Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Who would have dreamed one tweet would set off a huge story?
It began all so innocently when Daina Falk sent out one little tweet. In that, she said that the 'Seattle Kings were a done deal.' I'm not quoting word for word, but you get the idea.
One tweet gave a story such legs, it sent journalists scrambling to cover the big sports story of the day in Seattle and Sacramento. Without the speculation about the team's future in Sacramento leading off the newscasts in California's Capital City, who knows what the top story was unless you were there.
Reporters went out on the street to get reaction about the impending/potential of the Sacramento Kings. Even though that tweet was removed, it didn't prevent respected reporters like Yahoo! sports reporter Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that the sale was nearly a done deal.
I first heard about the story as I ususally do, listening to Sirius/XM satellite radio on my way to work Wednesday Afternoon. It stunned me that a deal like that could be underway because I had not been made aware of it by SportsCenter, online news sources, sports talk radio, or even in the back end of my local sports page.
What if that tweet never got sent out in the first place? I mean, if nobody picked up on that tweet, nobody would have talked about rumors about the Kings leaving Sacramento for Seattle as much people did yesterday. I got my fill of how Sacramento's local news channels (via the internet) covered the Kings even being mentioned as "for sale" and what the implications could be if they were sold and later moved.
Too many things have to happen before a sale of an NBA franchise can be consummated. Too may I's have to be dotted and too many T's have to be crossed before a transaction can become final. Also, the deadline to file an application for relocation is March 1st. That alone could make a relocation problematic if the team and potential new ownership wants to play in Seattle in time for the 2013-2014 season.
To me, the only way that this story advances is that the Maloof family makes a statement on whether or not the Sacramento Kings are for sale. Until then, this story does not advance.
The power of social media is real and it is here to stay. It can be a valuable tool to get the latest scoop on news stories or it can be a dartboard where rumors go to land. Either way, it has changed the landscape of journalism forever. In this case, it has given voice to a story that either could have gotten buried forever or simply delayed the time when the news would break.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
Two dreams about California
On Tuesday morning, I had a dream that I was watching the Holiday Bowl from San Diego's Petco Park. Later on in that dream, I was hovering over Downtown San Diego listening to Sean McDonough call play-by-play of the game between two undetermined teams. Moments later, I was hovering over the streets of Downtown San Diego in an industrial part of town where hundreds of cars were all moving in perfect harmony in and out of various parking garages and freeway on-ramps and off-ramps.
In reality, I wake up and find that The Holiday Bowl as always been played at Qualcomm Stadium. There has never been a playing of that game at Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. In recent years, there have been a few bowl games that have been staged at baseball stadiums. There was the one playing of the Seattle Bowl at Safeco Field in 2001. The Insight Bowl was staged at Phoenix's Bank One Ballpark from 2002-2005. The New Era Pinstripe Bowl is at Yankee Stadium, and the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is housed at San Francisco's AT&T Park. My Arizona State Sun Devils beat Navy in the Fight Hunger Bowl last weekend.
This morning, I had a dream where I was back in Southern California's Imperial Valley. In the dream, the city of El Centro looked like a bustling metropolis complete with not one, but two East-West freeways. There's the longstanding Interstate 8 and another not named freeway north of Interstate 8. The Imperial Valley just East of San Diego looked like Eastern San Diego County with multiple exits within a mile of each other and restaurants like Denny's on the side of the freeway. Too bad in my dream I did not see a Cracker Barrel off the road. I saw exit signs for U.S. Highway routes like U.S. 19 and U.S. 41 and thought about how they connected from California to the Midwest.
In reality, California's Imperial Valley looks nothing like a busy metropolitan area. El Centro, California is a nice go-between from Yuma to San Diego. There was a Denny's off Imperial Avenue and I-8. There are no U.S. Highways in the Imperial Valley. There is only one freeway in the Imperial Valley, and that freeway is Interstate 8. I have driven on Interstate 8 many times when I lived in Arizona and for a few times since I moved to Georgia in 2000.
One day, I hope to visit San Diego and Los Angeles again and go on vacation with my wife. I want to show her Petco Park for a Padres game, the Ghirardelli Ice Cream shop for another chocolate-caramel ice cream, and take her to the beach again.
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