Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Random Tuesday Tidbits: Tweeting, cutting costs, and pics of the week

It's all about Twitter these days. I was listening to one of my favorite college radio station Saturday and was told I could tweet my request in. (Of course I am not on Twitter yet so I would have to be a little more traditional and email it or even--gasp--phone it in!)
But the Twitter/sports connection is also a hot topic. Check out Women Talk Sports for all the takes on Twitter and women's sports. And even SI.com is taking up the topic. Professional golfers and tennis players are twittering--but not from the course or court. Though I have to wonder if that is next. Might be a way to get around that whole coaching from the stands issue. (Not that that is really such an anomaly as I saw, in person, at Roland Garros this year.) Though members of the WPS are tweeting from the sidelines of their games. I wonder which sport(s) will be next. Baseball and softball seem likely candidates. Women's pro fastpitch could definitely use some twittering action, if, as some predict, Twitter can increase the visibility of women's sports. And, in addition to helping (if needed) their sports, athletes like Twitter because it gives athletes a voice. A voice in contrast, or in clarification, to the media. It also allows fans access without them getting too close, according to the SI piece. Though I have to wonder if this could backfire with more "intense" fans who would love to know exactly where their favorite player is headed on her errands.

Tidbit 2: The Pac-10, about to undergo a change in leadership with former WTA CEO Larry Scott taking over at the end of the month, held its annual meetings last week. Cutting costs was high on the agenda. And the conference has submitted proposals to the NCAA for such things as disallowing teams to stay in hotels the night before home games (unless the site of the game is over 25 miles from campus). Also on the table is limiting the numbers of staff and players who travel to away games. Gee willikers! What a great idea! Who would have thought??
No mention of who would be most "affected" by these changes (hint: it's football!) which is interesting because football has long had all these perks. (Of course I got all this info from a football blog so I guess it's implied.) A midwest DI team travelled to its bowl game in Florida one year with a whole trailer truck full of the equipment from their own weight room. Because apparently they don't have weights in Florida!
Also of note is that the conference wants to limit to once a week, weekday away football games while classes are in session. This seems to illustrate a commitment to academics. Let's hope Scott has a similar philosophy.

And finally tidbit 3 is the Washington Post's week in sports photos. There was some great photos including an amazing shot of an Austrian swimmer doing the breast stroke. The final photo in the series was Roger Federer kissing the trophy he won the other day at Roland Garros. I thought it was a little cliched--not at all like the other photos which were far more interesting. In other words, it seemed obligatory. Also disappointing was that there was not a photo from the women's final. Neither match was much of a contest so that WaPo would mark one and not the other was a little irksome.

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