Motorola Brings Completely Useless Wireless Technology To Baseball
from the push-to-what? dept
There's a practical reason why NFL coaches need wireless headsets, as they pace along the sideline it's a problem to be tethered by a cord. Now Motorola, which supplies the NFL gear, is promoting the fact that they'll do the same for baseball by giving push-to-talk phones to the Chicago Cubs as a replacement for the current system of communication between the dugout and the bullpen. But while the NFL arrangement actually has some value, this is a completely pointless technology for baseball; it accomplishes nothing that the current communication system can't handle. There's a reason that baseball hasn't already adopted this technology, given that it's been available for years. It's plainly a Motorola publicity stunt, made worse by the fact that representatives from the Hall of Fame will be in attendance at its inception, whereupon they'll bring the device to Cooperstown to be enshrined. There's probably some money involved for Major League Baseball, but it seems likely that they'll pay by cheapening their hallowed institutions.
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When yelling at the Ump
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Whatever
It's all for the sake of giving the pitcher in the bullpin time to warm up a little more.
Baseball does not need, nor want, to speed up the process. It's not like the coach has to yell all the way into rightfield to get the pitcher to change. He just points for crying out loud!!!! If anything could be thought as an improvement, it would be a lazer pointer!
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Re: Whatever
Does Motorola make laser pointers?
I guess the phone would not help if they wanted to slow down the process. Of course, light moves faster than sound, so the laser pointer wouldn't help there either. The real time savings (if you wanted to save time) would be when the relief pitcher comes from the bull pen to the field. This wouldn't help him warm-up, however. Maybe a Segway? He could throw from a Segway.
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Baseball's had wireless for years
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Too Little Too Late
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Re: Too Little Too Late
Then why, every year, are sports setting attendance records every year? Just because you are a geek sitting in your mom's basement jerking off while playing video games, doesn't mean everyone else is.
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You missed the point.
But the events are attended by a smaller and smaller percentage of the population. Most people outgrow stick and ball sports by adulthood. Some don't, but that could be more a sign of delayed adulthood rather than the exception that proves the rule.
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Re: Too Little Too Late
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meh
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Wrigley Field or Fenway have not changed much over the last 100 years, but gee, what do I know.
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Re: what AC knows
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Just another Tech looking for a market
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motorola and baseball
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Wouldn't be fun if...
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Who Cares?
To make up for the expense, the next generation of cell phones will cost more.
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Re: Who Cares?
Can Proctor & Gamble (or whoever) pay to be the official disinfectant of Major League Baseball?
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Re: Re: Who Cares?
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Re: Re: Re: Who Cares?
Unless we're all reading TechDirt and submitting these posts while we are at work? Nah! No one would do that.
Now let's talk about the one serious subject mentioned in this pathetic debate: The Florida Marlin Dancers!
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It's Called Marketing
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and the point here is?
On to baseball: sure, plenty of people find it EXTREMELY boring to watch. However, plenty of people also don't mind shelling out 10 bucks for a cheap ticket, or coughing up $350+ for a prime seat behind homeplate. Like it or not, this sport is "America's Pasttime" (one of them at least!). Thousands of people attend each of the 160+ games per season, with thousands more watching the games on TV. If that doesn't warrent some kind of marketing attention, then I guess I'm a ranting lunatic!
The whole idea of wireless headsets for the coaches in baseball does seem a bit pointless to me as well, but certainly not for Moto and I do see the point in that!!
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A Pointless argument
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I'm all for useless technology
It's not about whether baseball needs wireless headsets... it's not that it makes anyones life any easier... its about introducing something new into a market that for the past who-knows-how-many-years has had nothing of the sort. Motorola sees a way to profit from an industry similar to that of the NFL (professional, highly televised sport) that makes them a boat load of money. If Motorola paid you a bonus check every month for wearing their headset on top of the millions you already make, why the hell not?
Do we really need cars that have navigation systems and 12 speaker stereos and voice recognition and RFID key sensors that unlock our doors when we are within a few feet? No... we've made it 90 years without anything of the sort, the only reason we have it now is because of companies like BOSE, Garmin, On-Star etc starting investing money and technology into companies like GM, Honda and Daimler-Chrysler and will in turn receive some nice royalties everytime a car is sold with their product inside.
It's all about the money and wanting more of it, it has nothing to do with the product itself. Motorola would sell you monkeys wearing diapers if they knew the profit was there.
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Off the track
Does baseball need wireless? No.
Does baseball want money? YES!
And by the way. before I dropped my season tickets, the Florida Marlins had cheerleaders...actually, dancers......
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