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designated players
twitter while we wait
As most of you likely know the beloved du Nord, the time-consuming spawn of Minnesota’s Bruce McGuire, is on hiatus… maybe forever. Which begs the question of where to go to get your daily dose of soccer weblinks.
After finishing a piece here at TIAS and waiting for an embargo to pass so that I can publish it–something that won’t be such a big scoop but will trigger the journey that come summertime should provide for some exciting TIAS exclusives–I’m wondering about Bruce, the void left by du Nord’s absence, and technology…
I can’t be the only soccerphile pawing around the internet to have wondered whether or not I could pick up some of the slack by essentially providing what Bruce did. I gave it some thought, quickly dropped it and went back to reading, as I do everyday, just about every soccer article that appeared since I logged onto the internet a few hours before. And then I Twittered a few of my favorites.
And then it was just all too obvious. While no one can replace the quirky wit of Bruce’s editorializing and few can match his intimidating knowledge base of soccer through the decades, everybody can pretend to be du Nord thanks to Twitter.
(and hopefully I can get Bruce to bring to TIAS some reflections about the last few years since he coined soccer as the Sport of the Internet, because it’s his personality, not nearly as much the links, that I will miss most.)
I still might resurrect the once weekly Barometer for what should no doubt be a busy 2009 for American soccer–previously killed largely because of the proliferation of du Nord and other news-based headline aggregators–I am going to start Twittering more and more. I am not a really a technology kind of guy–I was late to email, cellphones, and am not the biggest fan of social networks–but who am I kidding? There are some great and simple technologies out there that make this soccer journo job-for-some-hobby-for-most easier and quicker for everybody in the production and consumption machine.
And this Twitter one really seems to be the best one in a while, in that if fills a void. I rail constantly about the death of long form sports journalism–by the way read this–but Twitter could actually help it (or further remove the need for media to bridge the gap between news makers and news consumers–either way). So don’t waste the time reading 15, 400-word stories you can learn about from a few lines in Twitter in even fewer glances (and then choose to read what you want of the myriad of weblinks) and make more time for reading things that will teach you more than the basic information that is all around you if you know where to look, and take time for something that might even teach you about yourself. Like this (a new favorite I just got around to reading).
Join the few hundred people already following along with TIAS at Twitter (the most recent headlines can always be found on the side panel here) and hit me up with all the news that’s fit to Tweet.
(that last verb is the only thing I don’t like about Twitter. I will never utter it again.)
—-
banner photo of Bruce McGuire–even in the weather he found a way to wear red–by Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer.
RP
on Feb 20th, 2009 - 8:26pm
My productivity may have gone up with Bruce’s du Nord hiatus, but I definitely feel the void in my day. I initially began to read du Nord because of the the amazingly in depth amount of soccer links aggregated in one location, but it is the turns of phrases he used in his editorial comments between links and wonderfully quirky, creative headlines I miss the most.
Jason D
on Feb 20th, 2009 - 9:24pm
We can attempt to patch the hole anyway we like, but it will never quite be the same. What always boggled my mind is the amount of time it must have taken Bruce to get each post’s links together and properly organized; I know that when I want to include even a few links in a blog post on my site, it’s an annoying chore.
Timoteo
on Feb 21st, 2009 - 9:42am
Wow, you’re right that article on ‘No stats Basketball” was masterfully written, interesting and actually pertinent to soccer in many ways. Basketball, and soccer even more, is a complex game involving complex team dynamics that are hard to measure statistically.
Neal
on Feb 21st, 2009 - 9:57am
It is so true, that while one may be able to find links to some of the news of the futbol world, it was those witty comments and editorializing that made duNord such a wonderful read.
I do hope that there is a way to compile a list of links.
I am one of the luck ones, who gets to enjoy Brucio’s wit and sense of humor in person while watching games on the tele, or in person at our local teams stadium or on an enjoyable road trip.
Thanks for your tribute to my friend Brucio, and I will try to do as you’ve suggested and follow your tweets (yes, silly teminology, but so be it).
Peace and futbol from the frozen tundra.
SuperRookie
on Feb 21st, 2009 - 3:05pm
The coolest thing about Bruce is his beard.
The second coolest thing about Bruce is that he lives in the same city as me.
bq
on Feb 22nd, 2009 - 9:37am
Adam, I’ve started twittering on my site as well. A question that I’ve been struggling with: Does one Twitter a final score or a half-time score? Are you then acting as a spoiler?
If you follow Twitter and you want to DVR a game and watch later, do you not follow Twitter than? I noticed the BBC has been Twitter results. I’ve also had friends who when I’m at a soccer game want me to text them. So if I’m at the game should I create a tweet with the score?
I guess my feeling is that if you don’t want to be informed of a score, which is getting harder and harder these days as we are connected by so many electronic social mediums driven by electronic devices, then you need to disconnect from the world for that period of time.
What’s your feeling on this?
Adam
on Feb 22nd, 2009 - 9:57am
BQ - Maybe you can find a rare time I did, but I think I am correct when I say I have never twittered a score - for the exact reasons you mention. Scores are also easier to come by from other sources, but a headline and link to a good story is not. so that is what I shoot for. The plan is to blow that out to a little wider net in terms of what I twitter (maybe you’ll begin to see player info/trades/etc) and catch some of those things that while I personally may not care about them, other people might enjoy knowing.
So long to duNord, for now anyway … | Inside Minnesota Soccer
on Feb 22nd, 2009 - 7:51pm
[...] of TIAS also penned another article about Bruce and duNord on Friday, which was somewhat the motivating factor for me to post this article. However, Spangler is [...]
‘What are you doing?’ | Inside Minnesota Soccer
on Feb 23rd, 2009 - 12:20am
[...] on the web. As Adam Spangler pointed out in an article he did recently, Twitter is a great way to fill the void that is left from duNord being on [...]
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