Prince Fielder Won the 2012 Home Run Derby, but MLB was the big winner on Twitter

The Home Run Derby and last week’s All-Star game drew a huge audience from around the world. There was growth for those that tuned on in their televisions and immense amount of individuals that followed the action online. The Home Run Derby left everybody in awe after Detroit Tigers first baseman Prince Fielder won the event. He became the second slugger to win the award numerous times.

The Home Run Derby produced a 4.81 Nielsen rating as almost 7 million people tuned in for the event. Those numbers correspond to a 3% rise from the 2011 Home Run Derby. Even though the event took place in a small-market city like Kansas City, the event drew the highest consumer audience with a 15.1 rating, which was the second largest host audience in the last decade.

Given the increased use in social media, it is no surprise that the The Derby corresponded to a rise for social media usage during the event. MLB took advantage of their large social media following and that of their players by allowing the All-Stars to engage their followers on Twitter directly from the field while the Home Run Derby was taking place.

This produced a huge number of followers, as more than 800,000 total Twitter and Facebook comments were made on MLB’s and the All-Star players’ social media accounts. This was the second year that MLB allowed this to take place and more than double the amount of activity happened during this year’s Derby compared to last year’s. MLB created a hash tag “#HRDerby” and it was the most trending topic on Twitter while the event was ongoing, generating more than 275,000 references.

The final round of the Derby was between Prince Fielder and the Toronto Blue Jays Jose Bautista, with Fielder winning 12-7.

Many of the All-Stars that were in the Derby had their social media followings grow as the event went on. For example, Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano had more than 25,000 new Twitter followers over a 24-hour period during the All-Star break. Also, Jose Bautista grew his Twitter following by more than 20,000 and Angels infielder/outfielder Mark Trumbo drew more than 16,000 new followers on his social media accounts, which was a tremendous 73.9 percent increase.

This is a great way for the star athletes of MLB to interact with their fans during a time where so many people are tuning in to watch them play. Hopefully other leagues will realize the benefit in this to build their brands. During their respective All-Star celebrations, the NHL and NBA could incorporate similar fan engagement activities; the NHL during its Skills Competition and the NBA for the Slam Dunk and Three-Point contests.

What fans wouldn’t want to let Dwyane Wade know what they thought of an acrobatic LeBron James tomahawk jam during the Slam Dunk contest?

(Photos Courtesy of Latinopost.com and Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images North America)

There has been uproar from around the world from fans, spectators and analysts about the penalty shootout between Portugal and Spain because of the fact that Christiano Ronaldo, arguably the best player in Europe, did not take a penalty kick since he was chosen to shoot fifth. Spain closed out the win before Ronaldo could even affect the outcome of the game.

Anyone who knows anything about soccer knows that the first shooter, especially for the team shooting second, is the most important spot. The percentages of winning the penalty shootout increase dramatically. The fact that Portugal shot second, and is at the risk of having a lower chance of winning just by shooting second, makes the decision to place Ronaldo kick fifth inexcusable. Let’s explore this topic a little further, in particular for those who are intrigued by objective measurements and analysis.

In research shown in Soccernomics, data was composed from 129 shootouts that tracked over 1,300 penalty kicks. If one had no knowledge of soccer and penalty kicks, it wouldn’t be surprising to believe that each team had a similar percentage to win the penalty shootout. This is not the case though. The data that was collected showed that the team that shoots first has a 60% chance of winning the penalty shootout. The data also highlighted that whoever shot second had an inferior shooting percentage and reliably longer probabilities to be in the lead of the penalty kicks after each round. This tells that there happens to be a substantial and constant plus to the team the shoots first in a penalty kicks. This is backed up from an article from the Journal of Management Science, concluded that the team that takes the lead first has a 21% advantage to win the shootout.

Now that we have gone over how important shooting first is for the team, and how important it is to score the first goal, a study done by researchers from Norway backs up the importance of individual players kicking in the first spot, and the importance for that player to be the team’s best player or penalty kick shooter. After data was collected, they concluded that the individual shooting scores a goal 92 percent of the time when it is tied or if a goal guarantees their team an instant victory.

However, if the kick taker must score to tie the shootout, when a miss will mean instant defeat, the percentage of making the kick lowers to 60 percent. “This to me is the key finding of all our studies,” said Geir Jordet, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo who has analyzed shootouts with fervor. “It demonstrates so clearly the power of psychology,” he said. They also found that percentages lower with each consecutive kick — 86.6 percent for the first kicker, 81.7 for the second, 79.3 for the third, etc.” Given that Spain was so much deeper than Portugal, Portugal should have been more aggressive in its lineup choices, increasing its chances of scoring and not simply playing a passive strategy by matching Spain kick for kick.

According to Ronaldo, Portugal manager, Paulo Bento, actually asked his star to shoot fifth. However, regardless of Ronaldo being a captain and one of the best players in the world, this was an epic fail on the part of both men. Ronaldo should know better, but this is not surprising that he wanted to shoot fifth, given the possibility of him being the hero for his country. Most of the blame must be put on Bento for setting his team up for failure.

In an effort to put the aforementioned research to use, here are the penalty shootout lineups that I would choose for Saturday’s final if the game remains scoreless after two periods of extra time.

Spain Penalty Kick Lineup

1) Andre Iniesta: So calm, so precise, the perfect mid-fielder and the perfect individual who should shoot first.
2) Xavi: Iniesta and Xavi are almost replicas of one another. Crucial to go 2-2.
3) Xabi Alonso: Even though he missed the PK against Portugal, he drilled one home against the French in the quarter-finals and has a history of being a successful shooter.
4) Gerald Pique: One of world’s best defenders gracefully put home a crucial goal against Portugal and there is no need to replace him.
5) Cesc Fabregas: He drilled home the clincher in the semi-final against Portugal and drilled home the winner against Italy in the quarter-finals in the 2008 EuroCup.

Italy Penalty Kick Lineup

1) Andrea Pirlo: Being one of the most gifted, crafty and accurate midfielders in the world, and after converting in the quarterfinals against England, Pirlo is a must in the top spot.
2) Antonio Di Natale: Even though some may remember his miss in the Euro 2008, he is one of the great finishers in the world after being amongst the league leaders in goals in the Serie A this past year.
3) Antonio Cassano: He is one of Italy’s most consistent threats up top, and he stays calm under the harshest pressure.
4) Daniele De Rossi: Experience. Calmness. Execution. All of these attributes are part of Di Rossi’s game and important for a shooter in the fourth spot.
5) Alessandro Diamanti: The West Ham forward has been tremendous this tournament and thrives under pressure.

(Photos Courtesy of Shaunt Botterill/Getty Images, The Sun (UK), Yahoo.com and The Irish Examiner)

IBM has been at the forefront of introducing an analytical and objective approach towards tennis. For the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, IBM is introducing its SlamTracker technology with predictive technology that will be beneficial to the players, coaches, spectators and millions of people that watch the sport and are interested in the analytical approach. It serves to give those individuals an enriched experience. First off, this technology will be providing the most rudimentary piece of data: the score. After that, an extensive field of information – from schedules to player statistics, serve speeds and match insights – are all depicted, analyzed and disseminated to media, officials and fans, both at the event and those tuning in around the world.

The IBM SlamTracker tracks aces, serve speed, winners and many other essential, real-time statistics during matches that are relevant towards succeeding. This will give the viewers an instant and objective illustrations of the match that is in progress. Last year, IBM began to augment and to improve SlamTracker by adding a complementary, “Keys to the Match” feature, which was installed on IBM’s predictive analytics technology (SPSS). This provides more than seven years of Grand Slam tennis data (~39 million data points) to reveal patterns and models of players when they win. Before the start of each match, the IBM “Keys to the Match” program does an analysis of both players past head-to-head matches, as well as stats against player that have similar styles. This data helps to denote what both competitors must do well to win the match.

Predictive analytics have been evolving and becoming more mainstream due to their acceptance and implementation in the sports world. We can all thank Bill James for that, as baseball has been the model for advanced statistical research since the second half of the last century, but NHL, NFL, and NBA organizations have begin to use similar methods to evaluate players. A main focus of these analytical theories is to provide predictive performance to be used as a tool when making decisions. However, tennis is different than these sports based upon the fact that it is an individual sport. As someone who as been a supporter and follower of objective and predictive analytics for almost a decade now, I find it fascinating and quite intriguing that IBM has been able to create a database and program to be used for tennis. This is a great way for coaches gain an objective perspective on how an individual player develops his game, and how to even develop a strategy to counteract an opponent’s game.

Those interested in viewing SlamTracker can find it at the new and improved Wimbledon website. Fans will be able to voice their comments during matches while viewing SlamTracker through Facebook and a Twitter match hashtag. Make sure to follow Sport Techie (@SportTechie) throughout Wimbledon and the other major sporting events this summer!

(Photos courtesy of Wimbledon.com and IBM.com)

As we have noted over the past few weeks at Sports Techie, teams from all around baseball are turning to social media to get fans involved and generate excitement about their respective teams. The use of social media has become an important factor in team advertising. Regardless of market size, teams that can engage fans around the world have a lot to gain from beefing up their online presence.

While they might be the last team that you’d think would need to find new fans, even the Boston Red Sox are taking advantage of social media. With many devoted fans living far from Fenway Park, the organization has to extend their communications efforts to the global fans of Red Sox Nation in order to keep them feeling connected to their team.

On Tuesday, May 29^th, prior to facing the Detroit Tigers, the Red Sox celebrated with a pregame Social Media Appreciation Night. Dedicating this night to fans on social media shows that the front office understands that this has become a vitally important component of their marketing and communications efforts.

The fans that participated at Fenway Park that night received exclusive giveaways such as a Red Sox Social Media Night T-shirt. Participants were also eligible for giveaways at the top of every inning, including:

Top 1: Seat Upgrade

Top 2: Seat Upgrade

Top 3: Signed baseball by a current Red Sox player

Top 4: Aramark Bucks giveaway ($10 for 3 people)

Top 5: Signed bat by a current Red Sox player

Top 6: Signed Fenway Park 100 Years coffee table book

Top 7: #Tweetyourseat gift bag

Top 8: Signed jersey by a current Red Sox player

Top 9: A meet & greet opportunity with a current Red Sox player for a future date

A few lucky fans from the May 22-May 24 home games were also chosen from a series of Twitter giveaways and were introduced on the field during a pregame ceremony.

The Red Sox continue to grow their fan base by taking advantage of every possible angle that social media can help provide. Even though the organization has sold out every home game for nearly the past five seasons, a global emphasis on engagement in social media is a vital part of the securing the continued following and appreciation of the team.

The Red Sox Social Media night will be an annual event and teams from across the MLB and other prominent sports leagues will likely be following suit if they haven’t already.

Photo by John Tlumacki/Boston Globe and The Boston Red Sox