Oh hai! Do you like sports? Do you like technological advancements? Do you have a gmail account? Well, you're in luck. While trolling through my gmail goodness with a nod toward the calendar department, I noticed a new feature in red placed in the upper right hand corner of the screen. It read, "New: Sports Calendars." Well hell... I enjoy the occassional sporting event and I'm a big fan of planning things and jotting them down on a calendar... I'll see what this is all about. Lo' and behold, fans of most major sports and most major sporting teams for that matter can now incorporate entire regular season schedules into their gmail calendar.
Now, let me take a moment to assure you that this is not an infomercial and we at the700level aren't trying to get Google to purchase us. I just find it to be an informative and pratical feature. One that isn't exactly perfect mind you. For starters, the game slots are just one hour long which is 1/3 of the actual game's duration. Perhaps they didn't want to encroach on any other events you may have placed on those particular dates... less important ones like anniversaries, baptisms, colon cleanings, etc. Also, I don't know if many of you have used Google Calendar or its Events features including: what (detailed description), where (handy google maps), when (personalized email update reminders 10 min before, a day before, a week before), and guest lists (who's going and who's not?), but the events that come from these sports calendars appear to be uneditable. They show just the start time, the opponent and designate whether it is home or away. Friend and reader Jim also noticed a few buggies on the Phillies sports calendar in particular, where the fightins' play four games in one day.
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This is a good start though. Imagine a future where google fills in final scores and boxscores into the event once its complete. Or gives you a link to another website where you can purchase tickets for that game. Or even better, imagine you're a season ticket holder... and you have a few games you can't attend. Post that on your sports calendar, share it with your contacts (which IS an option) and they buy your extras. BRILLIANT! But till that glorious day, "We are the music makers... and we are the dreamers of dreams."