been the precursor to TitleTown USA. These things make the Budweiser Hot Seat seem as fascinating as Inside The Actor’s Studio. Whatever happened to the days of Sports Century and captivating, mind-bending features like the one on Rainbow Man.

I’m sure I’m not alone in lamenting the absurdity of Titletown and the downfall of Sportscenter. In fact, the blogs are killing it here and here. If you ask me what the turning point was I’ll go with the meteoric rise of Stuart Scott and his wonky eye. I should have been more weary of a talking head yapping about “Wu-Tang Clan on steriods” and “cooler than the other side of the pillow”. Oh how I yearn for Dick Trickle results, Jumanji and en fuego!

For whatever reason they don’t usually award NYC with big time sports events these days. Think about it. No recent love for all star games, super bowls, Final Four’s or Olympiads. I’m not trying to complain. I’d take the NYC sports world over any other city in the world (Titletown USA be damned!). But it was exciting that MLB got it right and decided to have the Yankee’s host the 2008 All-Star Game in the final season at the stadium.

Over the past few months I’ve made a valiant attempt to land some tickets for the All-Star festivities. But the prices were super inflated and there seemed to be few spare tickets floating around. I was leaking money from my trip to Vegas last weekend so didn’t much have the appetite to scalp either. It seemed like I was going to miss out on the awesomeness.

Monday morning I dragged my poorer and jet lagged self into the office and remembered that VitaminWater was putting on a special event at Chelsea Piers called “Homers In The Hudson“. Too fried to work I hit up my pals at CBS College Sports and convinced them to meet up with me.

The first two hundred people at the event were given the opportunity to hit a baseball off of a tee into an inflatable five foot high glove that sat on top of a 25-foot-high giant VitaminWater bottle that was floating on a barge in the Hudson River 150 feet away from the tee. Inside the inflatable glove there was a small hole. Hit it threw the hole and you could win yourself one million bucks.

Here’s an photo to help you picture it…

I’m not sure if this sounds difficulty but it’s pretty near impossible. You probably have a better shot of hitting a hole in one form 250 yards out or guessing a number between one and a million (if you said 234,321 you are right!!!)

I decided to go splitzy at 500K with my buddy Jaquet if either one of us did it. I also pledged to strip butt naked and jump into the Hudson to celebrate. I then told intramural All-Star Blake that he was going to miss the ball, hit the tee and send it into the water ruining the event for the rest of us.

Jaquet’s swing was respectable but fell a bit short. I hit a solid shot that had the distance and height but was pushed out to the left. Alas, look at that text book weight transfer!

Finally, the last person in our group, Big Petey, stepped up to the plate. His swing looked perfect and as the ball traveled through the air I started tapping Jaquet on the shoulder. It felt like watching a perfect golf shot that was dead on the flagstick. The ball landed in the glove just a few feet away from the actual hole. The place went crazy and VitaminWater reps were all over Pete who won a $100 prize and a sweet mention in this SI.com article.

There was also a bunch of celebrities at the event. David Wright swung for about ten minutes and didn’t even come close to the glove. Joba showed up and unfortunately has turned into a stuck up ass. I was standing next to him in the VIP room and asked him to sign a ball. He just looked at me and then his rep said he wasn’t signing. As he was walking out two little kids ran up to him and he just ignored them. Max Kellerman was doing his radio show and by his stare and jaw grinding might have been two molly’s deep. The rapper Fabulous was the only other person to hit the glove and also won $100. Petey and Fabulous - go figure.

As I returned to the office one of my interns asked if he could leave early to go scalp his tickets to the Home Run Derby. I convinced him to take me to the event instead for a few bucks, a slice of pizza and beer on me all night.

I was almost as curious to check out the Derby as I was the actual game. I’ve always been enthralled by the tale of Mickey Mantle’s shot that hit the façade (on the way up!) and that no player has ever hit it out of the stadium. It very well might be impossible as the ball would have to travel close to 600 feet to have any chance but I wanted to see how close.

The first few hours of the derby were incredibly boring. I was sitting in the loge section to the left of the leftfield foul pole so had little chance of catching a ball. This year they decided to go with leadoff hitters, rookies and journeymen. All of a sudden the derby has become the uncool thing to do. I think it has to do with Abreu hitting 41 home runs a few years a go and then transforming into a slap hitter. (If I was still in Vegas I would double down that that was caused by the fact he was taking more steroids than Big Brown rather than his swing being ruined…)

So just as I was about to write off the HR contest as a phony made for TV event Josh Hamilton stepped up to the plate and blew the place away. I was in total awe. It seemed impossible that a human could hit it as far as he was. When he nailed the Bank Of America sign I started to think he had a chance to hit one out. Hamilton has come a long way in the last few years and for a few moments he had the entire Yankee Stadium captivated and as giddy and excited as me thinking I was going to get Joba’s autograph. Hamilton ended up losing to Justin Moreneu in the finals but it didn’t matter. He put on a show that made the night worthwhile.

As for the actually midsummer’s night classic I loved it. I like the home field advantage rule. It get’s these guys to play seriously and play for each other. I love the idea of an All-Star game. All the best players playing together - there’s something cool and pure about it. Webb and Kazmir pitching on one day rest after throwing over 100 pitches each was great. Watching Dan Uggla play like a dog was painful but fun. Actually learning that Nate McLouth, Corey Hart and Dioner Navarro are real people and not just annoying fantasy figments was kind of nice as well. And after all those innings, to see the American League win yet again is just a bit freaky. Even the Wall Street Journal had an article trying to figure out why the National League sucks so much at baseball.

My one bittersweet epiphany throughout the entire week was that I’m really going to miss Yankee Stadium. Yeah, I’m sure the new one will be swell but this is the place I grew up. The place where I saw Pat Kelly’s first career Home Run. The stadium where I saw Juan Gonzalez drop two fly balls in one game his rookie year as my dad and I watched in amazement trying to figure out if he was the worst player in history. The ballpark I somehow saw Teddy Higuera pitch multiple amounts of time and Dave Mlicki shut out the Yanks in the first inter-league game ever. I saw Piazza beaned in the head, Hideki hit a walk off and Donnie Baseball throwing grounders to warm up his infielders. I’ll miss it all (especially the chicken fingers by third base).

I have two songs that have been stuck in my head for awhile now and it’s driving me crazy. As many of you know I’m musically challenged. If life was an opera I would be hanging out with Lenny in the field tending rabbits. So this is as nagging and annoying as a kernal of corn stuck in my teeth.

The two songs are “It’s Love” by Chris Knox and “The Sun Is Out” by the band Apples In Stereo. They’re both catchy tunes. Colby always tells me I’m a sucker for feel good music and that’s exactly what these songs are.

But alas, a few decent songs wouldn’t normally warrant a blog post. The reason why I’m digitizing these thoughts are because of how I discovered these songs.

It’s Love is the song in a neat Heineken commercial that is part of their “Share The Good” campaign. Between the song and the Bollywood and Russian Bath House scenes the commercial has become my favorite part of watching television lately. Check it out.

The second commercial is for the Dodge Journey. A bunch of dudes pull up in there Dodge and build a water slide down a city street. The ad is just ok buy the song is awesome.

So what exactly am I getting at here? Should we all be watching more commercials to find good music. Well, actually, yeah.

Advertising is certainly in the midst of a monumental shift. Consumers are sick of the clutter. They don’t want to hear a brands tired old message over and over and over again. Hence they block it out. We DVR past commercials and refuse to click on digital ads.

Brands need to embrace content. They should create, share or present that content to their consumers in a way that consumers will not only tolerate but even appreciate. When I go to the Heineken or Dodge website I should be able to download these songs for free. The music business needs every boost they can get and those who can’t stand the reek of commercialism should dive back into their vinyl collection. In fact, perhaps every commercial should introduce new music. If I knew the next commercial break was going to share four new songs I’d be more likely to keep my eyeballs glued on the television.

Another example: I would love to watch every Sportscenter commercial over the last ten years. It would be awesome to also get the outtakes, hear how the ideas were created, rank my favorites (here’s my vote) and even submit suggestions for the next clip. I’m sure that site/section on espn would receive huge traffic and allow fans of the show to interact in a super engaged way. Isn’t that what a brand covets? Make it happen Gaff!

At Sportsvite, we often try to pitch brands to create a campaign to connect with their customers in ways that provide unique value to their consumers. Right now it’s often an uphill battle but my guess is that hill gets flattened pretty quickly.

It will be interesting to see how advertising creative evolves in the near future. I think this goes way beyond television commercials. Web banners need to become web widgets (content snippets). Billboards should be coupons. Mobile, well mobile is a blog post unto itself! In a world of oversaturated marketing messages, the unmessage will be heard the most.

This week I had one of those geeky internet “A HA” moments when I actually believe that I can see into the future of digital media. As I said, geeky…but let me explain.

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about hulu.com and how it is fast becoming one of my favorite websites. They have high quality yet diverse content from different kinds of content providers, easy navigation, and many of the social web features that are so addictive and popular.

The other night I finally got around to plugging my laptop into my television to watch an episode of Arrested Development (there making and AD movie!). It was shocking how easy this was to do. My Sony Bravia flat screen television (bought on Black Friday and one of the greatest purchases of my life) comes equipped with a PC outlet. I took the cable from my desktop computer monitor (A new cable is less than $20) connected one end into the television and the other end into my laptop. Typed Fn + F7 and my television became my monitor. Clicked play on hulu.com video and enlarged to full screen and that was it. The video quality was decent although the picture only took up about 60% of my television. Then I went to Hulu HD which contains select online videos streamed in high definition. The quality was amazing - as good as if I was watching HD programming through my cable box (although the picture was only about 75% of screen). The only requirements to watch HD is a decent broadband connection and a decent computer.

Here is an example of a basketball video from hulu being displayed on my of my television screen.

I’ve echoed the sentiment of many over the past few years in claiming that the internet will hook directly into your television. For me, watching hulu on my television was the first time I actually experienced this concept. The awesomeness of this blew me away like a 0-2 Joba heater!

Will people really plug there computer into their television anytime soon? If you would have told me you did that before this week I would have said you were a nerd. Apple has created a product, AppleTV that does exactly this. It doesn’t sell that well because it’s a geek product. BUT, it really is that easy. It’s as easy as uploading digital photos from your camera onto your computer or using video chat on a Mac. In my estimation watching content through broadband is no longer a technical issue.

You probably want to know when this adoption will take place with the average joe. It’s simply. As soon as there is a good reason to watch long form entertainment content (consistent broadband speeds and digital distribution deals need to mature as well). I worked on MMOD (streaming of the NCAA basketball tournament) in 2005. It was before watching video on the internet really blow up. In fact, a good amount of customer service was from people who had never used the Internet to watch video before. Their desire to watch the content was great enough to drive change in their behavior. People will realize that watching on your ill flat screen while slumping over on your couch is far superior to sitting at your computer desk or with your laptop on your lap and they will figure it out.

So now you might be wondering why watching internet video on a television screen is so monumental. The reason is that broadband now becomes a direct competitor to television and cable. Cable is linear (one show at a time), has a limited universe of channels (a few hundred), is expensive and is hard to organize unless you know what you want to watch (flipping channels drives me crazy). Broadband has the potential for unlimited on-demand video content that has more customizable pricing and can incorporate a new dimension of entertainment through social and online community integration. For now TV has quality but it seems like the scales tip towards broadband video in just about every other category that matters.

Think about your cable box. It sucks. First, cable is frighteningly expensive. The menu or guide system is kind of slow and very lame. On TV, I know what I want to watch and I go to that channel. Once in awhile I’ll flip through my favorite few channels. Once in a blue moon, I’ll toggle through dozens of channels to find something random to watch. My dad told me that he would watch Fox Business if it was near CNN and CNBC so he could easily click back and forth. That actually makes sense but it shouldn’t. Do websites have arbitrary numbers? DVR is a cool feature but it’s not true on-demand like hulu or any broadband channel for that matter. On DVR, you have to be sure to select exactly what programs you want to record before they air and it’s up to you to figure that all out. I ended up working late tonite and missed the NBA Draft because i didn’t press a red button on my remote this morning. Finally, the cable box is basically just a piece of hardware for changing channels. It doesn’t tell you what your family or friends or community is watching or doing. Its capabilities are very limited. If it was a website it would be the mid 90’s.

I want a cable box that knows what I want to watch and it let’s me watch it whenever I want. Better yet, I want my cable box to make recommendations of what I would love to watch. I want to search for interesting documentaries, political debates or classic movies and watch them when I’m in the mood. If a college basketball games is in double overtime I want my friends to be able to send me an “alert” that pops up on my television and puts that game on. If I’m watching something amazing unfold on my television I want to be able to share the moment with other people who are watching it. If I have a longing to watch a certain episode of 90210, I want to be able to access it immediately. Hmm, it seems like I want my cable box to act a lot like a website!

So if broadband video is only going to become more prominent than what happens? What will you or I be watching in five years and how will we watch it and who will be providing that content to us? Well, I don’t have all the answers just yet but here are a few trends that will help define the future of video.

Convenience – Where is the easiest place to watch, download, time shift, aggregate, share etc. all of the content that you want. iTunes has done this well for music and that is why people shop there - huge selection, easy to add to ipod, all the brands, etc.. What video publisher/aggregator/platform is going to make it easy to watch what I want when I want?

Distribution – How can content producers (both large and small) maximize their audience. It used to be that you just needed to get distribution through cable and then you would build an audience. But now, every content producer can reach the world. That means tons of opportunity but also tons of competition.

Content Is King - The best content will always be the most valuable and watched content. Lost, NFL Football and the Colbert Report are going to kill it however, wherever it goes or is watched. They’ll figure out how to monetize their content correctly and it will be distributed widely. The big media companies that succeed will do so because of the quality of their content.

Targeted Content - With easier distribution, lower cost of barriers and the ability to spread globally there will be a “long tail” effect as many more niche or specialized channels (think websites) will be created. Another [212] Media company is Saavn. They have obtained the digitial distribution rights for a majority of Bollywood movies and music. The Bollywood audience is out there and Saavn intends to serve them. In the old media model, Bollywood as it’s own content channel might never had been a good fit. In the new media landscape it is genius. I would gladly become a loyal viewer to the Curling Channel, Old School Hip Hop videos, the literature channel and the JOHNNIES network.

Platform Agnostic - Won’t matter to the viewer if they watch on the phone, computer, television. You’ll be getting the “content”. Advertisers will try to be more integrated into the content for this reason so they can attach themselves to the show and not the medium. ESPN has begun to try and sell the content and not the medium and I believe other media companies will follow suit. Once they figure out how to correctly monetize different platforms they won’t care how their content is viewed.

I haven’t yet wrapped my head around what happens to the big cable companies and the economic impact of this paradigm shift and changing behaviors. I do realize that this is a huge factor in the rate of change. Media companies, or advertising agencies can’t prevent the effect of disruptive technologies but they can sure stick their finger in the damn for quite awhile and in many ways prevent innovation. THIS WILL HAPPEN. The movie studios are slow to put their films online, the television networks are being very careful how they release their archived content, etc. Cable providers have been lobbying to charge users based on bandwidth consumption. So maybe one day your cable bill does go away because you’re watching everything online but your bandwidth bill now replaces that cable cost. Or maybe big media companies (the mass market content distributors) stop freely distributing their content and guard it at all costs. Maybe Apple wants to win this space so badly they try and corner the market at the expense of other distribution outlets (kind of like the iPod). I need to think through the big business implications a bit more.

For now get pumped up for the new generation of the idiot box. Never again will you ask aimlessly flick through channels trying to find something decent. TV watching will get a whole lot more efficient and that means just about every other aspect of your life might just become less efficient.

I’m indifferent to Tiger Woods the person. His commercials are blah and I find him kind of whiney in interviews and press conferences. I LOVE Tiger Woods the golfer. I dig his competitiveness, determination and his perfect stance and alignment over the ball is, well, just perfect.

When I lived in San Diego I once went to the Accenture Match Play Tournament at La Costa which was a few miles from my office in Carlsbad. The crowds are pretty sparse at the event as it’s much more of a made for television type of deal. I found myself following Tiger one afternoon with a gallery of less than 100 people. For at least a five hole stretch, as Tiger destroyed a funky European, I was within yards of Tiger on every single one of his shots. I must have shouted his name dozens of times between shots and threw out a bunch of “YOU DA MAN’S” after his drives. Not only did Tiger never acknowledge me but his intensity and focus were overpowering. His breathing was at the cadence of Darth Vader! In fact, I’ve never come into contact with another person in my life where I’ve sensed that same feeling of mental strength. Watching the Nike Golf commercial that aired over the weekend kept me fresh on why I was pulling for Tiger all weekend.

Another thing I did when I lived in San Diego was play golf at Torrey Pines. When I first started my job as a college sports web editor my off days were during the week. I didn’t know many people in San Diego and the ones that I did seemed to be tied up during the day so I often found myself heading to Torrey Pines on my own to play a round. I remember when I first received my San Diego Resident Card which allowed me to play the course for $30 instead of $150. I never switched over my driver’s license so it was the only thing in my wallet that proved I was an official cali dude. There were many Tuesday afternoons in the dead of the warm winter that I spent at Torrey Pines. The third hole (downhill par 3 over the canyon) is my favorite hole that I have ever played.

During one of my rounds at Torrey Pines I was walking down the fairway, parallel to the Pacific, as the sun was setting on the back nine of the south course. I was with my roommate Jon and a middle aged guy who we hadn’t really spoken to that much during the round. As we walked to the green we began to chat and he asked us if we played the course often. He told us that he visits San Diego for business once each quarter and he plans his whole trip around playing a round of golf at TP. As the conversation died down, and the cool breeze from the ocean rised up, he just looked at us in jealous amazement that we could come back tomorrow to play the course again while he was on a flight back to the Midwest where he would day dream for the next four months until the next time he came back to the course.

So last week I was obviously pumped to watch this year’s US Open at Torrey Pines. I DVR’d the first few rounds and then slouched on my couch late at night and day dreamed about San Diego in jealous amazement much like the Midwestern Willy Loman. I watched the telecasters and news media befuddled by San Diego’s idiosyncrasies — June gloom, Black’s Beach, hang gliders and the assortment of ridiculously scary military aircraft from Camp Pendelton fly out to sea.

The tournament really heated up on the back nine on Saturday just as my cable went down from a thunder storm. Luckily I was at an apartment party later that night (actually a golf pros and tennis hoes themed party) where I got to watch the replay of the round. To see Tiger’s explosion of emotion after an eagle at 13th and then his grin of amused luck after chipping in on 17th and you just kind of knew there was no stopping him. Yet on both Sunday and Monday he was down one shot going to the 18th hole. He was chasing a jolly journeymen who had no business going shot for shot with Tiger and deep down even he knew that he had no chance. I was sitting on my couch with my parents on Sunday when Tiger lined up his putt to tie. My mom liked Rocco as the sentimental pick and my dad liked Rocco because he is an everyday kind of guy. I didn’t much think about who I was rooting for because I was pretty damn sure Tiger would nail the putt. He’s the best who has ever played the game. He’s super human. Of course he made the putt.

Then on Monday nobody gave Rocco a chance as he was up against a monster. Yet somehow it seemed like destiny was on his side and you wondered if he could pull off the 16 over 1 upset. But Tiger is at his best when he struggles and has to grind. When his swing or his putter betrays him and he solely relies on mental grit. He actually somehow wills himself to victory. When it was all over and Tiger had won it seemed almost inevitable and that made watching all of it even better.

I’m not sure how many times I’ll witness true awe-inspiring greatness in my life but I’ve been lucky enough to experience Tiger Woods and Torrey Pines (from both near and far).

We’ve recently hit a few bumps in the road at Sportsvite and for the first time I can see a path to failure as easily I can see success. Then last week I was in the audience at the NY Tech Meetup. The most successful startups in NYC were presenting their companies and it was inspiring. I love famous entrepreneurs. At one point in their life, before they were established, it was just them and their whacky ideas. It’s easy to dislike the current day Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. But think of those guys as they were dropping out of college or passing up solid paying jobs to chase their passion when they had little support, no money and lots of second guessers. I dig it. Anyway, at one point in the Meetup they asked the people in the audience who worked at a startup to raise their hands. My guess is that over 200 hands were raised. Odds are very few, if any, will be as successful as the startups that presented that night. Hmm. I’m still genuinely optimistic and confident in the future of Sportsvite, but the realization that success is no guarantee has given me something to think about.

Here is what I think.

Sometimes, I’m a bit too afraid of failure…in my career, in my relationships and in my ambitions for life. I’m not quite sure why that is. I’m not the type that cares all that much about what people think or say about me. I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to get myself out of any pickled that I get into. I’ve even tried some things since college that took me off the linear path but I’m still right where I want to be. While I have high expectations for myself I don’t necessarily feel any pressure to do or be anything. So why shudder at the thought of failure?

Maybe I want to be the strong-willed rock who “won’t allow failure to happen”. That sounds more like a dumb Brent Musberger comment than reality though. The truth is that I, just like everybody else, will experience failure in life. So why fight it? Why be afraid? It seems like not giving a rat’s talon gives you a much better chance to do something great. Robert Kennedy said that “only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly”. If you don’t like that quote try this one from Winston Churchill.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.

So from now on that’s how I roll. Not the guy who won’t let failure happen but the guy who can give it a go and if he fails shrugs it off as easily as the Big Lebowski when his identity is mistaken and his rug gets micturated upon. To me that person seems more likely to succeed. And even if he fails the first time, there’s a good chance he’ll succeed the next time…or the time after that.

I dug up this Michael Jordan television ad. I’m not a big Jordan guy but I certainly admire his success and determination. In this Nike commercial he talks about failure. I never really thought much about it until the last few days when I remembered the commercial and dug it up on YouTube. It’s interesting to think how often Michael Jordan, perhaps the most successful athlete ever, failed. Remember, this is a guy who in his prime batted .202 in double A ball!

If Jordan can’t do it, so can’t I!

I’ve been enjoying Hulu lately and it’s fast becoming one of my favorite ways to watch movies and television shows. This weekend I watched 28 Days Later (good but not as good as 28 Weeks Later) and I’ve been plowing through the first season of Arrested Development (genious). I could even get my Vinny Delpino fix if I so choose and watch 51 episodes of Doogie Howser, MD.

Hulu is an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips for free. The website was started as a partnership between NBC Universal and News Corp but it is operated independently of those companies. The simple version is that the networks were sick of websites like YouTube that published their content illegally. One way to combat this was to create a website that would cut licensing deals with all the major content providers (television networks, movie studios, independent producers). The content is free to users and hulu makes money through ads which it then shares with its content partners.

Hulu has a host of top notch partners and hence some awesome cotent. This includes most of Fox (Fox, Fox News, Fox Reality, Fox Movies, FX) and NBCU (Bravo, Universal Pictures, Oxygen). Besides traditional television and movie studios they also distribute some interesting web content from IGN, The Onion and Wine Library TV. If that’s not enough Hulu also had deals with the NBA, NHL and WWE. As the website grows I would expect even more content. Everything is very easy to search and makes you wish you could control your television with such ease.

The viewing experience is of good quality with a simple interface. It’s easy to jump around a show or find a specific scene. Full screen mode works very well and Hulu is beginning to stream shows in HD. Once this happens it will finally give me a reason to figure out how to hook my computer up to my big screen TV. The ads are certainly noticeable throughout the viewing experience but are not excessive. Unless your one of those advertising is brainwashing the world and leading to the apocalypse type of thinkers you shouldn’t mind the commercials. My guess is that Hulu will continue to expermient with ads to find what works best on the site.

Hulu has all the standard video features that allow you to share, embed, email, and pop out a show. It also provides tons of meta data and comments for each show. These are all ways in which video on the web is enhanced from more traditional television/movie watching.

When NBCU and Fox first announced this concept it was harshly maligned by the bloggers and techsters that have reveled in big media’s failures to innovate in digital media. Hulu, which is some kind of Chinese Proverb, wad dubbed Clown Co. in the blogosphere since so many people thought the site would be a farce. Here is a post from a top blog last September outlining numerous reasons why Hulu was screwed (even before it launched).

By spinning the company off and operating it as a startup Hulu is probably able to operate much quicker with less bureaucracy and process. It seems like they have nailed it so far. Like iTunes, Hulu has the opportunity to be in a position where people will come to the site because it is convenient, easy to use and enjoyable. Most importantly it will have all of the best video content in one place.

If you’ve yet to check out Hulu then give it a whirl. I’m positive you’ll find a show, clip or movie that you’ve been dying to watch.

Below I’ve embeddedGame 6 from the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. I could have embedded the entire game but instead have jumped to post-game handshake where you can get a glimpse of the eldest Litvack child on the ice (top right background).