It's always great when graphics completely fail on live television, but this one cracked me up more than that sort of thing normally does. Jay Harris was double boxing with John Clayton, and talking about the Bears, when Clayton just....POOF!....vanished into thin air.

WHOA! He even has his own theme music when he disappears. That's just awesome.

(Thanks to reader JT for the clip)

I know TBS doesn't air the World Series but you'd at least think they could spell the Fall Classic right....


(Thanks to Sportz Assassin for the pic)

ESPN's studios and on-site setups are obviously always in use year-round, so the "WWL" has decided to create a testing lab at their headquarters at Disney's Wide World of Sports. The "ESPN Innovation Lab" won't be a tourist attraction, but rather a full-time research facility. Via the Orlando Sentinel....

Dubbed the "ESPN Innovation Lab," the facility will allow the cable-sports giant to test new applications such as virtual graphics during events staged at Disney's sports venues. Think concepts such as the "EA Virtual Playbook" that ESPN has used as part of its pro football and basketball coverage or the strike-zone graphics used during baseball games.

The lab, which will be housed in a renovated building at Wide World of Sports, won't be a typical tourist attraction. ESPN intends it to be a working research facility, though it'll likely include big bay windows that allow people to look in and see the company's emerging-technology staff at work.

ESPN has already moved five employees to Orlando from its Bristol, Conn., headquarters to work at the lab, and more could follow. The Innovation Lab is expected to formally open this fall.

Seems like a good idea, given all of the new technology that keeps popping up on the network. Heck, maybe they could use the place for focus groups as well. You know, to test out the reaction to nonsense like "Who's Now" or "Mount Rushmore".

ESPN to open new research facility at Disney's Wide World of Sports (Orlando Sentinel)

Holograms have been around for years, but really hit the mainstream when CNN utilized them during election coverage. ESPN plans to expand on this technology by adding in "player cards" during studio coverage which will feature not only a 3D image of each NBAer, but also stats and bio information. Here's your first look with Matt Winer and Kobe Bryant....


Just to answer a few more of the questions I know you're asking....yes the player will be in motion, and you can expect to only see them during a stand up presentation. Looks pretty neat, but it takes up a ton of the screen. Hopefully it doesn't come across as too distracting to the audience.

I love when ESPN post stories early, and automatically has teams winning or accidentally puts one into the next round, but this even better than that. Tell me if you can find the typo in this latest poll....


Ah yes. My favorite part of the poll though, is that the ESPN readers only have it at 65%! Too funny.

(Thanks to DI for the tip)

It's no secret that Denver made out like gangbusters when picking up Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson, and that AI hasn't done anything for Detroit, but this is just rubbing it in....



Man, that is just wrong....but very very funny.

The Hate For Allen Iverson Is Strong (BSO)

ESPN's Baseball Graphics Department had a bit of a slip up today, and while it wasn't that bad, it was still pretty funny. The start of the Mets-Reds game was delayed about ten minutes, and when ESPN finally got around to introducing the lineups, they accidentally showed a graphic of the Ballpark in Arlington and a Rangers logo behind a shot of David Wright....

Again, not that bad of a slip up, especially when you consider that the Rangers are playing on ESPN2, but still a bit humorous.

Another one that needs zero setup, and is just about the height of irony. ESPN continues to amaze me everyday....


I'm Sure This Won't Annoy Curt Schilling One Bit (Deadspin)

I think this one can just go up without any sort of background or comment. If it takes you more than three seconds, I'm going to be very disappointed in you....



(Many thanks to DR for the screenshot!)

There have a rash of interesting technical problems of late, with the most famous being the Super Bowl porn incident, and we've got another one to talk about today. While most of the problems involving commercials, Setanta Sports would like you to be watching an entirely different game. Oh and on an entirely different network than their own....

I didn't even know that was possible. If you're going to show another network though, you might not want it to be the feed of your biggest rival. Just a suggestion.

Setanta Sports Gets Involved in the Technical Glitches Game (SS Reporters)

It's still the worst idea in the history of television (yes, I'm exaggerating), but if it's going to provide screenshots like the one below for this site, I'm all for it! Via Deadspin....


Screening Fail On ESPN2 Interactive Tuesday (Deadspin)

There are graphics that go wrong all the time, but this has to be just about the worst mistake I've ever seen. A girl went missing from Massachusetts eight years ago, and while the good news is that the police may have a suspect, their mugshot might be a little off. Via Barstool Sports....

What in the hell? First, I feel extremely bad for any family member that may have been watching in that moment. Second, what in the hell?!?! Forget the fact that the mugshot is a hamster, why in the heck is it holding a camera slate from a movie? So random.

This Is One Scary Ass Mugshot (Barstool Sports)

Hilarious moment following the Marquette-Notre Dame game last night, and amazingly it involved Digger Phelps again. While it's not his fault, maybe it's just time that they stop talking about Notre Dame when he's around. Watch closely during this discussion of the game for a very interesting stat that decides to show up seemingly out of the blue....

Hilarious. Those trades went down in what, July of last year? I don't know how someone could have possibly pulled such an old graphic, but I'd love to see more of this. Just try and throw random people off at times. During a Stephen A. Smith interview, you could put up the old reel of Nancy Kerrigan crying after being hit with the lead pipe. How about airing the tale of the tape for Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas, when NFL Live is discussing Bill Belichick?

The possibilities are really endless, and hilarious!

(Thanks to HK for the clip)

Hilarious screengrab from the Orange Bowl this evening from reader RW. At the start of the game, FOX put up the starting lineup graphic for Cincinnati's offense and for their right tackle a picture of Tim Tebow was shown. The best part though....that Right Tackle's name....Khalil El-Amin.


Too funny. It's not really the fact that Tebow has a Muslim name, but rather the fact....HE'S NOT EVEN PLAYING IN THE GAME! I know they have to prep for the Championship Game, but that's inexcusable. ESPN's contract with the BCS can't start soon enough.

I love when graphics go bad, which is why this screenshot sent in from RG makes me laugh so much. As the Raiders and Jamarcus Russell, were picking apart the Texans, CBS put up a graphic for the QB which contained a very interesting photo. Take a look....


I poke fun, but Jamarcus Janikowski would be a badass name, and they're basically the same build so it's understandable how CBS would mix them up. Wait, no it's not.

So Carolina pulled off one of the first great upsets of the NFL Season yesterday at the buzzer with a heck of a pass from Delhomme to TE Dante Rosario. FOX decided to go to the game with about a minute left and Dick Stockton and Brian Baldinger absolutely murdered the call of final few moments of the game.

Well, that's besides the point because the FOX production truck did something so hilarious following the game that I couldn't stop laughing. First here's the call of the final play (I have no idea what Baldinger is laughing at) but make sure you stick around for the UPS Players of the Game at the end of the vid....

Yes, you're seeing and hearing that right. The third player down is actress Rosario Dawson of "Clerks 2", "He Got Game" and "Sin City" fame! That's right, the tight end for your Carolina Panthers was actually an actress in the movie version of "Rent"!!! It's bad enough that Dick Stockton can't get things right on his own, now the FOX graphics department is throwing him curveballs like this? Too funny.

(Many thanks to reader Sean for the tip.)

Old school Baseball heads look immediately to Moneyball as the reason for Baseball becoming run by nerds, but the entire game is going through a nerdy over-haul. Well according to FOX Sports the movement isn't slowing down now....

Earlier this month in San Francisco, Sportvision Inc., the sports-entertainment technology company that helped develop the system, hosted a Pitch f/x "summit." By the end, the stats wonks, engineers and nine team representatives in attendance could barely contain themselves.

Nearly everyone at the conference believed such advancements in measuring fundamentals could finally bring a "why" to the "what" of box scores and stat sheets. The same technology will spread to hitting and fielding, they say, and could be applied to other sports.

"Instead of saying, 'There's a hard smash to third base' we could say, 'That ball was hit 106 mph and the third baseman had a third of a second to react.' " says Peter Jensen, a statistician and summit attendee who has written for the Hardball Times, a baseball analysis site. "That adds some context that's been lacking so far."

Not everyone is infatuated with this technology — a fact that became clear during Pitch f/x's debut on 2006 postseason telecasts on FOX. After its cameras clocked pitches from Detroit's Joel Zumaya at the unheard-of speed of 103 mph, some fans assumed it was broken. Sportvision says the system was measuring the ball's speed at the release point rather than in mid-flight, as radar guns do.

I think more information is a good thing just so long as that a**hole "Slider" "Scooter" isn't passing it on to us. However, there is a point where enough has to be enough. If you want to use it as a scout that's fine, but as a viewer I could care less about reaction times.

Baseball's nerd machine (FOX Sports)

So reader BC was watching Men's Volleyball on the "Leader" (no jokes) and saw this hilarious item on ESPN's crawl....


Those pesky Phillies. They're sick of not winning World Series, so they're trying for the Cup instead. Too funny.

This is a weird clip, and it's not because it doesn't have sound. Watch the score up top during this video as it changes from 3-0 to 6-0, lists a homerun, and then goes back. Then watch what happens on the next pitch....

Oooooh woooooo oooooh! Creepy huh? There are a lot of explanations but I'm guessing there was a bit of a delay that FOX was working with, and an over eager worker in the truck through up the homer before he was supposed to.

(Thanks to SA for the vid)

(posted by OMDQ)

It's no "Mike Patrick pondering life's big questions" moment, but following tonight's Red Sox game, NESN committed a gaffe that tickled my funny bone.

With the Red Sox clinching a spot in the postseason, someone decided it would be a good idea to whip up a graphic listing the players on the team who have never appeared in a playoff game. The pitchers section read roughly as follows:

Clay Buchholz, Bryan Corey, Devern Hansack, Jon Lester, Javier Lopez, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jon Lester, Hideki Okajima, Kyle Snyder, Jon Lester.

It took a few seconds, but I eventually realized that Jon Lester was listed three separate times, a discovery that kept me from continuing on to the section for position players. Less flustered was studio host Tom Caron, who smoothed over the moment with a "Jon Lester has never played in the postseason A LOT" type comment. Well played, TC. You made my wife smile, and she holds a very unhealthy level of hatred for you (long, boring story; maybe I'll explain someday).