Links! (no, not an alternative to patties)

Links are wonderful. Here you are, reading something, and spot a reference. If the reference is linked, you can hop right over to it. Click and go. What could be nicer?

My bookmarks/favorites folders are abundant with links & sites I visit and revisit and revisit yet again. Also in there are utility-type sites with specific searches or information sources, and such.

You can only begin to imagine the number of baseball related links in there!

I keep score whenever I attend a baseball game. Makes me feel a part of the action, and provides immediate review of the action thus far. It is quite helpful in the Armchair Strategy Department ("gee, the next batter struck out both times at bat, and the batter after him hits righties, and has already stolen a base...time to warm up a lefty")and also has a tendency to make one a source of information for the fans sitting nearby ("hey, you with the Yankee cap and the scorecard! What did Bernie do in the 1st inning?"). Attending the games being such a social sort of event, it adds to the group dynamic of it all.

I found a good source for scorecards [1], with all sorts of styles and type for different levels and methods of scorekeeping. Major League Baseball's website has a neat feature, offering scorecards [2]with starting lineups and pitchers as per the info received at the MLB office. This is not always correct info, but it is a nice scorecard. The team rosters are also available, as up to date here as anywhere, with recent call-ups from the minors, and such.

Want the best coverage of the Yanks? The New York Daily News [3]has the most comprehensive coverage, despite constantly changing beat writers over the past three years. The News online presence is excellent, but the design of the site makes it impossible to bookmark a specific section, like, say, Sports. The New York Times online is an improving work in progress, as I see it. The Times just doesn't seem to get it when it comes to the Net. The geniuses in marketing over there have decided to charge users a pittance to access (for view, and maybe even capture) news stories from an earlier date. So if you want to check a news story or a feature or something that ran in the Times last week or last month, have your credit card ready.

Can you believe it? Charging for old news! What do they call this, The Fishwrap Fee?

This serves no good purpose. With so much information and news and research available throughout and across the globe via the net, The Times is actually chasing users away! Who would be predisposed to wasting time and money on a Times search, when just about every other paper has archives and search utilities enabling users to find what they seek?????

But back to Yankee coverage. Buster Olney [4], the sportswriter on the Yankee beat for The Times, is one of the best. Reading his game summaries and analysis is a daily delight during the season. The Times lucked out when they brought him aboard.

Rob Neyer on the ESPN site has some kind words about Buster. Check out Monday October, 30th [5]on the archive. Reading Neyer's take on the World Series (the SUBWAY series, the one the YANKEES won) is also very entertaining.