Discovering the Joys of ESPN 3 -- Go Vfb Stuttgart

While trying to check something on my cable setup the other day, I came across a note on my cable system's web site about ESPN 3, which is an online-only "channel" for subscribers to the cable system.

I went to the ESPN 3 web site, and found that it includes live and archived video of recent games of all kinds of sports. What pleased me most was seeing that it included German Bundesliga games. I got into watching the Bundesliga (that's the name of the German federal league in football, or as American's call it, soccer) almost 10 years ago when I first moved to the Bay Area and found that Fox had a channel that showed European football, including Bundesliga. Rupert Murdoch is, of course, partial to die Englisch sprechende folks in the UK, so the Fox channel mostly overdoses on all the ManU and Liverpool games you can choke on.

But when I first moved out here, the channel showed Bundesliga games, and I began watching. Wednesday and Sunday mornings, I developed a love for soccer for the first time in my life, and -- on a whim, because there's no real reason I should choose any German city to root for over another -- I made Vfb Stuttgart my "home" team, based on the slightly ridiculous reason that one branch of my ancestors came from the Württemberg area, which is now the Baden-Württemberg state of Germany. (My maternal grandmother came from the Berlin area, but Hertha Berlin, um, isn't playing so well ...)

So what?

Well, this isn't the most important blog post I'll ever make. But I'm just writing it to thank the good folks at ESPN for doing this, something that really expands the content that people can receive. Ever since the Fox channel stopped showing Bundesliga games, I've been unable to satisfy my interest in Stuttgart. That dissatisfaction has ended.

Seriously. Check your cable system for ESPN 3.

3-D TV Coming to ESPN -- Grab Your Avatar

USA Today reports that ESPN is launching a 3-D channel in June 2010 that will air at least 85 sports events in its first year. The channel, creatively called ESPN 3-D, will air as its first program a World Cup soccer match between South Africa and Mexico.

Soccer might not be the best inaugural program, because so much of the game on TV is long shots showing large portions of the playing field -- that's simply how the game is viewed, with only short closeups. Compare that to baseball, which has tons of closeups but of course only bursts of action. Nonetheless, basketball, college football, and the Summer X Games are also slated to air on ESPN 3-D, so we'll get a chance to see how each fares in this format.

How confident is ESPN in the new channel? Mixed, if you ask me. USA Today says the company has only committed to the channel for one year -- hardly enough time for a channel to build an audience, especially when that audience needs high-end televisions and has to wear special glasses.

On the other hand, "ESPN has been testing ESPN 3D for more than two years, even showing a USC-Ohio State college football game in select theaters and to 6,000 fans at the Galen Center on USC's campus," according to ESPN's own report on the development.

I'm looking forward to the soccer match between the earthlings and the Na'vi.

Latest Magazine Intake: Fantastic Man, ESPN, Die Zeit, GQ Italia, New Scientst

Yesterday, between an expensive trip to a local magazine store and the arrival of two subscription publications, I got six new periodicals.

Fantastic Man (a first-time purchase), ESPN (a rare purchase), Die Zeit (technically a newspaper, but it includes two magazines and is a weekly), GQ Italia (a first-time purchase -- it is the giant anniversary issue of that foreign edition, and no, I don't read Italian), and New Scientist and Chicago (both subscriptions).

It will be interesting to see if any of the new purchases become repeat buys for me.

ESPN Says Lambeau Field's the Best

ESPN magazine says that my hometown stadium, Green Bay's Lambeau Field, is the best place to take in a game. The claim comes in a report on the results of a poll of professional sports fans.

Frankly, I don't know if that's true or not, but I'm glad to see my old hometown get the credit. Despite having spent something like 10 years of my youth in Green Bay, I've never been inside Lambeau Field. I did, however, attend the same church as Bart Starr, live in the same apartment complex as a Packer player, and once accidentally short-change a couple players who ordered food at the Burger King where I worked. So, you know, I'm an insider.

I'm not a fan of top-ten lists or polls in magazines. I think they're basically space-fillers and a replacement for a reported article. Ultimately, like this poll, they're also useless. So what if Lambeau Field is believed by many to be the best place to take in a game? The place I most enjoyed watching a professional game was Comiskey Park in Chicago, and that stadium has all the charm of a suburban strip mall.