One Year of Sports Techie and Twitter

One Year of Sports Techie and Twitter

Year One
One year and over 30,000 tweets ago, I started tweeting at @sportstechieNET and let me tell you, it has made a huge difference in my life. I have learned so much about the world, our divine spirits and the guiding light in everything. Love not hate is the way people. Ask your faithful animal, he or she will tell you the same. This Sports Techie blog is to pay my respects to my followers, friends and anyone else who reads my tweets. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul.

It would be nice to talk about each one my 2,000 plus friends and followers but that’s impossible. I will give props though to everyone for all the retweets, mentions, conversations and so on. No way in heaven I can do that all in one page here. I will just have to do my best like any good Sports Techie would do.

First Tweet
One year ago, I began my tweets with the following, “Sports Technology!!” I felt that was appropriate because a Sports Techie is someone who simply likes Sports and Technology.

Sports Techie Loves
By now you know I also love animals, gaming, robots, the green movement, and space, as well as every single sport and tech in the past, present and future. Music, movies, and tweeting celebrities or superstars is also fun to do. Bottom line is this: love your neighbor, and do unto others as you would have then do unto you.

I’m in the zone doing my best Jerry Maguire ‘who will join me’ impression which reminds me of when I was a basketball agent in Costa Mesa and placed two players with the LA Lakers training came before that movie came out. I have learned after all these years that it is really not about, “show me the money!’ Thank you to Twitter for being a free service, please stick to your word.

Favorite Tweets
As of this moment I have over 700 favorite tweets you can read here:
Sports Techie Faves. Most all of them are from you. I cherish these interactions. In fact, this has transcended now from Twitter over to Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace, where I can now say that some of you really are my newest friends.

Seattle
It’s always nice to be recognized on Twitter where you live and for me that is Seattle, WA. I was born in Spartan Village, East Lansing, MI. I lived in the LA area where I went to Whittier College. I worked in Atlanta and worked for Dartfish the year of Dale Earnhardt’s passing and 9/11. I am fond of New York. But Seattle is my home town and I love it here.

I am honored that the Seattle Mariners and ESPN 710 Seattle follow me. UW Athletics have given me facetime, as have Gonzaga Athletics, VoiceoftheBox and the Seattle Weekly. Hoping that the Seahawks, Sounders FC, Storm, Stealth, and my brother’s alma mater, WSU, one day do the same thing. Can I please get a Microsoft shoutout?

When the Seattle Times wrote me back a tweet, it was hard to describe the feeling it caused. As a boy, my family delivered the paper for years, often times on bikes. Blessings to my Mom and Dad for getting up and driving us around in the rain when it was called for in order for our customers to get their morning newspaper. That tradition is slowly dying thanks to technology but change is inevitable and our trees do benefit. Since then, several of their reporters have been cordial with me via the tweet.

Tweets, Retweets and Mentions
Sports Authority tossed me a bone. Here I was a newbie on Twitter with an initial Klout score of 5, and a store that I can spend hours browsing through their sports products tweets to me that it is nice to hear about stories of people doing well. It made me feel like they get it.

Unfortunately, many of my favorite tweets early on in this past year simply vanished one day. Not sure why that happened Twitter, but it did. Sort of like being suspended a month ago like I was for some silly reason, they say it was spam related on their end. Gone is the RT by local hero and Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck of a picture I took of a young boy at a summer lacrosse game wearing his number eight jersey with pride while holding his lax stick.

I relate these two experiences to how the people of Egypt must have felt when one day they awoke and could no longer tweet or even gain access to the Internet. The kill button hurts President Obama; if you are building one I hope it is for the right reasons.

As I drill down through my fave tweets, I see on April 23rd, the NY Jets gave me a shoutout. Having worked for the NY Giants historical wiki the previous two NFL seasons as the Moderator, I was pumped about that. Then on April 28th, the New York Giants responded to me too. That made my day and week for sure. Since then, Giants players Michael Strahan, AP and Steve Smith have tweeted to me. Recently, the NY Giants started a new official user account that you must follow.

Big shoutout to Alyssa Milano for being an initial supporter on May 6th when she retweeted a CNN story of courage. No doubt her tweets rise up. She is expecting btw! I like being followed by TouchbyAM, their tweets rock. Please tell Twitter founder Jack to get back to me just once, thanks.

On May 18th the NJ Nets sent me another tweet. Their new Russian owner is someone I call an Ultra Sports Techie. Sort of like Paul Allen is, the Microsoft co-founder and owner of the Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers. Since Seattle does not have the SuperSonics any longer, I root for the Blazers as my local NBA team.

Blew me away when the troubled founder of the IPL in India, from half-way around the world, responded to my tweet about using technology in their cricket league. At that time, he would have had to be considered on par with the NFL, MLB or NBA commish.

Baseball
Thanks for the follow MLB. MLBTV recently told me that Spring Training games are available via the Internet.

Big shoutout to the Moyer Foundation, Ripken Baseball and Rod Carew Baseball for consistently chatting with me over the past year. A personal favorite and a place I called home from time to time, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, is a regular correspondence for Sports Techie.

Recently, I wrote a blog about the SF Giants Social Media, thanks go to their Head of Social Media Bryan Srabian. That said, I am a lifetime LA Dodgers fan and enjoy the fact that they follow me.

I recorded a video earlier this year at Safeco Field with the Toronto Blue Jays hitting coach talking about the skipper stick that was a lot of fun to make.

World Cup 2010 and Soccer
The World Cup 2010 in South Africa was the month when I got very little sleep due to creating and reading thousands of tweets. ESPN put on one of the most incredible televised events of all-time in my opinion. I tweeted to Jeremy Schaap and asked him why he does not tweet more often? He responded, “I’ve been told that less is more, especially less of me.” Good one!

Remember that crazy North Korean soccer team twitter stream? They interacted with me and brought a smile to my face with their brashness. Can’t wait for Brazil 2014 to follow them once again.

Who will forget WC 2010 because of the lack of sports technology or instant replay? Not me! From day one, I positioned Sports Techie as anti-FIFA for this one arcaic decision. Most of Big Media stayed away from this controversy until it reared it’s ugly head nearly every day of the World Cup, finally culminating in the English loss to Germany when it was clear as a bell that a goal was scored yet it was disallowed. This certainly effected the outcome of the game that was four long years of hard training and sacrifice in the making. The thing is, it did not have to be that way. Not sure why Sepp Blatter still has the President’s job to this day FIFA, or why they have not implemented this needed change for the good.

Things got crazy when all of a sudden Woody Harrelson got back to me on June 13th. Yes, the Woody from Cheers, Kingpin and many other fantastic roles. Let’s just say I high-fived myself which may be the the modern form of: what sound does a tree make that falls in the forest when no one is there to hear it? I know Woody feels what I am saying.

The US Soccer Foundation thanked me in a few tweets which I appreciate.

Football
I support the UFL and they support me back. Good luck this season UFL, it looks like the NFL has a strike looming so you might very well be the only Pro football game going on in 2011. The League on FX made my day getting back to me. The Fiesta Bowl responded to me the night of the BCS Championship game. CBSSportsGang retweeted me about my respect for Giants QB Phil Simms who should be in the NFL Hall of Fame, c’mon man!

I do love the NFL. In fact, the Pittsburgh Steelers the week of the AFC Championship game vs. the Jets, followed me for one-day, retweeted me and also gave me a mention. Is thanks really enough of a word sometimes? I say not even. I will never, ever forget those gestures and am humble to be the recipient of their respect, which is mutual.

“The NFL loves me,” said Greg from NFL PR with commissioner Goodell copied onto their tweet response.

This is the year that concussions finally became a known problem we need to solve for all sports participants. Thanks to Schutt Sports and Easton Hockey for allowing me to interview you about your helmets and blog about it. This is such a terrible problem. I have had my share as a 20-year lacrosse player and can only pray that more players do not go the way of former NFL player Dave Duerson who recently committed suicide, RIP.

Some of my most fave tweets have come from Super Bowl quarterback Kurt Warner. He is a good man and not too shabby of a ‘Dancing with the Stars’ dancer either! I know this because I wrote a blog for MSN about that show and now I have trained dance eyes thanks to video review.

I wrote a blog after talking with my friend Mickey Loomis, the GM of the defending Super Bowl champions the N.O. Saints, about how they use sports technology.

Another fun blog was written about the Seahawks state-of-the-art training facility known at the VMAC. Thanks to long-time friend and Seahawks VP Mike Flood for that once in a lifetime opportunity.

Scott Hanson is a good dude from the NFL Red Zone for getting back to me.

Basketball
The Globbies or Harlem Globetrotters, gave me a shoutout. For me, that was priceless. First saw them play basketball in the early 1970’s. Another outstanding tweet came from UW star and current Boston Celtic, Nate Robinson. The Lakers Reporter is a nice person who responds to me. Have to include the Dick Vitale tweet here, although, we chatted about baseball, it was still a lifetime thrill.

The @Sunswebmaster has the force. The New York Knicks thanked me. The Dallas Mavericks gave me a mention. Their owner Marc Cuban has not gotten back to me but is next. Luis Scola with the Houston Rockets let me know he was watching the World Cup in his homeland of Argentina. No tweets back yet from the NBA.

Jalen Rose appreciated my help. I won a contest and am in an ESPN private fantasy basketball league with Charlie Villanueva of the Detroit Pistons. How fun is that? Super fun. FIBA World did an excellent job of tweeting during the Men’s World Basketball Championships held in Turkey and found a way to get back to me, much appreciated. Very happy that St. John’s University men’s basketball is a follower.

More Sports
Sports wise, my Mom was and is an elite athlete and I take tremendous satisfaction when accomplished women like Diana Nyad, Natalie Coughlin, Brandy Chastain, and Michelle Smith, all tweeted back to me. The WNBA is terrific for supporting me as is Women’s Pro Soccer. Thanks to Digital Royalty for the follow.

My Dad played basketball at MSU for a year and is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Twitter friend Roman Oben is also a real gentleman as is Ray Roberts, Aaron Curry, Jamie Trecker and Herculez Gomes. Darren Rovell and Ric Bucher both secretly DM’ed (direct message) me which caught me off-guard when I first began on Twitter that you can do that.

No tweets back yet from the NHL. Hockey Canada did tweet to me this month which was exciting knowing about all their rich history and tradition.

PGA golfers Stewart Cink and Bubba Watson have tweeted me back more than once. Paul Azinger sent me a DM. LPGA member Beatriz Recari gave me a few tweet shoutouts. Calloway Golf has been a year-long friend thanks to twitter.

During the Australian Open of tennis their user account thanked me. IBM Scout did too. I will try for the second year to talk directly with the French and US Open and also Wimbledon. Wilson Tennis wrote me back a nice tweet response. Brad Gilbert and I got a RT mention back by funny man Murphy Jensen.

Olympic ice staking gold medal champion and fellow Seattleite Apolo Ohno said, “like donkey kong’ back to me after I hashtagged him with #ItsOn.

The Rugby World Cup has a delightful tweet stream and I hope they can help New Zealand recover quickly after the recent earthquake. I am working on communicating with London 2112 and Sochi 2014 Olympic games.

An awesome experience this past year was being part of the Cyclocross Nationals held in Bend, Oregon, which is my second home now because my parents and brother have lived there for nearly a decade. USA Cycling was gracious and provided me with media credentials which is something I will never forget. Thank you USA Cycling.

I witnessed the University of Oregon lacrosse team win the PNLL Championship at Summit high school in Bend where former NFL and WSU QB Drew Bledsoe donated the needed funds in order to get turf installed on the field.

Bend is a mini paradise for Sports Techies. I have mt biked, kayaked, white water rafted, Nordic skied, snowboarded, golfed, hiked and done many other sports activities you can all try yourselves should you one day visit.

Events and Games
Other events and games I tweeted about this past year are ingrained in my head forever as lifetime highlights. I was at the Seahawks epic win over the Saints when an earthquake happened under Qwest Field after Marshawn Lynch did his best to be our 12thman hero for a day in the NFL playoff game upset win. Thanks for the ticket Cheve. The Spiritof12 was alive and kicking.

I have a You Tube channel that has videos posted of Sports Techie moments over this past year. Here is a fun link to an original Sports Techie video I created with my iPhone that is titled, “Joe in Puget Sound sans wetsuit.” Sports Techie

The picture attached to this blog is of Kenny, the Seattle Bicycle Doctor who does mobile bike repairs. He is my long-time and lifetime friend. He has seen sports technology improvements in cycling since his days of youth in Bloomington, Indiana when the movie “Breaking Away” helped to define the sport. I told him I would try and get Lance Armstrong to retweet or get back to me, no luck yet Bike Doc; I will simply have to try harder this year. I believe the fact that both LIVESTRONG and LIVESTRONGFIT on twitter both follow Sports Techie works in our favor.

On March 12 and 13th, the Seattle Bicycle Expo returns. Last years event was outstanding. I am excited to see the Bike Hugger once again. This two-day biking extravaganza features lots of new and cool cycling tech.

If you get a chance, go to a First Robotics Competition like I did at the Seattle Center. The theme for this FRC was soccer. These are most impressive kids, all having fun and using their brains to create robot innovations. It was well worth my time supporting this program.

I have spent countless hours documenting my exercise and getting in touch with nature at Discovery Park and Golden Gardens here in Seattle. As more folks move into the cities, finding people ways to focus on their fitness improvement will be helped via Sports Technological advancements.

Technology
Tech wise, does it get any better than Sony responding to you more than once? That was a techie thrill. A real treat was going to do some gorilla marketing at the Sony PlayStation free party for their Move unveiling. This was a fantastic event and I felt like I was witnessing sports tech gaming history. Remember Sports Techie, this type of technology will only get better.

Intel Don is a real warrior and champion of sports tech fitness. He is a steady person and I recommend you all follow him because Intel is making a difference combating health issues with the help of sports technology.

ComcastWA makes a difference with their tweets and I thank you for interacting with me. RealTweeter here in Seattle talks with me. Bing is located in my hometown of Redmond, WA and they follow me. The Imagine Cup is a terrific event and I look forward to more interaction with them this next year.

MySpace and MySpace video have both been nice to get to know and I recommend following them. To be included in a #FF or Follow Friday with the guy who took over MySpace during the NBA All-Star game dunk contest week, Blake Johnson, was both surreal and fun.

Dr. Bob Parson is the the founder of Go Daddy and I use them to host this web site. He responded back to me about riding his Ducati motorcycle in the desert. I enjoyed hearing about that fellow Bob. Go Daddy itself has tweeted to me many times, muchas gracias for that.

CNN iReport makes twitter more people friendly and I thank them for all their communications.

I wrote a recent blog about DTS, Inc. and their partnership with the NFL. They provided Surround Sound during the International Super Bowl broadcast.

Getty Images directed me last week as to where I could search for sports technology pictures on their web site.

It was no work at all to tweet about my cousin Doug Roble who works at Digital Domain and was interviewed by Good Morning America about their work on the movie Tron.

Most kids dream about space, the final frontier. When the Kennedy Space Center and NASA Edge interacted with me, it felt like I was helping make Captain Kirk’s statement come true. Alan Boyle is the science guy at MSNBC and is a smart and zany fellow who I enjoy hearing back from.

Corporate
Reebok, Under Armour, Fila Toning, and Champion USA are all respectful tweeters. LifeFitness, Technogym, Daktronics, Yinzcam, Dynavision, Skechers USA, and Springbak are some of the Sports Tech products who give me love. The Science of Sports answered my question. Sports Science said hello. Giants Bicycle is friendly to me. Lululemon rocks the yoga and holistic tweets back, thanks.

Media
When the NY Times eight-year Sports Editor, Mr. Tom Jolley, tweeted back to me, I felt like we were long-time friends. Trey Wingo, Marcellus Wiley and Coach Herman Edwards with ESPN have tweeted to me more than once. In fact, I met Marcellus at the taping of Tailgate Warriors during the Green Bay Packers preseason game; he’s a smooth operator and a class act. ESPN Deportes Jamie Motta recently asked me a question in Spanish. A few weeks ago, Bob Ley, Mr. American soccer, retweeted the insane Wayne Rooney bicycle kick goal that was quickly taken down by YouTube. It was nice of you to do that Bobby, thank you very much.

Friends
Yodaism on Twitter is special to me. Cirque du Soleil tweeted me back. Cool that Barry Shuler, the former head of AOL, let me know about his new Ardone. It is both crazy and sweet that I am part of the Team Coco train. Conan is so funny. It is indeed a privilege to be followed by Team Coco. Seattle comedian Jeff Dye is a riot to retweet. I like being friends with Playboy, they bring a lot of Sports Tech to the world, right!

I could never give thanks to everyone else for being a friend on this blog. Here is a start: Social Side Media, Dr. Ben Goss, Joe Favorito, Conner Wilson, TheNewsChick, Ryan Justis, Melinda Travis, Lou Imbriano, Bill Glenn, Joshua Boren, Sportsologist, Mike Rodriguez, Rick Allison, Lewis Howes, Jen Howson, Danielle Bartoletti, Monica Price, Charlene May, Kelly Welborn, Scott Walker, Erin Sharoni, Liz Mathew, BradfromTexas, Seb aka CL28MTL, Brian Hansford, Lenny Wilkens Foundation, Kimberley Contreras, Rob Katz, Jamie Favreau, OswegoChick, Kat Principato, GoSam, Brittany Adams, NJDoc, MasterCard, DCSportsGuy, Sports Media World, Social Sport, iSponsor, LA Aficion NW, Anthony Alsop, GMRSports, Tariq Ahman, SK88z, Mike Mahoney, Ben Wright, Maury Brown, Coffeeon3rd, Don Yeager, Sponsorpitch, Lauren Novo, Bear Heiser, LaxAllstars, Priya Narasimhan, AussieGoldy, DarkAngelRafael, Jason Pozarowski, sportsmarketing, Artcrank, Quibits Toys, Brian Gainor, Rob McQuade, Formula PR, Disney Sponsors, Activate and all the good peps of #sportsbiz.

Last special mention is to you eco-warriors. Especially to Tara at biofriendlyblog, Positively Zen, BlackdogWorld and Sue Ross.

I am sorry if I left you out. There are a lot of tweeples I have learned from, spoken with or just said hi to that are not mentioned. Additionally, I have no Editor so please bare with my grammatical and/or spelling mistakes that spell check misses.

Year Two
What is in store for Sports Techie year two? Only God truly knows. It would be awesome to win the blog contest put on by the Global Sports Forum and be tweeting from Barcelona, Spain next month. I would like to receive a tweet from Magic Johnson, the Rock and Kim Kardashian, just because.

This will be the year I put up my new online store as a VAR. I won’t sell it Sports Techie unless I think it’s worthy. That said; contact me if you want to sell your wares via my web store. Thanks in advance for allowing me to make it so for all.

I plan to use my startup to fight obesity and help cure Muscular Dystrophy. Perhaps creating a killer TV show will happen this year. Love to begin designing my own apps and apparel as an OEM. My vision is to also put together the world’s best trade show in Bend. There is this girl I really like for what seems like my whole life, hopefully, this is our year too, no pun intended. All the while, I will of course keep on tweeting!

I define the term bootstrapping; however, I hope and pray that this year I will be able to hire employees as a Hispanic small business owner in the United Sates of America, just like President Obama wants to happen. My parents love and support is priceless. Did I mention I am a Peace Corps baby?!

It has been a life changing year thanks to Twitter and to all of you. Thank you so much.

I will see ya when I see ya, Sports Techie.