Facebook asks fans to "like" us instead

Go figure -- just when I urge you all to become "fans" of the Bradenton Herald's Facebook page, Facebook changes its terminology. As of Monday, you now can follow our Facebook page by indicating that you "like" us.

Here's the announcement from Facebook:

If you want to add more connections to your profile, just click "Like" on any Facebook Page. We've replaced the expression "Become a Fan" for Pages with "Like." Clicking "Like" on a Page adds that connection in the related area of your profile's Info section.

You can read more about Facebook's logic in this change, and in creating community pages at this link to their blog.
As of this writing, 180 of you have decided to like Facebook/BradentonHerald.com -- we have some work to do!
-- Joan

Once a baseball fan, always a fan

Rain in Philadelphia beat out our print deadlines this morning, with Game 3 of the World Series lasting well past midnight -- and the dang clocks didn't technically fall back until 2 a.m.

But that didn't stop the Yankees from claiming another win, and our sports desk made sure it was posted to Bradenton.com/sports/ immediately at 12:42 a.m.

And it didn't keep baseball out of the Bradenton Herald, either, as columnist Vin Mannix heralded the news that the Pittsburgh Pirates plan to buy Sarasota’s Florida State League affiliate. That will mean glorious nights all summer long under the lights at Bradenton's own McKechnie Field. Vin summed it up in his column: Outstanding.

The FSL makes the final decision Nov. 10, and you'll find the news first on Bradenton.com.

Meanwhile, Vin is rooting for his Phillies -- a lonely stance, it turns out, in the Herald's newsroom. There are far more Yankees fans (three??), but they can't be missed -- except when one of them takes a whirlwind trip to Yankees Stadium for a game. Page One Editor Jason Bartolone talked a Red Sox fan, Jennifer Rich, and a Mets fan, Brent Conklin, into covering for him so he could catch Game 2. After a lot of pronounced anguish, they relinquished -- and Jason flew into La Guardia Thursday morning and was back in the newsroom Friday night, a win under his belt.

Ya gotta love this game.

-- Joan

Baseball fan tries to grasp fantasy football

As if pre-football season wasn't rude enough to encroach on the heat of the baseball season in August, here comes fantasy football draft. And guess which one has my newsroom in a lather? It ain't the St. Louis Cardinals (hence, you can tell they ain't brown-nosers)...

Check out Universal Desk Editor Jason Bartolone's spectacular package today on that fantasy world. For the past couple years, he has posted a blog on fantasy sports . For this fantasy football season, he proposed a preseason story and an explainer of sorts on his addiction. He composed the blog, wrote the story, designed the sports centerpiece, laid out the package and organized the online-only podcast. That's the definitive multi-tasking -- oh, it makes us old-timers weary...

Here's the lede-in to the sports team's podcast:

Still agonizing over who to take with your first pick in your fantasy football draft? Allow us to help.

Six Herald staffers and self-professed fantasy geeks took part in a special mock draft this week, running through their top 12 picks for 2009 and spurring plenty of debate along the way. Hear Jason Bartolone, Alan Bellittera, Ryan T. Boyd, Grace Gagliano, John Lembo and Timothy R. Wolfrum discuss their selections and ponder some of this year’s biggest fantasy quandaries in our special podcast.

I remember losing my best buddies for hours to fantasy baseball in the early '80s at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, long before computers hastened the addiction. It's another layer of newspaper characters who must be preserved, cherished, promoted, relished. They have every stat known to humankind in their heads. Let's not lose that.

-- Joan