ESPN: Baseball in Europe is about to take off

Posted on 21 September, 2011 by Martin Stabe

"With all the talk of emerging markets like China, India and Brazil as successors to Latin America and the Pacific Rim as Major League Baseball's next breeding ground, Europe is overlooked. However, the Regensburg academy, while a pioneer, isn't unique. The professionalization of elite youth baseball is happening all over the continent."

Nieman Journalism Lab: GameChanger sees a business model in baseball scores

Posted on 10 August, 2010 by Martin Stabe

"GameChanger is trying to monetize not just sports-related content, but sports scoring in general. Via, in particular, a mobile app that coaches and other scorekeepers can use to tabulate the scores of their games. And which they can also use — here’s where we get interested — to automatically distribute those scores to local media. ... the platform facilitates targeted — highly targeted — crowdsourcing: via the GameChanger app, baseball and softball scorekeepers use their iPhones or iPads to file the detailed scores of their games, in real time. Those data then get beamed to GameChanger’s central servers, which tally up box scores."

ESPN: Washington Nationals blogger Mark Zuckerman, a reporter whose readers cover his expenses, could be the future of sports journalism

Posted on 6 March, 2010 by Martin Stabe

"Mark Zuckerman ... A 33-year-old baseball writer from suburban D.C., Zuckerman is covering the Nationals during spring training in Viera, Fla. -- coverage made possible by reader donations to his team blog."

Great Britain Baseball

Posted on 5 September, 2009 by Martin Stabe

"Ahead of the 2009 Baseball World Cup (BWC), which begins on September 9, the Great Britain baseball team has published its 25-man roster ahead of the event on its new team website."

Parliament: Early Day Motions

Posted on 25 April, 2009 by Martin Stabe

"That this House welcomes the rise in popularity of baseball in the United Kingdom ... ecognises the contribution that televised baseball has made in increasing the popularity of the sport and in particular the contribution of Jonny Gould, Josh Chetwynd and Erik Janssen; expresses disappointment at Five.TV's decision to cease showing Major League Baseball on terrestrial television; expresses concern that the rise in popularity of baseball in Britain may suffer as a result; and therefore calls on Five.TV or another free-to-view channel to show Major League Baseball on television."

New York Times: The Dutch Are Stunning the World at the Classic

Posted on 12 March, 2009 by Martin Stabe

"[T]he Netherlands succeeded in making 2009 memorable. The team with players from Corendon Kinheim, DOOR Neptunus and Veracruz Red Eagles, clubs in the Dutch Major Leagues, outlasted a Dominican team with David Ortiz, Hanley Ramírez and José Reyes. Only five Dutch players have major league experience."

Guardian: Home runs and home truths in Marcus Trescothick’s benefit bash

Posted on 7 October, 2008 by Martin Stabe

Andy Bull: "It's a pub-table conversation brought to life. An animated hypothetical. Would Trescothick's hand-eye co-ordination make him a natural slugger? Could Giles' ability to spin a cricket ball translate into a mean curve? Might Jones make a sharp shortstop? And would the superior athleticism and ball skills of the professionals outweigh the knowledge and understanding of the amateurs? The answer was an emphatic 'no'." Despite the provocative article, this has the most sensible comments section I have ever seen on baseball vs. cricket.

Times: Test players step up to plate but get taken out at whole new ball game

Posted on 7 October, 2008 by Martin Stabe

Josh Chetwynd on playing baseball against Marcus Trescothick's team of cricketers: "The cricketers showed the skill sets necessary to succeed at baseball, but the nuances of the sport were elusive. ..."

Telegraph: Major League Baseball told their sport was invented in Surrey, not America

Posted on 13 September, 2008 by Martin Stabe

"Baseball was not invented in America but in genteel Surrey, according to evidence that has just come to light. A diary has been found which describes the game being played by a teenager in Guildford in 1755."

BaseballGB: GB National [Baseball] Team versus [Marcus] Trescothick’s Bangers

Posted on 30 August, 2008 by Martin Stabe

"[4 October is the] date of the game between the Great Britain National Baseball Team and a squad of top cricketers, which is part of Marcus Trescothick’s benefit year and will take place at the County Ground in Taunton"

WSJ: The Numbers Guy: MLB Standings Get More Sophisticated

Posted on 26 August, 2008 by Martin Stabe

"For the past month, ESPN.com’s Major League Baseball standings have included postseason probabilities, broken down by chance of winning the division and winning a wild card. It’s a brave step forward for standings, longtime fixtures of newspaper agate and more-recent staples of online sports sites. And ESPN isn’t yet sure playoff probabilities, as supplied by an online standings provider called Coolstandings, are for the long term."

The Canadian Press: Major leaguers could play in Olympics come 2016 if baseball makes comeback

Posted on 20 August, 2008 by Martin Stabe

"The International Olympic Committee will vote in October 2009 in Copenhagen about what sports, if any, it will bring back for 2016. These Games were baseball's 12th in the Olympics, but it has only been a medal sport since 1992 in Barcelona."

NYTimes.com: Interactive Graphic: Finding the Hits, Avoiding the Errors

Posted on 17 June, 2008 by Martin Stabe

New York Times magazine story plotted on a map: "A culinary scorecard for all 30 major league baseball stadiums."

New York Times: In Netherlands, Soccer Is King, but Baseball Eyes Crown

Posted on 28 May, 2008 by Martin Stabe

"Most Dutch baseball teams were in fact started by soccer clubs in search of a sport for the months between soccer seasons. Johan Cruyff, the king of Dutch soccer, began his career as a catcher for Amsterdam Ajax’s nine, before he ever kicked a soccer b

Martin Stabe

A UK-centric look at new media and online journalism

Category Archives: baseball