MVN - Most Valuable Network

PNC Park in the morning from the Pittsburgh Hilton (photo by Rich Campbell)

Wonderful Wolf & The Wonderful Net

As I read the tale of Randy Wolf’s dominant outing against the Rockies, I felt only a small twinge because I was on the other side of the country. True, if I would not have had this trip, I would have seen Wolf’s 1 hit, nine strikeout performance over seven innings in person. But that pain was mitigated by memory.

I am a lifelong Padre fan, and while I enjoy all baseball, I love my Pads. But when I went away for college, less than twenty short years ago, it was a very different thing to be in the east and be a fan of San Diego teams. Back then, you didn’t get west coast scores unless you could stay up for the two a.m. Sportscenter… assuming you could get cable in your hotel or dorm. In the paper? Nothing except a boxscore and a column inch. And not on Wednesday morning for a Tuesday night game, but on Thursday morning… because by the time the game was over the newspaper’s deadline for the morning had passed.

I returned to my hotel room last night and was able to know about the Padres 6-0 victory right away. And read the accounts, see a box score, track pitch by pitch through mlb.com and even find out what my fellow fans are saying by looking at the in-game discussion over at Ducksnorts.com.

And not only did get to see Brian Giles two-run double off the scoreboard, which Sportscenter might have brought me in the past, but I got to see the final pitch of each of Wolf’s nine strikeouts… and I get a recap of the game, and if I pay for it I can watch the whole game.

I love the Padres beating the Rockies… even more now. (and no, Rockie fans, he STILL has not touched home plate!) I love seeing another Kevin Towers “reach” work out for the Padres, I love that Giles looks strong, I love that Kevin Cameron had a successful start to his 2008.

But as I sit in a hotel room in downtown Pittsburgh and look out the window at a great view of an unfortunately empty PNC Park, what I really love is the internet.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 6:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.