My hometown Major League baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, typically play one weekday game every home stand. They do this to entice commuters in the area to knock off early for a
‘meeting’ at the ballpark.
I try to catch every game by some means — in person (I split season tickets with my sister), on the radio or via television. However, these matinee games proved too challenging to track while working — even the radio created too much disruption. However, I recently discovered the internet-based MLB GameCast, which provides live updates and a myriad of stats. It’s accessed via ESPN Scoreboard during any given baseball game. I leave it open for spot checking while I’m doing work on my computer — mainly to catch up via the helpful status report that’s continually updated. However, I get a great charge out of seeing the live updates pitch by pitch. It even shows the directional flight of batted balls!
Whatever loss of time MLB Gamecast creates is more than made up by the stimulation it provides to my afternoon productivity. That’s my hypothesis and I am sticking to it just as tight as my man Joe Mauer does to a baseball when an enemy player barrels into home plate!
PS. Another heads-up: I captured the screenshot via the handy Snipping Tool that came with my Windows Vista. If you use this operating system, look for the utility in your Accessory folder. It may not be there. In that case, go to your Start menu, click Programs and look at the “Turn Windows features on or off” list. Turn on the Tablet PC Optional Components. (The Snipping Tool was originally developed by Microsoft for the Tablet PC.)