The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Digital Age brings challenges to players

Links (6)

You Kill Us, Youkilis
Published 4/10/2008 by Mark M. at The Bronx Stop: A Yankees Blog
I just read an article that kind of upset me. It was about the "Information Age" and how it has transformed the way baseball players interact with their fans. "Cell phones. Camera phones. Digital cameras and recorders. Ubiquitous Internet blogs. YouTube and the like. All of them all-too-frequently at the ready to document and display every unflattering photo and verbal slip-up." "In short, the fairly new wave of technology is prompting players to reconsider how they interact with the public at large."Yeah. I guess it has. With all of the crazy people in the world, I can understand why players have to be a little bit more guarded ...

MLB: Rise of Internet forces ballplayers to guard private lives
Published 4/10/2008 at BBTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog
MLB: Rise of Internet forces ballplayers to guard private lives Hey, if you want a safe haven from the evils of the Internet...just go hide out in the WFAN studios! Cell phones. Camera phones. Digital cameras and recorders. Ubiquitous Internet blogs. YouTube and the like. All of them all-too-frequently at the ready to document and display every unflattering photo and verbal slip-up. The Digital Age, which allows people worldwide to stay so connected with one another, is creating a disturbing disconnect between athletes and their fans. In short, the fairly new wave of ...

Friday links
Published 4/11/2008 by MB at Friar Forecast
Tough start, huh? I don’t really see it. We’re 5-5 with 32 runs scored and 31 allowed. Replace one loss with a win and the Padres are playing .600 ball, well above any expectations. Of course, evaluating a team based on 10 games is probably fruitless, and that’s why I’m not really overly concerned with Bell, Edmonds, Hoffman, or the .500 start. If that’s boring, well, so be it. We’ve got plenty of games to see how things play out. And some links …. GY comes through with a pretty cool look at Trevor Hoffman’s performance in save and non-save situations. Dex follows up with another analysis of Hoffman’s ...

Hush Hush
Published 4/11/2008 by Craig Calcaterra at ShysterBall
An article detailing the largely legitimate digital-age anxieties of ballplayers: Most big league ballplayers, if not all of them, understand that they're public figures. An increasingly high number of them, however, are being forced into an increasingly private existence. Cell phones. Camera phones. Digital cameras and recorders. Ubiquitous Internet blogs. YouTube and the like. All of them all-too-frequently at the ready to document and display every unflattering photo and verbal slip-up . . . . . . In this age, you never have a down moment," [Frank] Wren said. "A player can be having a conversation with somebody, not even knowing somebody is around ...

Baseball Today: Friday, April 11
Published 4/11/2008 by Art Martone (amartone@projo.com) at Projo Sox Blog
... LIFE IN THE FISHBOWL: Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis are two of the players mlb.com talked to in an interesting feature about how life in the digital age has forced players to more zealously guard their private lives. ...

Hawaiian Shirt Friday: 04/11/08
Published 4/11/2008 by TD at Rain Delay
Not a lot of links this week, then again I’ve been slacking (if you couldn’t tell). But there is a good reason really, I’ve started scoring games from Baseball Info Solutions and that has kept me busy this week - attending a couple Triple A games here in Portland. Anyways, enough about me - it’s all about the links. Mark Kotsay, will wear #42 on Jackie Robinson day. If you remember Andruw wore the number last year in honor of Robinson. “My reflection of Jackie Robinson was the way he played the game and how hard he played,” Kotsay said. “He had the admiration of his teammates and conducted himself ...