the contemporary shopping lifestyle

With the struggles our economy is facing, more people than ever will go without food this holiday season.  Our Commerce with Conscience program donates 5% of Tastefully Driven’s profits to local charities in the Albany, NY area.  For 2008 we were proud to make our donation to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York a few months early so that they would be able to use the funds to help families in our community this holiday season. This past Wednesday night our team attended the 19th Annual Auction to benefit the Regional Food Bank at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany.  In addition to the company donation, our team won several auctions to directly benefit the Food Bank.  Thank you to all of our customers who were able to make this donation possible.  The Food Bank estimates that for every dollar donated $10 - $12 of food is given to the hungry.  

Below is a photo of our team at the event:

We look forward to working with the Food Bank and other local charities in 2009 and beyond to help improve our community.

What if I told you there was a sport that’s part football, part rugby, part soccer, and part mixed-martial arts?  A sport where players play an entire 50 minute game with no rest and no time outs.  Sound too crazy to be true?  It’s called Calcio Fiorentino, it’s played in Italy, it has a hardcore following, and it is absolutely brutal.  And if it wasn’t for last weeks’ jaw-dropping article in Sports Illustrated, no one outside of Italy probably would have ever known it existed:

Its origins can be traced to the first century B.C., when Roman legionnaires played it to prepare for combat. The game’s official rules date to 1580, and it was played by the Italian aristocracy, including three popes. Discontinued for centuries, the sport was revived in 1930 as an annual rite in Florence.

The rules are few. There is a normal soccer ball, a 100-by-50-meter sand pitch with goals running the width of each end zone and two teams of 27 men. Fifty minutes of play. No timeouts, no substitutions. A few tactics are expressly forbidden, such as sucker-punching and kicking in the head. Otherwise, head-butting, punching, elbowing, choking and throwing sand in opponents’ eyes are encouraged, if not applauded.

And of course, what you’ve all been waiting for - videos.  There aren’t a ton available, but they should give you a taste of what it’s like to play this brutal game:

Unreal.  All I can say is WOW.  Oh, and why isn’t this televised?  It’s like MMA on crack!

It wasn’t very long ago that sports fans only looked to third party websites like ESPN, CBS SportsLine, or Yahoo Sports for their sports fix. Official league sites were hard to navigate, infrequently updated, and overly biased. Over the past year each of the three US major sports has significantly upgraded their websites. Leveraging their exclusive access to information, audio, video, and more, MLB.com, NFL.com, and NBA.com now offer unique content that isn’t available anywhere else on the web – making them must-visit destinations for their respective fans. Who did the best job? Who is still lagging behind the competition and leaving their fans wanting more? Let’s find out:

The Criteria

We will evaluate each of the sites based upon ten criteria:

1. Scores and Gamecasts - the number one reason fans visit the official site. How easy is it to find scores? Are they updated live without requiring a browser refresh? How much information is provided during a gamecast?
2. Reporting - are transactions and other news reported quick and accurately? Do they offer RSS feeds?  Do they have feature articles? If so, is the analysis solid and relatively unbiased?
3. User Interaction - how can users get involved? Can they comment on stories and videos? Can they participate in fantasy sports?
4. Video - can users easily find highlights? How quickly are they available?
5. Archives - can you find historical stats, video, and articles?
6. Stats - can you browse and search player and team stats quickly and effectively?
7. Update Frequency - are stats, rosters, and news accurate?
8. Live Audio and Video - what options do fans have who cannot watch the game live? Each has a gamecast, but how to they supplement the gamecast with additional audio and video? Do they offer mobile services?
9. Design and Navigation - is it easy to find what you’re looking for? Do ads clutter the page and ruin the experience?
10. Shop - is it easy to find team specific memorabilia? Are prices reasonable compared to purchasing the same item in stores or elsewhere online? Do they have a broad selection of items available?

MLB.com

Thoughts & observations:

• Gamecasts are light years ahead of other sports. Watch pitches as they actually come in, change “views” from behind the batter or behind the pitcher, and watch highlights as they happen. They even offer video previews for games.
• The MLB Blog network has blogs by players, writers, front office executives, and fans. Yup, that’s right, you can start your own blog and have the content aggregated on their blog network. Regardless of the blog, it’s very simple to comment and get into a conversation with the author. Very cool.
• If you subscribe to MLB.tv ($50/year for the premium package), you can stream games live over your PC, watch any game after it’s over (including condensed games), watch up to six games at once, and have the system track players and automatically switch to them during their at bats (great for fantasy players). Wow.
• In depth, sortable stats are available going back to 1871, but they’re missing important modern stats such as OPS+.
• For $1.99 you can download full DRM-free classic games going back to the 1950s.
• Mobile audio, gamecasts, and text alerts are readily available.

NFL.com

Thoughts & observations:

• The NFL is the king of exclusive contracts, the most popular of which being that Direct TV is the only way to watch out of town games. They also exclusively offer their NFL mobile service through Sprint and radio coverage of out of town games through SIRIUS satellite radio. These relationships might make the NFL a ton of money, but they hurt the casual fan that doesn’t already utilize the services necessary to take advantage of the content.
• NFL GamePass allows you to watch games online…but isn’t available in the US due to the aforementioned Direct TV deal. Lame. Even lamer is the fact that the NFL Sunday Ticket is available on NINE providers in freaking Canada. Of course, the only fans that truly love the NFL – the US fans – get screwed.
• Other than by playing fantasy football, there doesn’t appear to be any way for users to easily interact on NFL.com. No forum, and no blogs, articles, or videos that allow user comments. Like everything else, the NFL seems overly obsessed with their ability to control every little bit of content on their site.
• Stats are available for every season in history, with video highlights of every game available back to 2003. Impressive.
• Gamecasts are solid. They’re updated almost immediately and offer audio alerts for key plays. Unfortunately they still lack some of the advanced features of MLB.com…at least as of the end of the 2007-2008 season.

NBA.com

Thoughts & observations:

• They do a fantastic job of integrating international basketball news in with NBA. With the China Olympics only weeks away, they understand that they basketball world is focused on the Olympics and not the upcoming NBA season.
• Much like MLB.com, forums and blogs are readily available and easy to comment on.
• The NBA might have more sponsorships than even the NFL, but they don’t let it get in the way of their offerings. Fans can sign up for NBA League Pass through almost every cable and satellite provider in the US. NBA League Pass allows fans to watch out of town games on TV, but for free they can also watch games streaming online. Audio is available to fans for free online.
• Video is readily available, but I found it a bit difficult to navigate to older game highlights. I had to look at the team schedules to find links to game results, which included links to the game highlights. Not super hard, but a bit more difficult than the other sites. Highlights are also only available for games going back two years. Many older highlights also play only in Windows Media Player, which is a bit outdated compared to the inline Flash video available on other sites.
• Stats are available going back to 1946-1947, but aren’t as in-depth or sortable like the other sports.

Final Scoring

On a scale of 1-10, 10 being perfect and 1 being horrible, here are how I scored each site in the categories listed:

MLB.com is the Winner!

After spending some time on all three sites, it becomes clear that MLB.com is a notch above the rest. Their really is no reasonable criticism of their offerings – you can get all of the information you want regardless of how much money you’re willing to pay or the medium that you are using. Put simply, Major League Baseball makes it as easy as possible for fans to find what they are looking for.

Of course, the real winner is the user. With great news, stats, and video available from each site, fans finally have a reason to visit the official league sites.

I’m happy to announce that starting today this Lifestyle Blog is receiving a much-needed overhaul.  In addition to our existing team that has been providing content since our launch earlier this year, we now have an array of unique writers bringing you consistently useful content several times each week.  You can take a look at the diverse group of writers in our new ever-expanding Author Directory.  Each brings unique insight and perspective into how to better improve your life in their area of expertise - be it fitness, style, career development, or any of the other plethora of topics we plan on covering.  We will continue to scour the web for more great writers until we have the most passionate and talented team on the web.

In short:  if you’re looking to elevate your lifestyle, you’ve come to the right place.

I encourage everyone to comment on our stories over in our forum, visit the authors sites, and use our Share This feature to spread the word on any articles that you enjoy.   Feel free to email me directly at adam [at] tastefullydriven [dot] com with any questions, comments, or suggestions for improvement.

Are you a blogger or site owner?  Do you want to increase your exposure and build more links to your site?  If so, writing for Tastefully Driven might be perfect for you. We’re looking to expand the Lifestyle Blog into a daily blog with contributions from the very best bloggers across the web.  Our target date to launch the revised version of this blog is July 15th.  Our goal will be to bring you one unique post a day from an array of knowledgeable authors.

Requirements:

• You currently maintain a blog or website in one of the following categories:
  • Health & fitness
  • Technology & Electronics
  • Video games
  • Life hacks
  • Poker or other table games (billiards, darts, etc)
  • Sports
  • Computers
  • Fashion
  • Career advice for professionals
  • Automotives
  • Food & dining
  • Entertainment
• You must submit at least one post per month, preferably more.
• Your posts for the Tastefully Driven blog must be completely original and not published anywhere else online.  We will provide you with ideas in case you’re drawing a blank.
• Your posts must meet our editorial guidelines (adequate length, proper grammar, relevant topics, etc)
• You must display a 125 x 125 Tastefully Driven Lifestyle Blog Author badge on your site.

Benefits:

• Exposure to a new audience.
• Networking opportunities with the other authors.  We plan on opening a closed forum to help facilitate these conversations once the new site is up and running.
• Permanent listing in our Author Directory.  You can choose the text and links that point back to your site.
• “About the Author” section at the end of each post where you can advertise your site or business.
• Wholesale account for discounts on all Tastefully Driven products.  We have various tiers, but discounts in the first tier are generally over 30% off of retail price.  We will increase you to higher tiers based on your contributions.

Contact adam [at] tastefullydriven [dot] com if you’re interested!