Monday, April 03, 2006

Opening Day: The Glog Comes of Age

Baseball is back! Trying hard to stay on topic, I'm very excited to see the CBS Sportsline Glog feature in action for a full baseball season.

I first noticed the Glog -- short for "Game Log" during the NFL playoffs. Basically it's a blog around a specific sporting event, filling in commentary and enhanced play by play from a real person where the traditional java game trackers fall short. An intriguing concept that seems like it was created with baseball in mind.

Baseball has so many nuances that a standard, database driven textual play by play online doesn't do it justice. It's certainly better than nothing, but so much of the flavor is lost. Was a groundout a spectacular play or a routine dribbler? Was an infield single a generous scoring call on a borderline error or due to a hustling runner? Did a home run barely make the seats or land deep in the upper deck? Did an umpire blow a call? The glog has the power to fill in these blanks, as well as the potential to pull off the classic baseball insight regarding how good a batter is with two strikes and runners in scoring position during a night game on grass vs. a lefty. I can't wait!

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