Friday, October 28, 2005

My Kind of Convergence - VoIP and the Red Sox

Great cover story in the current issue of VoIP Magazine. It's hard not to miss the cover - a close up shot of a Red Sox cap. Mary Shacklett does a nice job telling how the Red Sox as an organization recently deployed VoIP, shifting from TDM Centrex and mishmash of key systems to a hybrid IP PBX with Avaya. Now I know why there are so many Avaya ads at Fenway Park!

It really is a classic case study of updating an outdated system and linking together home office (Fenway Park) with the branch office (Fort Myers spring training facility). Not surprisingly, WiFi hotspots are coming to Fenway Park now, which is really great. The article only talks about this being for the press box, but I wonder if it's just a matter of time until they make the whole ballpark an open hotspot. That would be cool - the oldest ballpark in the majors having free WiFi.


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I should also note that Ronald Gruia has a nice article in this issue on IMS. Ron and I are colleagues from my days at Frost & Sullivan, where he has built up a strong practice and wide following for his coverage.

1 comment:

Jon Arnold said...

Posted by: Gary Garland

According to Hochi Sports out of Japan, the Boston Red Sox are said to have gotten the negotiating rights to Seibu Lions ace setup man Shinji Mori for between $400-500,000. Mori has a fastball that is between 91-94mph with a devastating splitter and an average slider.

Between 2000-2003, the righthander was perhaps the premier setup man in all of Japanese baseball, However, the last two seasons have seen his ERA inflate substantially even if his 2005 left/right splits and opponent batting average against were excellent. You can view his Japanese stats at: http://www.japanbaseballdaily.com/PitchingMonma-Motohigashi.html

At best, Mori is a kind of downmarket Kazuhiro Sasaki. At worst, he will go through periods where his command takes a vacation and he gets taken deep.

After the 2003 season, Mori asked to be posted to MLB, but the Lions front office refused that request and an acrimonious back and forth dialog ensued, leading some to speculate that he may have deliberately tanked it for a while in 2004, though it didn't keep the Lions from winning the Japan Series. Mori then asked to be posted again at the end of 2004 and was rebuffed again. Last season, Seibu's bullpen was awful as Seibu barley finished third, so that they would suddenly unload one of their prime pitching assets suprised the hell out of the press and the team's fans. One has to think that they just got tired of Mori, who was coming up to his free agency at the end of 2006, and decided to see if they could get some cash for him.

The Yankees were also whispered to be interested, but it is unclear if they made an offer. More details about the results of the bidding should be made clear in the next couple of days.