Good luck getting anything done tomorrow, tech community: Red Sox-Angels at 9:37

Tonight is Game 1 of the Red Sox’ five-game divisional series against the Angels, which creates two near-certainties: Another Sox/Yankees ALCS; and “worker productivity” becoming an oxymoron at offices throughout New England tomorrow. This thing doesn’t start till 9:37 p.m., for Hendu’s sake, and postseason baseball tends to go well with alcohol.

But what baseball taketh away, it can also giveth, or whatever. The sport has inspired some nifty innovations in analytics, robotics and … let’s call it life sciences.

MIT News Office photo

• In spring training, the Sox, who even give their IT guy World Series rings, supplemented hitting coach Dave Magadan with the MIT Media Lab, naturally. For the last few years, researchers from the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments Group, has been strapping sensors to minor leagers while they’re batting at the Sox camp at Fort Myers. The info from accelerometers and gyroscopes could provide insight on differences in swing mechanics during a hot streak or a slump.

• Using an arm developed at MIT, University of Tokyo researchers have developed baseball-playing robots that could make the Fall Classic either more interesting, or entirely pointless, to watch. Think of all the time and money the Sox would save on scouting, not to mention free agency. And J.D. Drew would presumably be injured far less often if he were a robot.

• The success of two local startups could depend on the belligerence of Sox fans. Tauntr’s platform for harassing Angels and Yankees fans just went live, and TruMedia’s sports-focused social networks may benefit equally from a World Series win or from, God forbid, Kevin Youkilis channeling Bill Buckner in a few weeks.

• In 2006, MIT’s Center for Sports Innovation was working on a flexible bat handle, which would allow some players to hit the ball farther. The center is part of the school’s Aeronautics and Astronautics department, so we could be talking longer homers than a corked bat or steroids could give you.

Aside from all that, there’s Red Sox/Jimmy Fund/ Dana Farber connection — $30 million from the Yawkey Foundation to build a new cancer center in 2007, for example. And Fenway, the oldest ballpark in either league, runs a solar-powered water heater and keeps a data center in Downtown Crossing. Red Sox owner John Henry is also partly responsible for giving us Sirtris and iRacing.com, and of course, would there be a 38 Studios if Theo Epstein hadn’t had Thanksgiving dinner with the Schillings in Arizona in 2003?

So if business lags tomorrow, and every day after every game as long as the Sox keep winning, just relax enjoy the ancillary benefits of the tech incubator called the Boston Red Sox.

Posted by Brendan Lynch

Tags: 38 Studios, baseball, Bill Buckner, Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, Dana Farber Cancer Center, Dave Henderson, Fenway Park, iRacing.com, John Henry, Kevin Youkilis, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, MIT, MIT Center for Sports Innovation, MIT Media Lab, New York Yankees, Sirtris, spring training, Tauntr, Theo Epstein, Trumedia Networks, University of Tokyo, World Series, Yawkey Foundation

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Energy, Entrepreneurship, Envirotech, Financial Services, Hardware, IT, Internet, Life Sciences, Massachusetts, Networks, Software, Startups, robotics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.