Building The Perfect Beast

A great, if not incredibly sad, short film about Pete Rose.

And MLB, seriously, he belongs in the Hall. It’d be the first thing I did if I were commissioner.

via daringfireball.net

Sorry to hear. I really liked the guy.

Manny Ramirez tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug | via LATimes.com

A great look at the heart of Major League Baseball’s media center.

Play Ball! A look inside MLB’s high-tech media center | via Macworld.com

A couple of days ago Macworld.com posted Jason Snell’s preview of the MLB app that was released yesterday, just in time for the baseball season to start today. (Go Yankees!!) According to Snell:

The app has gotten a major makeover. Most notably, live GameDay updates no longer take place in a generic baseball stadium. Instead, the app has custom graphics representing every major-league park… There are more visual changes, too: The overall design of the app has been simplified, while the scoreboard has been reworked with a new block-letter typeface and background insets reminiscent of the hand-operated scoreboards of yore. The app also is using more detailed pitch-by-pitch data courtesy of Major League Baseball’s in-stadium pitch-tracking data collection system.

I updated the app last night, right before I chose it as my App of the Week on the Revenge of the Fanboy! podcast and I’m supremely impressed. Great graphics and better stats indeed! And it looks like, for the better part of this week, you’ll be able to watch live game broadcasts for free. After that it’s a free “game of the day” or $129 to watch live games for the rest of the season, although lame blackouts apply, and you can listen to free audio of every major league broadcast. Personally, I think that radio is one of the best ways to enjoy baseball.

One other note, if  you have an AppleTV and the $129 subscription, AirPlay works perfectly.

This is, hands down, one of my favorite apps and one that I’m happy to fork out the $15 for every year. If you’re a baseball fan you can’t go wrong here.

Finally, check out The Revenge of the Fanboy! on iTunes. Rumor has it that they’re going to keep me on the podcast for a few more weeks, or until my agent starts demanding money.

Can somebody please tell these jackasses (Bud Selig most of all) that the frakking post season he’s proposing already exists? It’s called the <expletive deleted> REGULAR SEASON!

Little to no opposition emerges to commissioner Bud Selig’s plan to expand playoffs to 10 teams | via ESPN.com

At present I refuse to watch the All Star Game because I think it should have no bearing on who gets home field advantage in the World Series. If Bud Selig continues down this path to idiocy I may find myself looking for another favorite sport.

Hey Selig… go the frak away.

Cablevision Wants FCC To Intervene With News Corp. | via Gothamist

According to Media Decoder, a FCC official “indicated that the commission is likely to take a couple of days to review the responses from the two parties to the formal filings each submitted on their efforts to solve the dispute,” which means there will probably not be any Fall Classic tonight for Cablevision customers.

As far as I’m concerned, both Cablevision and News Corp can bite me.

I guess I’m happy that Mark McGwire put this out in the open, especially since he’s working as a coach in the Major Leagues, but come on… this is news? It’s not even a freaking surprise!

McGwire Admits That He Used Steroids | via NYTimes.com

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edited to fix a moronic mis-spelling of McGwire’s name.