MLB Partners With IBM on Web Mashups for Umpires, and Ball Verification System

Call it Web 2.0 meets Major League Baseball. Computers in the dressing rooms of MLB umpires have been loaded with IBM's WebSphere Portal software to help the officials prepare for games. IBM and MLB together placed the Web browser-based MLB Umpire Portals on desktop computers in the 30 stadiums in the National League and American League. The Umpire Portal also leverages Google Gadgets, which are mini-applications users can drop into a Web portal page, to mash up images of weather and field conditions to determine if they will affect play. Umpires may also use the MLB Umpire Portals to view videos of certain plays from games. For example, a training tool called You Make the Call shows umpires a video of a controversial call and provides them with a detailed explanation of the ruling. Umpires can also access MLB information via the Portals, mashing up player histories and analyzing player interactions to determine if there is a potential hostile scenario at play. Is a player a hothead, or a cool customer? The Umpire Portal will tell the tale, pulling data from the Web and assembling it on a single page to help officials get an idea of any potential for conflict. To authenticate and license baseball memorabilia, MLB uses WebSphere Portal software and Symbol handheld wireless devices to scan and upload information on a product. Say a fan grabs a home run ball. A security guard will link up with the fan and place a unique hologram on the ball. This information will be wirelessly uploaded to MLB's IBM DB2 9 data server. If the fan decides to sell the ball to a retailer, prospective buyers can confirm its authenticity immediately online. This is a departure from previous product authentication, a laborious manual process.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/IBM-MLB-Connect-on-WebSphere-Web-20-Deal/