SB Nation User Blog: thatshortkid

Schoeneweis' better half found dead

thatshortkid — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:39:13 -0000

Schoeneweis' better half found dead

The wife of Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Scott Schoeneweis was found dead in their home Wednesday afternoon.

Gabrielle Dawn Schoeneweis, 39, was found by the couple's 14-year-old daughter, and was unresponsive when deputies made it to the home shortly after Noon.

MLB At Bat 2009 full version dropped

thatshortkid — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:26:07 -0000

MLB At Bat 2009 full version dropped

MLB.com At Bat 2009 has just been released for the iPhone and iPod Touch at the App Store. The new version costs just $9.99 and is good through the 2009 postseason.

SSS Meetup: PST Edition

thatshortkid — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:52:33 -0000

Inspired by hsa's and U-God's attempts at herding cats (and Angels single-game tickets going on sale Saturday), I thought I'd send out a feeler to see what the interest is in a Left Coast meetup. Barring any of y'all getting on a plane and going West, I guess this one mostly goes out to the known PSTers or those that lurk. Hell, we'll even count the Mountain folks too.

Scanning the schedules, I see:

May 25-26-27 (M-Tu-W) @ LAA: This series starts on Memorial Day. I'll be at all 3, but given that it's a weekday series, I would only expect locals to show up to this one, if at all. All night games.
Aug 10-11-12 (M-Tu-W) @ SEA: Another weekday series. But hey, it's in hsa's backyard. All night games.
Aug 14-15-16 (F-Sa-Su) @ OAK: This one's interesting. On Toonder (RIP) and rhythm's turf, within reasonable distance of where most of us out here live, and a weekend series. Ample opporunity to thank OCab for his services and swoon over Gio and Sweeney. Night-Day-Day.
Sep 11-12-13 (F-Sa-Su) @ LAA: Well, this is either going to be part of a pennant race or an afterthought. Night-Day-TBD
Sep 15-16-17 (Tu-W-Th) @ SEA: No weekends in Seattle this year! Night-Night-Late Afternoon.

If anybody feels like booing the shit out of a team or being generally antagonistic, I'd be up for seeing when the Twinks/Scrubs come out this way as well. I also doubt we need a poll just yet.

Baseball on the Radio on the Phone: MLB Mobile offerings

thatshortkid — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:41:59 -0000

As has been noted both in the MSM and by Chiburb and I, the 2009 MLB iPhone app "Lite" version dropped recently with the full version set for release April 2. It looks like MLB upped the ante somewhat on their mobile offerings and from what they're advertising, should be separating money from bank accounts in the near future.

I downloaded the iPhone app to give it a whirl (hell, it's free). At first blush, it appears that they repackaged the $4.99 app from last year and sent it out as the "free" version to whet your appetite during Spring Training/WBC. All the Gameday functions, score updates, and video highlights are there. Not that this data (minus video) can't be viewed via the always free, phone-agnostic WAP interface, it's got that nice iPhone polish and it's not like I got swindled for $5 like last year's offering.

The major new feature that is being added to MLB's mobile offerings across the board is access to Gameday Audio. This isn't just in the iPhone app, you can get it on your Crackberry, Windows Mobile device, or (maybe, I'd read the fine print) your non-smartphone as well. Home and away feeds are available (oh boy! DJ and Farmio in my pocket!). I don't know how MLB and XM's partnerships go, but I know this stopped me from shopping around for a mobile XM receiver. I've used the Pandora and Public Radio apps for some time and while the Pandora app picks back up pretty well after a dead zone, the NPR app dies. Here's to hoping their coders made a solid product for those that will use this on-the-go.

TANSTAAFL: The app price hasn't been released yet, other than the "under $10" quote from the NYT article. I did ask around the MLB forums and no, they will not be offering bundling of the app with any MLB.tv offering. Even though Gameday Audio is bundled with any MLB.tv package, listening via computer and listening via mobile phone are considered by them to be different products and thus you have to pay twice.

[TANSTAAFL update (2/25, 3:30PM PST): while looking up SAMs question, I tried out the WAP interface and it appears that they removed the Live Pitch-by-Pitch function. Must be the gentle nudge via sledgehammer to push you towards their pay-for products.]

[MLB mobile]

[MLB At Bat]

[MLB At Bat iTunes link]

Swine gain flight; MLB.tv appears to not be half-baked product

thatshortkid — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:55:15 -0000

In a boon to those of us that use the internet to view the yearly 162, it looks like MLB actually tried to put out a decent product this year. Perusing over this year's ads and FAQ, it looks like the product this go-round is going to actually be something to get excited about.

Highlights that interested me:

Switching from Microsoft Silverlight as the streaming technology to Adobe Flash. Yes, this was covered before, but it still is the biggest piece of news IMO. Rather than sticking with a crappy reinvention of the wheel, MLB went for the, uh, wheel. Flash 9.x req'd, Flash 10.x rec'd. (Crossing fingers for it to work on PS3)

HD Broadcast quality available. If your intertubes can take it, the highest bandwidth feed offered is 3Mbps, with a resolution of 720p. I couldn't find any information on whether it will be combined with some form of 5.1 audio or not.

Live Game DVR. Now the same convenience that everybody that has a TV has.

Live Radio Feed. I would half-ass this with Gameday audio by pausing the feed to allow the muted video to catch up, but now it's built-in. Feature not useful for White Sox fans, however.

There's some carryovers from last year (multi-game view, Home and Away feeds, player/game info), some enhancements (PIP, Chat), but not a bad product overall. Contrary to tickets, the price went down ($10) from last year.

I was going to renew anyway, but it kind of feels like it's going to be worth it this time.

[main ad]

[FAQ/req's]

New SLM

thatshortkid — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:19:11 -0000

New SLM

Dug out my old phone and pulled out pics I took on it during a work assignment at The Trop in '06....

thatshortkid — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:10:57 -0000

Dug out my old phone and pulled out pics I took on it during a work assignment at The Trop in '06. Shots include from short CF/RF, one of the catwalks, and 60' 6". The audio control room is also where broadcasters sit, so that's why there are so many shots of a locker that many of them signed and was mounted in there. Enjoy.

Full photoset here.

Paul Byrd traded to Boston

thatshortkid — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:41:51 -0000

Paul Byrd traded to Boston

Paul Byrd has been traded out of Cleveland to the Red Sox. Take that as you will.

SoCal Sox Series

thatshortkid — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:27:56 -0000

Howdy,

Just taking an assessment of those SSSers that live in the south end of the land of fruits and nuts (sorry Toonder), if any of y'all are going to the upcoming LAA/LAD series. I'm going to make it to at least one of the LAA games, but I'd be more than willing to sit in the 5/405 parking lots for the LAD games if I was going to be meeting up with folks (don't want to get shanked alone!).

What say you?

Super Duper Tuesday

thatshortkid — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:04:00 -0000

For those of you in SSS-land that swing a little to the left and are in the 24 states coming up 2/5 (or any remaining thereafter, for that matter), here are your choices:

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'....

My name is thatshortkid and I approve this message.

Update [2008-1-31 3:41:6 by The Cheat]: About the only rule on SSS -- besides don't be a complete jackass -- is no politics. It's not written down anywhere, and I don't think I've ever had to enforce it, but this thread has the possibility to get there. I'm leaving it open because I trust you guys to keep it civil. We're all Sox fans, remember. We're on the same team. Let's keep it that way.

Carry on.