What @SportsGeek reads - 14 October 2013

Original email for @SportsGeek subscribers, that you may have missed.

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price struggled through an atrocious playoff outing on Saturday, giving up seven runs - including two homers - in seven innings of work against the Boston Red Sox. Then the MLB star and 2012 Cy Young Award winner took to Twitter for a meltdown that made his on-field performance look fine by comparison.

Lance Armstrong's image was certainly bruised and battered ever since he admitted to Oprah Winfrey in January that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. Apparently, when he needed it most, he didn't get the tweeting part right, either.

In an earlier, simpler time, Facebook had a quaint little privacy option that let users opt out of being found in searches. It allowed the rare hermit types who embraced social media to have a profile on the site that could not be found by strangers, or even in some cases, contacts and friends.

By Shane Harmon | Flipboard's No .1 Sports Business Magazine. The best #sportsbiz content from around the world

Facebook and Twitter are the two services that jump immediately to mind when somebody says "social media." But, as revealed in Twitter's freshly filed IPO prospectus, the two companies couldn't be more different when it comes to their financials and growth. (Oh, and Twitter doesn't officially consider itself a social network.)

After practicing at the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday, Roger Federer conducted an impromptu #askRF Twitter session. He fielded a host of questions ranging from his favorite movies to his thoughts on recent developments in aeronautical engineering ( really!). And he (let's hope it was him) was really funny about it.

Last month Jay Z sold his small interest in the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) granted Jay Z certification to represent basketball players in contractual negotiations with NBA teams upon receiving confirmation of the sale.

Since 2005, the Trail Blazers have featured a dizzying array of six team websites. Among others, these included trailblazers.com, iamatrailblazersfan.com, ripcityunited.com and separate portals for ticket sales and blogging. By opening night on Nov. 2, however, the portals will be whittled to one, trailblazers.com.

A DIGITAL revolution is under way at the SCG, with a new $197 million grandstand to become more technically advanced than a sports fan's loungeroom in time for this summer's Ashes Test.

With a first-of-its-kind deal, the NFL will be sending out video of game highlights, near-instant replays, and analysis in promoted tweets -- giving Twitter a coveted asset rivals like Facebook won't have. (Credit: Michael Thomas/Getty Images) The National Football League doesn't like to share -- at least when it comes to the content it licenses to television networks for billions of dollars each year.

This is a parody of the open letter musician Sinead O'Conner sent to Miley Cyrus in response to the starlet's video for 'Wrecking Ball'. Dear Social Media Manager, I wasn't going to write this letter, but today I've been dodging phone calls from various industry blogs who wished me to remark upon your having said on Memeburn your career was designed to be similar to mine...

Posted September 30, 2013 Dikembe Mutombo joined Twitter on Wednesday and instantly made a splash, sending out a picture of him with Bill and Chelsea Clinton as his first tweet. That's a strong Twitter debut. What a wonderful day with The Clintons #CGI2013 pic.twitter.com/g8UzOq1y1D - Dikembe Mutombo (@officialmutombo) September 26, 2013 That got us thinking, what were the first tweets of some now-Twitter-popular athletes?

In this week's Beers, Blokes and Business episode - the blokes go into the movie review business. Well not really but after seeing Jobs movie we decided to look back at the impact of Steve Jobs. And hope to see you at the #BBB launch October 8th at Honey.

Big data is rapidly transforming the way we think, work and play. It is helping enterprises use their data to improve their processes, recognize anomalies and better connect with customers. The power of data is changing everything, often without our realizing it is happening. Case in point: football (and fantasy football in particular).

Hundreds of New York Comic Con attendees received badges yesterday with a radio-frequency identification chip inside. Technology is cool! But these unsuspecting conference-goers had no idea that the tracking mechanisms would also tweet on their behalf. "Your NYCC experience is about to get 100x cooler! For realz," the registration form reads.

1. The phone numbers of people that never, ever call you or text you first, and often don't even respond when you text them. 2. Mean or uncomfortable exchanges with people - either in your text or internet history - that you occasionally go over and re-read because they make you feel angry and terrible all over again.

In this Sports Geek Podcast we chat to Dan Harbison who has left the sports industry after several years leading the digital efforts of the Portland Tra...