Babe Ruth with a hit to left field, it's going back, back, back and its gone! The Yankees win the game! Remember those olden days of America's favorite pasttime, with legendary greats like Reggie Jackson, Babe Ruth, Roberto Clemente, and so on? "The first ever televised baseball game ever was between Princeton and Columbia at Baker field with W2XBS as the broadcasting network. Princeton won that game 2-1, but what was phenomenal about it was that this was the the first ever televised baseball game" (baseball-almanac.com). Ever since then, TV and baseball have grown immensely into thier very own media markets. TV has taken over as the new source of media for society and baseball is still one of the most watched sports in the country. But now baseball has gone a step further and has expanded itself into not only one media market, but many. That is the main gist of this article. One of the biggest reasons for this change is the "portability, because it is one of the biggest features for 2010 because subsribers can now watch the game at thier own leisure, whether it be on thier laptops, or even thier Iphone or Ipod Touch, as well as the soon to be released Ipad" (mlb.com). Along with that, "mlb.com's propriety speed detection allows viewers to receive crisp, best in class streaming video on any monitor of thier choice" as well as "being able to watch more than 150 games while checking the stats and scores of others too" (mlb.com). People will also be able to "be able to have the choice of home or away broadcast as well as a DVR feature for pausing, rewinding, and jumping back to live action, along with a multigame view" (mlb.com).
I chose this article because it has a direct correlation to what our webisode will be about. MLB.com, a part of MLBAM, is giving its subscriber's exactly what they want. It shows how baseball is expanding its "roots" and gaining a wider audience because people no longer have the time to watch a full game of baseball anymore. It's giving the people what they want and when they want for a price of course. It will cost them a bit, but to a true baseball fan, that price would probably be well worth it. With the recent advent of the so called "clip culture" (Eastman and Ferguson, 319), and "viewsers, a recently created word that designates viewers who become video users" (Eastman and Ferguson, 317), we can clearly see that more and more people are beginning to turn to online viewing of sports and shows than they ever did before.
The new and important insights this article brings forth is the idea that for a small fee, any baseball fan or sports fanatic can now watch thier favorite teams streaming online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, something that has never been possible before. Now you can watch the Yankees or Phillies from the comfort of your own computer, laptop, etc without ever missing a ridiculous play, strike, or hit. And not only that, you could watch more than just your favorite team, as you can watch one team here, switch to another game, and another, and then back. It's an amazing idea that will is here and will be here forever or until someone figures out how to improve upon it to make it even better than it already is. With the advent of the idea of streaming, you won't miss a beat of your favorite baseball team ever again, like say your on an important business flight to Hawaii and you don't want to miss the Yankees vs. Red Sox game, you could pull out your laptop, synch up to mlb.com and watch the game from the sole comfort of your own seat without every worrying if they won or lost. The same would go for anyone who has an Ipad, Iphone, Ipod Touch, or whatever, they will all be able to get the live streaming broadcast of thier favorite teams, no matter where they are in the world.
All information provided by http://http//mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100302&content_id=8644870&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb and http://http//www.baseball-almanac.com/firsts/first3.shtml
