Corporate shirt. PR flack. Web guy. Blogger. Beverage enthusiast. Hubby. Daddy. Diggity. Giggity.
Dino Baskovic Can’t Lose
Getting the band back together
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A new breed of sports geek
Here's a photo I snapped in the middle of a Red Wings-Blue Jackets game on February 15, 2008 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. (Columbus won 5-1.) Hardly SI worthy, I captured this grainy shot from the nosebleeds using my old Palm Treo. Still, I'm mildly proud of it, marking the first time I shared a sporting event on Facebook.Two BlackBerrys, an iPod Touch and myriad mobile apps later, I've liveblogged Browns games, wished I could do the same at Tribe games, tweeted snarky Super Bowl ad crits and wall-posted to anyone within earshot willing to endure me wail about my ill-fated World Cup faves or lament over LeBron's playoff implosion. Good times, good times...Pardon the cliché, but social media has become a game changer. Big surprise, I know, but connecting with fellow and rival fans from afar has undoubtedly changed the game of sports. Sure, nothing will ever replace a cold and blustery Saturday morning tailgate, foot-long franks and ten-dollar drafts, pyrotechnics and ticker tape when we hail the home team victors. I get that. But between texting every basket from home or at-bat at the bar, coveting badges for stadium check-ins and streaming fantasy draft picks, I suspect that millions like me are giving apps like FanFinder ringside seats for the main event, er, main menu.And let's face it: we can't hate the vuvuzela that much if there's an app for that.Press passes for Tribe tweeps at Progressive Field
ESPN blogs about the Tribe Social Deck, an experiment to drum up excitement (with apologies to John Adams) and boost attendance for Cleveland Indians home games.
The idea is to select Tribe fans that will gladly trade their score cards for press credentials in anticipation that they will cover games online and generate positive buzz. Even though the Indians could stand for more wins than bloggers, it's a worthwhile experiment that costed their PR team virtually nothing to produce.
Being a Cleveland boy myself, it will interest me to see how the Tribe Social Deck plays out. At least one local blogger and the Waiting For Next Year site have sounded off, and I wonder if other sports venues will follow suit.
For now, my Tribe is four games behind the Twins in the AL Central. Tweets are great, but so are stats.
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Dino Baskovic's Blog
Corporate shirt. PR flack. Web guy. Blogger. Beverage enthusiast. Hubby. Daddy. Diggity. Giggity.
