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Wrigley dugouts, bullpens go wireless
Managers, coaches to use push-to-talk handsets on private channels
The Associated
Press
Updated: 8:54 a.m. ET June 13, 2006
CHICAGO -
Wrigley Field, the last big league stadium to install lights, will be the
first to go wireless.
Starting
Tuesday, when Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker needs to communicate with his
bullpen during games he'll call on a wireless handset designed by Motorola
Inc. rather than reach for the corded phone on the dugout's back wall.
Juan Lopez, the
Cubs' bullpen coach, will be sure not to miss the call — he'll have one of
the i580 phones strapped to his belt and it will vibrate and produce a loud
ring.
The Cubs and
Motorola, who announced the arrangement Monday for both the home and visiting
dugouts and bullpens, said it will be the first wireless bullpen phone system
used by a major league team.
Cubs officials
approached Major League Baseball with the idea last November after watching a
playoff game in which a team had problems communicating with its bullpen,
according to John McDonough, the Cubs' senior vice president of marketing and
broadcasting.
"It's just
an idea whose time has come," he said. "What better place in
major league baseball to debut wireless communication than 92-year-old,
beautiful Wrigley Field."
Besides
providing faster access to the bullpen, McDonough said, the new system
provides the league with new revenue opportunities from fees that Motorola and
other phone companies will pay to have teams use their branded phones.
Fans needn't
get ideas about learning the phone numbers so they can give their input.
The push-to-talk phones operate on a private channel and can communicate only
with partner handsets.
Motorola said
the phones have been tested to satisfy the security concerns of Major League
Baseball, and of Baker himself. Tom Crawford, director of global sports
marketing for the Schaumburg, Ill.-based mobile phone manufacturer, said the
system cannot be disrupted by competition from 40,000 fans using their own
phones and handheld devices.
The existing
phones will remain in place for the rest of the season, but the new system
means managers and coaches won't have to be tethered to the wall for calls.
"I don't
know that there's anything wrong with a land line per se, but it's kind of
ushering the team into the wireless era," Crawford said. "For
us, it shows a creative and unique way to apply our technologies."
Besides
pursuing similar systems for other ball clubs, he said, Motorola might be able
to take advantage of Bluetooth technology and wearable communications for
other off-the-field innovations in the future — such as enabling Baker to
communicate through a device embedded in his trademark wristbands, or coaches
through their caps.
Wrigley Field's
first night game was Aug. 9, 1988 — more than 40 years after other teams
began playing under the lights.
Copyright 2006
The Associated Press. All rights reserved. |