Did you ever have your heart broken by your favorite athlete? I did and I haven’t forgotten. I was the tender age of 10 and just discovered that my favorite basketball player and I shared the same birth date. That basketball player was Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. I remember sitting at the kitchen table writing a letter to him to tell him that we shared a birthday and how much I looked up to him. I asked if he could send me an autographed picture so that I could hang it up in my room because I wanted to grow up to be like him, like Mike. But Mike never wrote back.
I am sure you are wondering why am I sharing this with you? ESPN the Magazine had a great article in it’s February issue called, “Thanks for Writing…” The article’s author, Ryan Hockensmith, has been writing letters since he was a kid to different athletes and received a ton of responses. Being that this issue was the fan issue, he decided to see if today’s athletes were just as caring as the athletes he idolized during his youth. He sent out 479 handwritten letters to a couple of people in a team’s organization in the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL. He wrote under the pseudonym Joe Phan.
After all that sent mail, he discovered that Minnesota Twins Joe Mauer actually sent Ryan a signed postcard which sounded like a postcard you would receive from a good friend who was wanting to catch up. Ryan called Joe to see if he actually wrote it and discovered that he indeed did. His mom helps him sort through the fan mail and types back a letter to his fans. He signs every single one of them. How cool is that!
It’s great to read that there are still athletes out there that appreciate us fans.
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I had the great honor of growing up in Chicago during the 90’s when the Chicago Bulls were making their championship runs. It was a time in my life that sparked my passion for the sport, besides the fact that I share the same birthday as Michael Jordan. I remember sitting with my family around our TV in the summertime watching the Bulls in their glory. I do not think there were too many people outside on those summer nights. Enough of my reminiscing of the good old days when basketball was a team sport and not a game of one-on-one.
Last night on ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, it was all about the 1995 NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this series, ESPN describes it as:
“An unprecedented documentary series featuring thirty films from some of today’s finest storytellers. Each filmmaker will bring their passion and personal point of view to their film detailing the issues, trends, athletes, teams, rivalries, games and events that transformed the sports landscape from 1979 to 2009.”
Director Dan Klores takes you on a ride that creates such nostalgia weaving in video with commentary from coaches, players, reporters and writers. He set the stage for the tragic end of Patrick Ewing’s attempt at a championship ring by the hand of Reggie Miller, who talked trash with Spike Lee during the series as well as not being very “PC” during his interviews.
This documentary series is truly captivating even for a sports fan like me who would prefer at times reality TV over sports. The other two documentaries that I have watched, The U and The Band That Wouldn’t Die, were so rich in detail that you cannot not help but sit down to watch. It gets into the nitty gritty of that event to truly paint a picture of what was happening at that time.
Last night’s 30 for 30 brought on such a wave of nostalgia that my husband and I put in our Chicago Bulls DVD to relive the 1996 NBA Championship Game 6.
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Ray talked about an exciting viewing opportunity that is available to WOW! subscribers through the NBC Olympics website back in his January 29th post . The Olympics have so many events yet there are never enough hours in a day to watch it all. My favorite Winter Olympic sports are Figure Skating, Snowboarding and Speed Skating. I really try my best to be able to watch them but sometimes that isn’t the case such as this past weekend.
This past weekend I was very busy and it was one of those rare times that I forgot to set my DVR. I remembered that Ray had posted about how to view past events through the NBC Olympics website and decided to give it a shot. I went to the Video tab on the homepage and clicked on the “Live and Full Replays” tab. When I clicked on the tab, this is what I saw:
All I had to do was select my provider from the drop down box, which is WOW! You have to scroll to the end of the list to find us. After I did that, a pop up window asking me for my WOW! login information. Once I did that and it was confirmed, I had access to all the exclusive content.
Now that I am registered, I can go back and watch previous events such as the Women’s USA Hockey team who defeated China, 12-1 this morning. I saw some great highlights before heading out the door and definitely want to watch the entire game later on tonight.
In addition to being able to view prior events, I can also set alerts to remind me of live events that will be available through their website. The sports that are available on live stream are Hockey and Curling. I also like that I can bookmark that specific page so I don’t see the results ahead of time.
I think this is a great opportunity that our subscribers (Full Basic and Digital Cable customers) can take advantage of and am extremely happy that we can provide this type of experience.
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For those of you that have uttered those words before, you know the frustration of sports blackouts. You’ve seen the dreaded words “This program has been blacked out in your area.” You have a house full of people and a bunch of snacks and no game to watch. So, you may want to know why blackouts happen. No, it has nothing to do with the local power company nor is it the fault of your local cable provider.
The simple explanation is that a blackout is when certain programming, primarily sports, cannot be shown in a particular market. If a local TV broadcaster cannot carry the local game, then no other broadcaster can show the game in the blackout area. The decision to black out an event is based on agreements between the various sports leagues and broadcasters, not your cable provider.
For example, the NFL’s rules are that any broadcaster that has a signal within 75 miles of an NFL stadium can broadcast the game only if the game is a road game or if the game was a sell out within 72 or more prior to the start of the game. Additionally, the broadcaster is not allowed to broadcast a game, even if it’s sold out, if one of the teams did not sell out their tickets. Broadcasters with NFL Contracts are required to show their markets’ road games. These rules ensure that teams with winning records will have the majority of their games broadcast while fans of teams with losing records may only have their road games to watch.
The blackout rules apply to all broadcasters, even in those instances where you are subscribing to a particular sports package with your cable provider. These games are subject to the same blackout rules.
As you can see, the rules can be complicated and frustrating. Being a fan of the Houston Texans, I’m lucky if I see two games a year; most of the time I follow the game on the internet, from one of the available sports sites. This is certainly an option, but having a large group of people hovering around your computer with snacks and drinks may not be a viable option for you. But, on the other hand, maybe it is.
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The WOW! Customer Home Page is your one-stop page for all your online needs. Besides easy access to your email and WOW! account management, you can also check the weather, your WOW! TV listings or even watch online video all from the WOW! Customer Home Page.
You can easily customize your page by selecting the add content button in the top right corner of the page. There are numerous categories to choose from like Business, Entertainment, News, and Sports. You can also choose what column to add the content too and the content can be dragged up or down within column so you can put your favorite information where you want it.
Checking email couldn’t be easier either. While logged in to your customer homepage you can see the 3 newest messages that are in your inbox and you can use the quick compose tab to send an email without opening the full email window. Do you need a break from email? Why not try the Games channel and try your hand at some mini golf or maybe a game of Bejeweled 2.
Still not convinced? Take a tour now to see for yourself here. So with all these nice features, why not try the WOW! Customer Hompage today?
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