baseball

OAKLAND, Calif.--For the countless of devotees of rotisserie and fantasy baseball, there's a whole new game in town.

On Tuesday, 2K Sports will release its MLB Front Office Manager, and for those addicted to the stat-heavy pastime of running fantasy leagues, being a Major League Baseball general manager may never get closer.

The new game--which is unlike any baseball video game I've ever seen--has perhaps the perfect pitchman, Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane. For those not familiar with him, the game probably won't mean much, since as the main subject of Michael Lewis' hit … Read more

It's been a busy year for San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum. Throwing a Major League-leading 265 strikeouts during 2008, his first full season in the league, he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, was selected to play in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and was recently named the 2008 National League Cy Young Award winner.

Now, he's set to appear on the cover of 2K Sports' video game Major League Baseball 2K9. Earlier this week, we visited 2K Sports' motion capture studios in Novato, Calif., about a half-hour north of Lincecum's home field, AT&… Read more

NOVATO, Calif.--Sports Illustrated magazine called Tim Lincecum "the freak," and for the motion capture specialists at 2K Sports, getting a good computer model of baseball star Tim Lincecum's unique, and violent, pitching motion presented a special challenge.

Last month, Lincecum, a diminutive 24-year-old whom you would never pick out of a lineup as a superstar ballplayer, won the National League Cy Young award, given to the league's best pitcher. The same day, the San Francisco Giant found out that he'd been chosen as the cover athlete for Major League Baseball 2K9, 2K's hit … Read more

NOVATO, Calif.--We're about to see Tim Lincecum, the 2008 National League Cy Young award-winning pitcher, go deep.

"He's going to hit a home run, which is the first time in his life he's ever done that, including Little League," said Johnathan Rivera, an associate producer for 2K Sports, who was standing near the pitcher, explaining what he was about to do.

"Thanks," Lincecum said sarcastically.

The San Francisco Giants pitcher was here, at 2K Sports' motion-capture studio on Tuesday, because he's the cover athlete for the publisher's forthcoming Major League … Read more

Microsoft is losing MLB.com, Major League Baseball's online unit and one of the Web's most successful subscription services, as a Silverlight customer.

MLB Advanced Media said Monday it will use Adobe's Flash Platform to deliver all live and on-demand video starting next year.

The deal, announced at the Adobe Max conference running in San Francisco this week, hands Adobe one of the largest and likely most profitable video services out there. MLB.com has signed up more than 1.5 million subscribers since 2003 and streams more than 2,500 regular and postseason games annually. Moreover, … Read more

The (hypothetical) scene:

CNET meeting room, day. Three CNET editors sit at a conference table, surrounded by coffee cups. They're debating the merits of a new ultraportable laptop.

Editor 1 Great performance, great battery life, a great all-around machine. There's one feature that could be a major downside, though.

Editor 2 What's that?

Editor 1 Well, there's a pointing stick, but no touch pad.

Editor 3 Gah! That is an absolute deal-breaker. I hate those things!

Editor 1 You know, they don't bother me, but I know some people have strong feelings about them.

Editor … Read more

Those nice people at ESPN reported this week that Mark Cuban, who I am told, was given a lot of money by Yahoo for some gizmoid or other, is one of the finalists in the bidding to buy baseball's most charming, unlucky, losersome team, the Chicago Cubs.

There will be those on the waggy side of humorous who will claim that he is the perfect person to own the Cubs as his Dallas Mavericks team is one of the most charming, unlucky, losersome teams in the NBA.

(My prejudices. One, I have Golden State Warriors hats and shirts and … Read more

With memories of the last All Star game at Yankee Stadium already fading, I consider it my patriotic duty to remind everybody to eat their hot dogs. While I may not have an expressed written consent from MLB to disseminate the accounts and descriptions of the game, I can tell you it is over, and it was long. Now that we have passed the Midsummer Classic, the hot days will start to slowly drift away. Don't forget to carry hot dogs along with you into the turning of the seasons.

The Home Pride Ballpark Hot Dog Rotisserie Griller wants … Read more

A new online baseball game may finally help put to rest an age-old debate: how would Babe Ruth do at the plate facing Nolan Ryan's fastball?

That is the kind of scenario that may be possible soon with Baseball Boss, a free browser-based game released Thursday that combines fantasy sports with virtual baseball card collecting. The game allows fantasy managers to build teams with Major League Baseball players from 1907 and 2007 (more years will be added later) that can play other user-created teams or even historical teams such as the 1907 Brooklyn Superbas. Instead of focusing on stat … Read more