Motorola Brings Completely Useless Wireless Technology To Baseball

from the push-to-what? dept

Mon, Jun 12th 2006 12:05pm — Joseph Weisenthal

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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27 Comments

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The Pot, 12 Jun 2006 @ 12:12pm

Why that'd be almost as crazy as not allowing the all time base hit leader into the Hall or Fame... ohhh... wait a sec.
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Moneyguy, 12 Jun 2006 @ 12:50pm

When yelling at the Ump
Maybe Motorola thought the manager could use it when the manager is yelling at the Umpire? I mean he could call the bull pen on his way out to the Umpire, or on his way back to the dugout. I'm sure Motorola's motives involve speeding up the game.
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- Some IT Bastard, 12 Jun 2006 @ 12:57pm
  
  Whatever
  You ever see a coach talking with a pitcher for long time, and the umpire has to tell them to leave? You ever see the pitcher just make some throws to first to waste time?
  
  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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  - Moneyguy, 12 Jun 2006 @ 2:40pm
    
    Re: Whatever
    The laser pointer is a great idea! Maybe if they make the laser form a picture of the mascot? Or maybe they can spell out the name of the relief pitcher?
    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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Jeff, 12 Jun 2006 @ 1:10pm

Baseball's had wireless for years
It just involves placing your nose in between your two index fingers while placing your thumbs under your chin and then yelling real loud.
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dorpus, 12 Jun 2006 @ 1:16pm

Too Little Too Late
Spectator sports are suffering dropping attendance throughout the world. How many young people today want to passively spend hours watching people chase a ball on a field? Such sports could make themselves more relevant to contemporary audiences, if they wore tighter pants, showed off their washboard abs, and...
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2006 @ 1:27pm
  
  Re: Too Little Too Late
  Spectator sports are suffering dropping attendance throughout the world?
  
  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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  - Will, 12 Jun 2006 @ 1:31pm
    
    You missed the point.
    More sporting events each year, in larger venues. Thus larger attendence.
    
    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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- Moneyguy, 12 Jun 2006 @ 2:42pm
  
  Re: Too Little Too Late
  ...and cheerleaders. Baseball needs scantily clad cheerleaders.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2006 @ 1:29pm

meh
Watching Sports = Mental Masturbation for the Intellectually Weak.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2006 @ 1:37pm

Dorpus may be a "geek sitting in your mom's basement jerking off while playing video games, doesn't mean everyone else is" but I have to say that baseball is very boring to watch. I'll actually play baseball all day and all night but it hurts to watch it.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2006 @ 1:43pm

At least from Baseball perspective, the actual stadiums are getting smaller, but I guess facts kind of get in the way.

Wrigley Field or Fenway have not changed much over the last 100 years, but gee, what do I know.
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- Charlie Potatoes, 12 Jun 2006 @ 5:01pm
  
  Re: what AC knows
  well, AC, motor mouth as usual... seems u know one helluva lot about the masturbatory habits of young urban males..go figure...So FUCK YOU, TOWEL HEAD.
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GMan, 12 Jun 2006 @ 1:45pm

Just another Tech looking for a market
Marketing technology for technology sake, sadly what else is new?!
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Judah Jacobs, 12 Jun 2006 @ 2:03pm

motorola and baseball
I lived in Woonsocket R.I. a while back. My neighbor was busted for selling drugs because he made the deals over his wireless phone. Hmm.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2006 @ 2:22pm

Wouldn't be fun if...
Wouldn't be fun if someone hacked in the first day and kept calling up the bullpen sending the pitchers out to the field at random times.
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Dam, 12 Jun 2006 @ 3:00pm

Who Cares?
While this story may be a tad interesting to the geek community, I think it has the same level of general interest as to what kind of disinfectant the cleaning crew uses in the lavatories. Who cares? Baseball is a business, and to pay the huge salaries, somebody has to kick in the dough and you can be sure Motorola is.

To make up for the expense, the next generation of cell phones will cost more.
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- Bored Beyond Belief, 12 Jun 2006 @ 5:22pm
  
  Re: Who Cares?
  I like Pine Sol. I think it has the best smell - sort of outdoorsy. Not sure if it has the industrial strength disinfectant needed for public bathrooms, however.
  Can Proctor & Gamble (or whoever) pay to be the official disinfectant of Major League Baseball?
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  - Shannon, 13 Jun 2006 @ 9:09am
    
    Re: Re: Who Cares?
    Sure they could. And Angel Soft could pay to be the official Toilet Paper of Major League Baseball if they thought that the advertising dollars made sense. This is a pointless conversation. Moto wants to spend some money to put WiFi in the baseball stadiums, in return they get some free advertising out of it. Miller Lite does it, Budweiser does it, Starter does it... WHO CARES. Nothing to see here, move along.
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    - Bored Beyond Belief, 13 Jun 2006 @ 11:23am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Who Cares?
      Of course this is pointless ...which is why most of us have the time to submit posts regarding subjects that really don't matter (for the most part).
      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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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2006 @ 3:02pm

They'd have to be naked cheerleaders to get me to watch baseball.. what a boring ass waste of time.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2006 @ 3:28pm

It's Called Marketing
Cmon, It is just simple marketing! Were has the telephone buiness exploded in the last 5-10 years? Land Lines?? I dont think so. Motorola make a huge killing off the amount of cellular phones it sells and getting there name stuck into a sport that many millions of people still watch it simple marketing...cmon.
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me, 12 Jun 2006 @ 3:38pm

and the point here is?
I have to LAUGH at the comments you people make. Bottom line of the story is, Motorola will be paying good money to MLB, or Chicago rather, for the coach to have a big Motorola logo on his head, which will, and already does, get PLENTY of camera time.
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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The Voice of Reason, 12 Jun 2006 @ 3:44pm

A Pointless argument
I personally have no interest in watching baseball on TV. It’s boring. At the same time, referring to baseball as just a "stick and ball sport" is a bit of an oversimplification. It would be like comparing today’s videogames to Pong, or PacMan. People have different interests, and I’m OK with that.
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my names joe too, 12 Jun 2006 @ 3:58pm

I'm all for useless technology
The simple truth is that stupid technology or not... mind-numbing sporting event or not... this is a industrialized world based on one major object and one major concept: Money and Greed.

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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blintze, 12 Jun 2006 @ 6:13pm

Off the track
I like how these comments stayed on track ....NOT!

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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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2006 @ 2:44pm

Nutorola should also test the water in other sports, especially cricket and kabaddi
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