Baseball. It’s a time-honored tradition. A game that’s so ingrained in our culture that it was labeled “America’s pastime.” With spring comes another season of Major League Baseball, and any fan will tell you that there’s no greater feeling than watching your favorite team take the field.

I had the pleasure of watching every game from the best seat in the house, playing right field for the San Diego Padres for 20 years. Not everyone can be as lucky, and as much as they try, even the biggest fans struggle to catch every game.

We can’t help anyone make the team, but we’re definitely doing our part to make sure fans don’t miss out on any of the action this season. Yahoo! Sports just signed a deal with Major League Baseball to carry each and every game of the 2008 season – live and streaming – on Yahoo! Sports. As you know, we’re already the Internet’s leading sports destination, and this partnership will bring millions of the world’s most devoted fans to Yahoo!.

No more earpieces at the office. No more crowding into the sports bar during lunch. No more erasing your kid’s shows to make room on the DVR. I even had a friend who skipped his youngest brother’s wedding reception – including his speech as best man – so that he could catch the end of a game. Had we announced this partnership a couple of years ago, his sister-in-law may be talking to him today.

All you need to be a loyal fan now is a computer and Yahoo! Sports. Here I was, beginning to worry about how I was going to catch all of my son’s games (sorry, Tony, I’m a busy man!). Now we can all relax and know that America’s Pastime is conveniently waiting for us online, wherever we are at the time. Sorry, you’ll have to supply your own hotdog…

Tony Gwynn
Yahoo! Sports Baseball Expert

It’s been 45 years since The Rock was designated to hold bad guys the likes of Al Capone and “Machine Gun” Kelly. Gangsta cred or not, there’s no escaping this week’s updates:

• Mobile March Madness: Now you can keep tabs on all the latest college hoops action wherever and whenever from your mobile phone with three new tools. You can get up-to-the minute news, scores, schedules and images on the dedicated mobile NCAA page, the new Men’s College Hoops mobile widget (you’ll need Yahoo! Go 3.0), and specially-configured Yahoo! oneSearch results, with specialized men’s college basketball content from Yahoo! Sports and Rivals.com. No need to be tied to your computer screen to keep score. More here.
• Team spirit: We’ve got more Audibles to cheer your NCAA team on Yahoo! Messenger. Whether it’s to jeer at your friends’ alma mater or boo a bad play, we’ve got Audibles (like a referee calling an offensive foul) and new avatar gear (find jerseys from more than 25 schools) to show your team pride. Make sure you’re using Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0 beta to get your spirit on.
• Staying on topic: You may have heard about the “New with Me” profile page on MyBlogLog that pulls together all your activity across the Internet and shows people what you’re up to (like a feed of all your updates and your friends’ updates). We’ve just added a new Tags page that combs through your “New with Me” page into relevant pages called Topics. What does this mean? Not only can you see an aggregation of your friends’ Internet whereabouts in one place, now you can find what your MyBlogLog community is saying, doing, thinking about any topic you find interesting quick and easy. BTW: Find out what the Easter chatter is here.

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Today kicks off one of my favorite times of year: March Madness. When sports fans across the country become completely preoccupied with college basketball.

Which brings me to this point — fans today have it really good.

It seems like a lifetime ago that I played in the NCAA tournament for North Carolina. That was back in the 80s, when life for a sports fan was nothing like it is today. A bit like walking to school uphill, in the snow, both ways.

Our fans would camp out in long lines to get tickets. If they missed the game, they would have to wait for the morning paper to get stats from the sports page (you know, the stats that some college freshman had to call in to the editor after the game). And they waited for the 11 pm news to catch the highlights. Those were some dedicated Tar Heels fans. But, man, it was hard.

Now don’t get me wrong. As I watch college hoops, I’m still in awe of the fans. Today’s college hoops fans continue to be passionate, but man, technology has made it a whole lot easier for them. They can buy tickets online, set their DVRs to catch the games they miss, sneak video highlights from their desks whenever they want, check stats and get alerts from their mobile phones, read reams of analysis from experts like, ahem, me. And they can use all that addiction to information to prove their mettle in fantasy sports leagues.

It’s a whole new world for fans. They are better informed, more involved and everybody’s an expert. By the way, for all those experts that aren’t as smart as they thought, Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick’em is offering a Second Chance bracket worth $1 million. Busted bracket? Try it again before next week.

Man, today’s sports fans have it all.

Kenny Smith
Yahoo! Sports Analyst

Need an extra day? Well, here ya go, the gift of a Leap Day. You’ll just have to wait another four years for the next one. In the meantime, take a looksee at what we’ve rounded up.

• Send a loud smooch: If you’ve ever wanted to make your Yahoo! Messenger emoticons come to life (with sound), now you can! Choose from eight audible emoticons like the cowboy, happy face, the devil and more. Here’s how. Once you have an IM window open, click the audibles icon (the one with the lips) right above your text box (works only on Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0). Click the “More Audibles” button on the right, select “See All Audibles,” then choose the “emoticon” option, and let er rip! Yeehaw! Read more here.
• Ultimate fighting: Not the spandex-wearing kind, think mixed martial arts fighting with grappling holds and kicks. On March 1, sports fans everywhere can view the Ultimate Fighting Championship event, UFC 82: Pride of a Champion live via pay-per-view on Yahoo! Sports (we’re the new online distributor for UFC, so more of these to come). Who will be crowned the champion – PRIDE Champion Dan Hendersen, or UFC Champion Anderson Silva? That much you’ll have to tune in to find out.
• For you suits: No more ink on your fingers from reading the Wall Street Journal. Now add the new Wall Street Journal module to get all your in-depth business news and financial info all day long right from your My Yahoo! page. For WSJ.com subscribers, the module keeps your top business stories above the fold and for the rest of us, we get access to free daily articles and free video links. Check out the other modules you can add here.
• Pick’em good: If you’ve ever been on the fence about Fantasy Sports, we’ve upped the ante on Yahoo! Sports. For this year’s college basketball Tourney Pick’em, a perfect bracket pick for all 63 games could land you $5 million (thanks to KFC). And for all you stat skeptics, for the very first time we’re guaranteeing $10,000 to the entrant with the highest scoring bracket. We’ve even added some new feature like customized scoring, a public group directory, and a user-generated Popular Picks bracket. Happy pickings.

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