Did you happen to catch the score of last night's ball game?
Unless you stayed up until all hours of the night, not likely.
Major League Baseball is well into its playoffs and sports fans are treated to at least a game a day right through October. While this sounds good, it's got a downside.
TV schedules and timezone changes mean most playoff games aren't starting until 8 p.m. Throw in games that continuously go well over three hours and few games wrap up before every day fans are in bed.
What does this have to do with social media, you ask. The answer: A lot.
The rise of Twitter, blogs and streaming video means sports fan can know exactly what's happening without watching the games. If you're tired by the seventh, you can get an inning-by-inning breakdown of the action without getting out of bed the next day. Quick hashtag searches mean you don't even need to visit Google.
Social media has changed sports fandom in another big way. All of a sudden, regular fans have new access to the players. Athlete's blogs, twitter accounts and ning posts (just kidding, they don't use ning) let us know exactly how our heroes are feeling. (and apparently who they like to win the Daytona 500).
On a side note. NBA players seem to love Twitter. So much so, it got some of them in some trouble.
It used to be that newspapers and television were the only gateways into a team's games and especially the players. Not anymore. With social media, anyone can be a sports columnists and anyone can post news.
But, what does this all mean. It means you don't have to be glued to your television for your sports highlights. Like never before, the answers are all around us.
"it means you don't have to be glued to your TV for sports" and that has huge implications for the business models of both broadcast tv producers and sports teams.
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