Different times at different sports

Well, that didn’t go too badly, did it?

A very nice break for me, think the stuff turned out okay, I wasn’t nervous or anything and I got a few days in a brilliant city watching good games in a great little ballpark.

And, since some of you have asked, there are some differences between the regular gig and the borrowed one.

Like …

Bad

Long nights

Night games that could go forever since the object of the game is to never get out and that means a top of the first could conceivably last forever. I got lucky in this series, the long game was a day game, the Tuesday night flew by and even with the rain delay Wednesday, there was still time to file. But I’ve covered series where every game was a 3 1-2 hour marathon and they can be mind-numbing.

Good

Day games

Love ‘em in the hoops, love ‘em at the ball yard. Nothing better than the freedom to really watch, not worry that much about deadline and if it’s a nice day out? Heaven.

Bad

Long days

Yes, you need to get to the park at 3 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game and you spend an awful lot of time sitting around the dugout or standing around the clubhouse just watching guys watching TV, reading or playing dominos.

Yes, it’s an exciting as it sounds.

Good

Long pre-game

Yes, you get to the park at 3 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game but you spend a lot of time sitting around the dugout and sitting around a major league dugout, looking out over the grass, telling stories with whoever’s around isn’t a bad way to spend an hour or so.

Bad

Short nights

Game ends, writing begins, socializing follows and there’s still that pesky 6 a.m. wakeup call for the blog. Oh, wait. That’s exactly the same as the hoops. Never mind.

Good

The sounds

Not once are you going to hear loud, relatively indecipherable music booming out of the speakers while the actual game is being played.

I love it.

Bad

No shootaround

Yes, they have a bataround but it’s not until after 5 p.m. and that makes the post-blog mornings drag forever. Sure, shootarounds are boring and don’t generally yield much of consequence but it’s a reason to drag one’s sorry butt out of the room.

Good

Unpacking

You know what it felt like to go to a city for three days? No back-to-backs that requires stupidly early flights and, as you well know, the more time you can spend out of airports or out of the clutches of Air Canada, the better off you are.

Bad

Seating

Yeah, we get to sit behind home plate and that’s great but we are sooooo far removed from the action, it takes a guy like me a little getting used to.

Now, all I knew about a slider or curve when I played was that I couldn’t hit one, or even figure out when one was coming and that was standing in the batter’s box. Sitting up high, with a somewhat skewed view of the pitch, I can barely tell what’s what.

And you really miss the byplay that goes on between teammates, opponents, players and officials.

-

Basketball?

Yeah, there’s some basketball.

Not sure how much you’ve been following this but there’s all kinds of financial disputes going on about how much money the NBA teams have actually lost.

Go figure!

Disputes over accounting practices, financial figures and total losses in a labour dispute that’s now in a lockout over money?

Who’d a’thunk it.

If I were you, and for some of you I’m quite glad I’m not since you seem quite angry at the world (and me), I’d take every word written about the money matters in this dispute with a grain of salt.

I don’t think there’s a dispute that some teams lost money and it could be that the majority of them did. But how much does it really matter?

I don’t know what to believe and the numbers are so staggering -- $300 million in losses, $500 million in give-backs, $2 billion in salaries – it’s in an other-worldly realm that truly makes my eyes go blank.

-

Hey, you folks did great in the first mail call, lots of interesting rather off-the-wall stuff to do. Here’s one more kick at the can.

-

Oh yeah, Mighty Rockies move to 10-2-1 with a glorious victory, or so I’m told.

One team I care about had a good night at the park.

-

Caught of you by surprise with the in-game tweet thing, didn’t I?

Caught me a bit unawares, too, when I was asked to do it a few hours before tip-off, er, I mean first pitch.

Anyway, think it went all right but, believe it or not, it wasn’t nearly as inter-active as I’d like, or we’ve done in the IGBT during HOTH games so I think maybe I’ll suggest we go back to that the next time, which will be later this month when I do a baseball series at home against Texas.

Like to hear what you think, though, so I can take it to the tall foreheads.

-

Here’s one thing to think about with the Raptors if, as expected, this lockout drags into the late part of August.

Which player might be the guy to arrange workouts for he and his teammates?

I wonder, actually, if that guy exists?

On some teams, it’ll be the old grizzled veteran who puts together a weekend- or week-long get together for the majority of his team and the harsh truth is, the Raptors don’t have that guy.

Sure, DeRozan and maybe Sonny (who is likely leaving) and Ed Davis might get together and hang out (Amir’s coming off surgery or he’d be the fourth Mousketeer) but as for the one guy who’ll host a session for the majority of the team?

There isn’t one.

Not that it’s hugely critical to whatever happens next season but it’s a nice thing for a team to do when there’s nothing that can be arranged by the franchise and it speaks a bit to where this roster is and one of its needs.

-

So, what’s next?

Wonder if Zelk would mind if I poached some Argos?

Practices are like a home game for me, about a three-minute drive from Casa Doug and I can make a mess of that sport, too.

-

All right, longish travel day ahead, I’ll get to the comments when I can. Enjoy the day.

-

Comments

[Keenan K]

Doug, Any memories of the late Armen Gilliam?

Blogger's note: None, really

[Peter]

I went to Mother Star's website last night, and saw a LIVE BLOG with Doug Smith icon... I was so excited... then I realized it was Doug Smith Twittering. That's not a live blog. Baseball is made for the Doug Smith interactive IGBT! Twitter just didn't cut it... I tuned out. Sorry. If the tall foreheads want to do a real IGBT when you get Texas, I'm in.

[Jacques]

Doug, Would you be interested in reporting the British Open and head over there for the week if the bosses ask you?

Blogger's note: What'd Sam say? Duh!

[GSY]

Hi Doug. What league do the Mighty Rockies play in? Our Little League Minor team from Centre Wellington (ie Elora and Fergus) is heading for a tournament in Oakville this weekend. Might your guys be involved?

Blogger's note: Sadly, no. We're Mississauga North bantam OBA house league

[Mike M]

Jose would seem to be the most likely candidate to get the team together for informal workouts. Thought Doug?

Blogger's note: Except he'll be with the Spanish national team

[coachd]

Hi Doug,

I think that Jose would be the most obvious, if there is one, candidate to bring the guys together. Who wouldn't want to travel to Spain? But, I wonder if the PA would have an issue with "team workouts". If you're on strike or locked out you , usually, don't get together with your co-workers and continue doing what you would have done if you weren't locked out.

[Wilber]

Doug,
Nice turn as a seamhead. Here's hoping we have some hoops for you to cover sooner than later.

Rain delay: is that similar to a "Fire Guy" delay?

[Jim Rootham]

I would have thought Jose was the obvious guy to get practices together.

On the numbers game, I would expect disinterested (as opposed to uninterested) parties would be more trustworthy.

The good news about there being no news on the negotiations is that it probably means that negotiations are really going on. If they were really shut down I would expect the sides to start working the press to get their spin out. As is, I would say they are not at loggerheads.

[Adam]

The IGTT (In game tweet thing) was a fun time last night. I enjoyed getting your take on the game. Will you try the usual IGBT for the Texas series for more interaction? That could be fun.

Blogger's note: Yes, I think so

[charles]

Hope to see you back at the ball park, Doug, for the World series in October - especially if no NBA preseason is happening.
How about Phillies vs. Yankees? Good food, loud fans, lots of history.
PS In 1912 the World Series took place at Fenway Park - the park had just opened, stands in many parts of the ball park were not completed - - and fans sat IN
CHAIRS(!) down the left field line.

[Lorie]

Hello Doug!
For the consideration of those with tall foreheads:
Coveritlive: (The First and Original Way We Did the IGBT)
*Plus: we could do the polls and have more flexibility in chatting. High level of intereaction.
*Minus: those damn ads (don't miss those)
Scribble: (The New Thing We Tried This Year)
*Plus: Those Cool Avatars! (like wasn't it funny when D-Mac Ottawa and I chose the same Reggie Miller pic! What were the odds???) Irregulars had fun with them, and sometimes we even learned something about NBA history, too.
*Minus: Other than that Bold Italicized Font that we embraced (after Doug got the hang of using it)for the Finals, there were no extra features...and we Irregulars go for bells and whistles. (How else do you explain our excitement about a font adjustment?) Limited interaction.
The Twitter Thing (That Really New Thing, as in About Last Night)
*Plus: More easily accessed from cellphone (well, for me anyway) which means I could be cutting the grass or doing the laundry (hahahaha...as if) and participate. Also, with the twitter limitation of 140 characters, well, it keeps things short, sharp and snappy.
*Minus: Confusing interaction. Might take time to adjust to the various timelines, but it felt like we weren't "together" like during a usual IGBT.
Well, hope this helps. And my vote is for the Original Coveritlive. If we could permanently lose those ads. And throw in avatars. Easy-peasy, right? Cheers! And safe travels.
*

[D-Mac Ottawa]

How do, Doug,
I tried to follow along with that glacially piled stack of tweet offerings or whatever those things were last evening, I really did. But it was quite the dog's breakfast, wasn't it? I know I found my interest flagging early and often, and then I said ah hell with it long about the fourth inning. (What the heck were those obnoxious "RedSox" offerings that kept cluttering up your blogging, or tweetelage, or sage observations, or whatever it was that was happening there?)
Is this really the future of "communication"? Wow, I greatly fear for the written word. And relevance.
I know in my own case, between phone calls, written reports, emails, face time and the occasional skype session, I barely have time as it is to keep up with those and the rest of my usual daily requirements of, you know, living and working. I sure don't know where I'd find the time to wedge in tweeting, texting and facebooking on top of all that. And from what little I've seen of those three media, the less I see, the less I'm involved, the better. Between the ‘information’ these formats offer and the ‘entertainment" levels, I’m not sure which is more missing in action.
I mean, how many ‘channels’ do we need to try to tune (or turn) ourselves into to stay ‘connected’? And the more channels we use to try to stay so-called connected, how fricking disconnected do you think we’re going to end up being in literally no time at all?
Guess I'm a genuine Luddite curmudgeon now. So be it. Cheers.

[GM]

* I recently starting Twittertweeting. It's okay, but confusing to follow any sort of thread. I'd vote for the other system.

* What to make of the official NBA stance when they're always trumpeting how healthy and strong the league is when there's no CBA bargaining going on? They talk about expansion to Europe and how popular the NBA is and all that, then when the CBA expires, it's doom and gloom. They can't have it both ways. The problem is, which way is the right way?