Attention Bay Area Sports Fans

Shut up. Get a grip. Seriously. That's a killer loss, and I understand that. Any one of us who has ever been a fan of anyone or anything knows that feeling. It sucks. I get it. However, there is no excuse for ever issuing a death threat or wishing someone or someone's family physical harm over the outcome of a sporting event. Seriously, someone (@javpasquel) tweeted "I hope you, youre wife, kids and family die, you deserve it."

No, sir. You deserve to be taken to task and to have every media outlet from here to Siberia post your Twitter handle, so reasonable human beings can tee off on you and make it crystal clear to you what a piece of shit you actually are. (And what do you know? Looks like it happened, since you no longer have an active Twitter account.) Do us all a favor, and don't come back to social media until you grow up. Also, mix in some research because Kyle Williams is single and has no kids. He might even know the difference between "your" and "you're." Though, to be fair, you used neither. You made one up. Combine that with the impressive comma splice and the aforementioned factual inaccuracy, and you have done an unprecedented job of branding yourself an ignorant fuck. Nicely done!

Kyle Williams is the son of White Sox GM Kenny Williams. Kyle's older brother Kenny Jr. played for the Duluth Huskies, and from what I understand, the fact that he couldn't catch up to Northwoods League fastballs didn't deter him from being a total douche. Good to see he's lighting it up in double-A for daddy's organization. I would be lying if I said I wasn't rooting for the Giants and shouting "Kenny Williams' brother" whenever Kyle showed up on screen. Put those two things together, and it was kind of funny at the how his mistakes had such a central role in the outcome of the game. Call it a guilty pleasure.

But clearly my sense of perspective is all wrong! How dare he rob those poor, suffering SF sports fans of a trip to the Super Bowl that they so richly deserve for doing...oh wait...absolutely nothing! I never played at the professional level, and I don't claim to have a particularly good idea of what professional athletes do in the way of training and work, but I was close enough to big time NCAA athletics to realize that athletes aren't circus animals. We're very well aware of the stakes during games, and have always had (and WILL always have) more invested in the outcome. Period. So, "dear" Bay Area sports fans, save the histrionics because, to quote the immortal Bull Durham, "You don't know shit, meat."

Disclaimer: I have facetiously mused in private conversations to a couple of my friends and family members who are 49ers fans that I hoped Jim Harbaugh got hit by a Muni train. It was a joke. Everyone knows a Muni train would simply break down and never hurt anyone anyway. He didn't know what I said. He wouldn't care anyway. And anyone who knows me, knows that I don't wish death on anyone--even someone as douchey as Jim Harbaugh.


Furthermore, as much as I can't stand him, Harbaugh does deserve a ton of credit for his ability to coach and get his team to buy into the true team concept and culture--no small feat with a bunch of guys getting paid millions of dollars. The way Williams' teammates jumped to his defense and picked him up in the face of it all says way more than all the tears currently filling up the bay. But I guess it's easy to keep perspective when you're not the victim.

Confessions of a Social Media Junkie

Those of you who read my blog regularly are well aware that I am a social media whore user. Those of you new people who may be followers of @jennicake on Twitter and have stumbled into the blog of @dlegas05, welcome. She makes me sound pretty interesting...hope I can deliver for you. (Also, if you are a blog regular, follow her on Twitter. Do it.)

Since there may be this major influx smattering of new readers coming it, I figured this was a good time to re-introduce myself and publish the bio I wrote for a PRSA-YP profile that never made it to print. It ties directly to the content in this blog and the link I have to USC (and, thus, the folks who brought you here).

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Dale is a Sr. Account Executive at the David James Agency, a boutique agency focused on cutting-edge high tech. As a former baseball player at USC, Dale brings to his work a tangible competitive streak that greatly benefits his client base of primarily startup and emerging companies.

In his SAE role, Dale has handled media and analyst relations for a number of B2B accounts ranging from semiconductor and enterprise software companies to network systems integrators—all the while being amazed at the number of high tech companies located right here in the greater Los Angeles area.

Even growing up locally in Burbank, Dale shared prevailing perception that high tech was completely dominated by Silicon Valley. However, with only one northern California-based client, it's clear that tech is alive and well all up and down the west coast, and he's confident that the DJA is in a great spot to thrive right along with it.

On weekends in the spring, you can find Dale on high school baseball diamonds sharing his passion and imparting his competitive fire on the freshman team at his alma mater, Crespi Carmelite. He splits the rest of his free time among spending it with friends, trying to learn new songs on one of his four guitars and complaining about the lack of a playoff in college football.

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For the record, it's weird writing in the third person.

But the major takeaway is that I am a former USC baseball player who is now a tech geek PR guy dealing with all kinds of complicated stuff I never knew existed before. I broke this down in a post when I was added to the PRSA-YP blogroll, but as you peruse, you will see client-inspired tech acronym explanations, general musings about sports-related topics, rants about non-sports related stuff, articles, songs and some actual real-life issues.

I hope you enjoy your stay, and please feel free to leave comments. I love comments. I love them so much I removed the obnoxious "word" verification thing. Even when you're telling me that I'm an idiot.

Blogroll Addition of the Day

Discovered this fine gentleman this evening when he retweeted my quip about the basketball team giving up fewer points than the football team:

@uscpsycho I laugh. I cry. RT @dlegas05: and in a bizarre turn of events, USC's basketball team may give up fewer points than the football team :(

That's right, Trojan fans. It's the dude who's been front and center at every USC football game since USC opened Pandora's box hired Paul Hackett as its coach (and probably before). I watched games with pops long before I ever signed and went there, and this guy was there with his signature USC SYCO California license plate.

Well, he has a blog. He's archived his travels and experiences watching the Trojans everywhere all over the country. It's a unique perspective and a pretty entertaining read. Check him out. Leave him some comments. Follow him on Twitter!

Experimenting with reBlog

A couple days ago, I read a fascinating article in Wired Magazine on Craig Newmark and why his Web site has turned into such a train wreck. Today I found a blog posting from a VC in New York analyzing the article. His insights are highly thought-provoking as well.

I found this fascinating quote today:

The much more interesting conversation is about the appropriate economic model for a social network that depends on the contributions of its participants and increases in value as more people use it. One possibility is that the economic models of these networks will look more like Craigslist than Yahoo. Recent estimates peg Craigslist's revenue at more than $100,000,000. Not much compared to Yahoo's billions, but Craigslist still employs only 28 people. Even allowing for substantial bandwidth, and server costs, it is still hard to imagine how their costs are more than $5,000,000. Since Craigslist collapsed a multibillion dollar classified advertising business into a fabulously profitable $100,000,000 business, perhaps we should be talking about the potential deflationary impact of more "zero billion dollar" businesses. As the radical efficiencies of the web seep into more sectors of the economy, and participants in social networks exchange attention instead of dollars, will governments at all levels need to make do with less tax revenue? That's a scary thought in an era of high deficits unless traditional governments can learn from the efficent governance systems of social networks and provide more for less.avc.com, A VC, Aug 2009

You should read the whole article.

The title of this post refers to a function attached to his blog called reBlog, which is essentially the bloggers' equivalent of retweeting on Twitter. I'll play around with it when I have more time, but it looks fascinating. So, then, Fred Wilson, if you should happen to backtrack to this post, thanks for your insights. I'm definitely adding your blog to my blogroll and RSS readers.

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