Most years I spend opening day at the ballpark or on my couch with remote in hand. This year I spent baseball's opening day driving across the nothingness that is the space between Tucson, AZ and San Diego, CA. In years past this would be a real downer but, thanks to my handy dandy IPhone I didn't miss a beat. This made me think of how different I consume sports on the move today than I did a few years ago. Gone are the days of hoping to hear game action through a scratchy AM feed.
Yesterday in the middle of nowhere, with cruise control set to 80mph, I listened to Dave Damashek's podcasts with Jonah Keri via ESPN mobile and listened to games live via MLB.com's IPhone Application. While my wife drove I watched video clips of action that took place only minutes before and looked at boxscores/lineups refreshed every 15 seconds. In between innings I toggled back and forth between Rotoworld, Twitter, Facebook, Faketeams' Mobile site, and the Rotosynthesis blog (which I'm quickly falling in love with). It was Jason Collette via Twitter that told me Harang was on an unhealthy 23 pitch/inning start to '09 and Rotosynthesis' running comment blog post that helped me dissect the fantasy angles in every game. This would not have happened in 2004.
It's a whole new world and a whole new way to consume the world of fantasy. While in the car, in years past, I was stuck trying to pick up sports updates on the half hour. Now I, along with everyone else, have a cell phone data plan and I'm a refresh click away from up-to-the-second pitch updates.
Technology has certainly blessed the fantasy fan and it's a great time to be a geek. Picking up Emilio Bonifacio while driving through the desert has never been easier.
So what did I miss? How do you consume fantasy baseball in 2009 differently than you did 5 years ago?