Jun 25, 2004

Extrasensory sports: Stadium Click Effects

From Tennessean.com, an article about Stadium Click Effects. It's a piece of software for speeding up audio & video playback.

"The software has helped Sound & Video Creations generate annual revenues of $1.5 million, up 50% from four years ago. More importantly for sports teams, it has helped them dramatically enhance their game day presentations compared with just 10 years ago, when a minor-league baseball team's collection of audio clips often consisted of little more than a pile of cassette tapes strewn across a table. Video scoreboard clips were found on VCR tapes, a fact that made last-minute lineup changes a nightmare for pre-game video segments."

Read the article...

Jun 24, 2004

Praise for the (former) Arkansas Travellers Organist

From the Arkansas Times:

"I wanted to tell you about Rich Pharris, the stadium organist, who pounds out tunes on the ballpark Hammond that you or your grandparents haven't heard since grade school, such as "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain," "You Are My Sunshine," and "I've Been Working on the Railroad." (The most modern song in his repertoire appears to be "The Mickey Mouse Club Theme.")"

... but apparantly, Pharris quit.

Read more...

Jun 15, 2004

Celebrities soak up scoreboard screen time

From MSNBC.com:

"Shortly before the start of Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, the giant arena scoreboard began showing the faces of prominent personalities seated among the more than 20,000 fans packed into the Palace of Auburn Hills ... But not all the celebrity faces that fans see at courtside are there to root for the home team. Many are on business, especially when the games are in Los Angeles, where Hollywood and network television stars -- and the people whose job it is to promote them -- find the NBA Finals stage irresistible."

Read the article...


Jun 10, 2004

Vital Organ: Kansas City Royals organist Sam Beckett

From The Pitch:

"Sam Beckett plays the organ at Kauffman Stadium. Nine innings a game. Eighty (or so) games a year. "Charge" and the Mexican hat dance and a little bit of Usher. When pitching coach John Cumberland is talking Brian Anderson down, maybe Beckett will play "With a Little Help From My Friends" with two-handed jazz chords. When first baseman Mike Sweeney hulks into the box, maybe a crazy nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-Batman! ... the nuh-nuh-nuh-nuhs are played live, as are those grace notes after a crisp double play and the percussive tap-tap-taptaptaps that make you clap without thinking, along with the thousands of people around you. Fact is, everything organ at the K is live, uncanned, improvised, not beamed in from some Clear Channel satellite."

Read the article...

Jun 8, 2004

Tampa Bay Tribune prints the wrong editorial

From the Tampa Bay Tribune:
"We took a puck in the gut this morning when we published the wrong editorial about the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the Stanley Cup final on Monday night... In advance of the final, we had prepared two editorials, one for either outcome..."

Read more...

Jun 7, 2004

Sleepy fan gets caught on video scoreboard

From the East Valley Tribune, a quick note about a fan caught sleeping at an Arizona Diamondbacks game:

"After six innings .... [the]cameras focused on a man in the stands — fast asleep on his wife’s shoulder. The sound of a rooster crowing played over the stadium’s public-address system, then a buzzing noise. However, that nor the cheering crowd could rouse the man from his slumber."

Read the rest of the article...

Dodgers & Cubs the last MLB teams without a mascot

Gary Miller on EPSN.com:

"Both the Dodgers and Cubs remain nearly unique in not employing team mascots to "enliven" things at the park ... L.A. admitted it considered adding a mascot recently, but while they chose wisely not to, many traditionalists, including myself, are chagrined that they've eliminated the charming, unobtrusive organ music which used to characterize the Dodger Stadium experience -- from everything but the pre-game. The Dodgers now have the same ear-pounding, heavy-metal chorus punctuating every at-bat and potential rallying moment."

Read the full article...