Yes, after the Giants won the World Series last night, many fans began to show their appreciation for the victory by taking to the streets, lighting some fires, stealing fire hoses, and generally having a good, riot-y time. The whole situation was exhaustingly reported on and captured via social media sites which is pretty fascinating…but Foursquare? That just seems like a bad idea. Of course, this writer has always found Foursquare a little odd. Posting your exact location on the internet at all times just seemed to be inviting crime. I just never figured it would go the opposite way too and that people would be “checking in” while they actively committing crimes.

Well, thus is the story of all great innovations; one step backwards after every mighty leap forwards. For every open sourced, user generated encyclopedia of heretofore unthinkable breadths of knowledge, there’s a depository of LOLCats images. For every idea that revolutionizes the very concept of shopping, there’s a dude pretending to be a Nigerian prince. And, for every Twitter Revolution, there’s a bunch of drunk fans tweeting where the most flippable cars are.

(photo via Mashable, Foursquare image via IntoMobile, h/t Gawker)

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Photo from Flickr user Patrick Rasenberg

On Broadway, in Lower Manhattan, the sidewalk is regularly interrupted by embedded plaques which memorialize each of the city’s ticker tape parades along the so-called “Canyon of Heroes.” Over 180 parades have been held, recognizing everyone from Albert Einstein to Miguel Alemán Valdés. (He was President of Mexico, as you no doubt recall.) The first ticker tape parade, legend has it, was a spontaneous affair in honor of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. It caught on – for a while anyway.

Since the parade honoring the 1969 Mets, who, believe it or not, actually won the World Series, there have been, counting today’s, nineteen parades. Of those 19, one was for the Pope, one for Nelson Mandela, one for released hostages, one for astronauts, three for veterans – and 12 have been for athletes or teams. In fact, since 1991, John Glenn and crew have been the only non-athletes to earn a parade. In that time span, the Yankees have had five.

Now, I’m not saying I don’t like the Yankees (at least in this post), but there’s something charming about the parades of yore. Foreign dignitaries, aviators, the military, explorers. The Yanks still got their due (they’ve had 11 parades total), but the process embraced a broader swath of achievement.

Case in point: 100 years ago, the City of New York took to the streets to shower adulation and appreciation on none other than one Jack Binns. Yes, that Jack Binns.

Those several dozen of you who have seen the movie Titanic may remember that the eponymous vessel was operated by the White Star Line shipping company. About a decade before the Titanic sank, White Star had another ship meet a similar fate, the Republic.

From JackBinns.org, photo of the Republic taken from a rescue ship. The light-colored area is a tarp covering the damaged area in an attempt to stem water intake

From its Wikipedia entry:

In early morning of 23 January 1909, while sailing from New York City to Gibraltar and Mediterranean ports with 742 passengers and crew and Captain Inman Sealby in command, Republic entered a thick fog off the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts…. The steamer reduced speed and regularly signaled its presence by whistle. At 5:47 a.m., another whistle was heard and the Republic’s engines were ordered to full reverse, and the helm put “hard-a-port”. Out of the fog, the Lloyd Italiano liner SS Florida appeared and hit Republic amidships, at about a right angle.

The collision killed five, but threatened everyone as the Republic began to take on water. As Captain Sealby (pronounced “Sully”) organized the passengers to abandon ship, the pinnacle of modern technology was employed: the radio. Specifically – the wireless telegraph.

This is where Jack Binns enters the scene. The ship’s 25 year-old radio operator, he had, according to JackBinns.org (he has a domain!), just gone to bed after an overnight shift when the collision occurred. The wireless station, which was sliced in half by the Florida‘s prow, was in bad shape. Binns got the system up and running and sent the message, “CQD CQD here is MKC MKC shipwrecked.” CQD was the precursor to SOS; MKD the Republic‘s call sign. This was the first duress called ever radioed from a ship.

Photo of Jack Binns from JackBinns.org

Passengers were moved to the Florida, while Binns continued to wire updates form the Republic, and, eventually, assist rescue ships in their approach to the scene. By the time everyone was safe, Binns had been operating the wireless telegraph for over two straight days. The Republic soon sank, the largest vessel to have done so to that date. But those killed in the collision were the only deaths. Around 1200 people were saved by the timely arrival of assistance.

In a profile of Binns from PBS’ American Experience, Binns came ashore in New York to unexpected adoration. In addition to the ticker tape parade, he was the subject of a song (as was the style at the time) and a short film. Eventually, Binns became a journalist and businessman. He died in 1959.

Today, fans take to the streets to express their appreciation for the Yankees’ victory, lining the “Canyon of Heroes” to shower the team (and its $208 million payroll) with pre-fabricated confetti, provided by the City of New York.

I don’t mean to imply that baseball players should not be considered heroes (except A-Rod, who shouldn’t). Athletes inspire millions. They provide a sense of community. In the best case scenario, they are strong role models for children. But in 1909, New Yorkers came out to celebrate a working class British kid who, simply by doing his job, saved over a thousand lives.

We could use a few more parades like that.

Baseball: New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies

Allow me to restate the sincerest of congratulations to the NY Yankees, World Series champs! They won the game not in the press box or in the sports pages, but where it mattered — on the field of the brand new billion-dollar stadium built with tremendous tax breaks from New York City. However, its worth noting that the metaphorical playing field was not nearly as level as the literal one: The Yankee’s team payroll for 2009 comes in at a league-leading $201 million. By comparison, the Philadelphia Phillies’ overall team payroll for 2009 comes in around $113 million, or roughly 56% of the Yankees’ salaries.

Yankees team payroll, 2009: $201 million.
Phillies team payroll, 2009: $113 million. (56.2% of Yankees)

Magazines: Vogue vs. Self

Where does that stand in media terms? Let’s start with magazines. Who are the Yankees of the magazine world, based on year-to-date revenues booked up to the third quarter of 2009? How about Vogue? Much loved, often reviled, Vogue comes in at around $213 million. Who would be the Phillies in this equation? Self! Yup, so far this year, Self has booked revenue of $120 million, or 56.3% of its Condé Nast sister’s. So Vogue versus Self — who ya got?

Vogue year-to-date revenues, 2009: $213 million.
Self year-to-date revenues, 2009: $120 million. (56.3% of Vogue)

Social Media: Facebook vs. MySpace

Moving on, let’s look at social media properties, as measured by monthly unique visitors according to Quantcast. In this case, the Yankees=Facebook: Facebook totally dominates the social media realm (and seems on pace to soon take over the world, but I digress.) Judging by Quantcast, Facebook enjoys roughly 100 million unique visitors a month. The Phillies’ equivalent? MySpace gets roughly 56 million uniques a month. Never has the comparison between the Yankees and Phillies been clearer.

Facebook monthly visitorship: 100 million unique visitors/month.
MySpace monthly visitorship: 56 million unique visitors/month. (56 % of Facebook)

Cable TV: Fox News vs. ABC Family

Finally, let’s move on to television. I’d love to use cable news as the metaphor, but finding reliable data for revenue and costs for cable news networks is an arduous task. Fox News is the perfect metaphor for the Yanks here — I mean, they are dominating the ratings with a thier primetime lineup is a modern day murderer’s row, and yes, they are equally loved and hated — but neither MSNBC nor CNN measure up to even be considered the lame Phillies-esque competitor. So who can it be?  Basic cable ratings can give us a hint: last week, an average of 2 MM household tuned into the self-described fair and balanced news channel. Which network had 56% of those viewers? ABC’s Family Channel enjoyed 1.13 million viewers. So – Yankee vs. Phillies is the same as Fox News vs. ABC Family — Perfect!

Fox News average viewership last week: 2 million.
ABC Family average viewership last week: 1.13 million. (56.5% of Fox News)

So in conclusion — the Yankees deserve credit for winning the World Series, but let’s not pretend that they didn’t have an enormous advantage. Beating the Phillies is akin to choosing Vogue over Self, watching Fox News over ABC Family, or being on Facebook instead of MySpace. It sort of begs the question: how come the Yankees don’t win every year?

Now that the facts are settled – does this make any sense?

Look, it’s the World Series, Olbermann’s a Yankees fan – this is huge. It’s not like Olbermann hasn’t earned his keep at the network, as he has consistently come in as the top rated show on MSNBC for years.

But, just like Glenn Beck‘s fans were unpleasantly surprised to see their regular host out last night (with appendicitis), those looking for Olbermann’s take on Hoffman’s lose or Christie’s win at 8pmET found Lawrence O’Donnell sitting in the anchor chair. This gets coupled with the fact that Olbermann hosted at 8pmET Tuesday night, but was not there at 10pmET. We hear he was visiting his sick father in the hospital – he’s had to miss time over the last couple months due to his father’s health, and we wouldn’t want to diminish that in any way.

But last night, he was at Yankee Stadium. He wrote all about it on his frequently-updated MLB blog. We’re not sure if he’s got an automatic log-in so he can live blog from his seat, but he currently has one missive on Pedro Martinez triple-posted and another post with some uncorrected grammatical issues. But the main post – the top story right now – features pictures and analysis of the game, in the wake of the Yankees 27th World Series victory.

One photo sticks out, near the end, with this caption:

And lastly, a reminder that baseball does erase boundaries. The guy I’m taking a photo of, who’s taking a photo of me – we get along perfectly at the ballpark – less so during our day jobs.

That’s Sean Hannity, right? Definitely. The guy who makes somewhat frequent appearances on Olbermann’s “Worst Persons” list, and was the “Best Person” two weeks ago – but, as you can imagine, not for anything positive. We looked it up: Hannity’s show was new, but was pre-taped (it’s normally live at 9pmET). So, Hannity and Olbermann – getting “along perfectly,” taking photos of each other. Cute, or the sign of the apocalypse? We report, you decide.

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First, Jay performed “Empire State” to kick off his September 11 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden (hello, Anna Wintour). And this week he and Keys performed their hit on the field at the new Yankees Stadium before the start of World Series Game 2. The pair was supposed to perform before Game 1 — the first World Series game in the new stadium — but couldn’t because of threatening rain.

As of this week we also have a chance to see the official music video, which comprises a series of black and white photographs from around New York, from director Hype Williams. Let us know which video you think is the best.

The Official Music Video from Hype Williams:

Jay-Z – “Empire State Of Mind” ft. Alicia Keys

Jay-Z | MySpace Video

Next Page: Jay-Z’s Live Performance from World Series Game 2

Yankee-hating is seeing a resurgence, thanks to the sudden ability of Alex Rodriguez to get hits in October and their building the most homer-friendly ballpark in the majors. The Handbook, that religious document, is now out of print (due, no doubt, to the nefarious machinations of Clan Steinbrenner), so those seeking to bone up on the various historic reasons the Phillies are worth rooting for have to turn to our old friend, the Web.

The beautiful thing about baseball is how astonishingly rich its history is. (Consider this: in its entire history, the NFL has played fewer games than have been played in baseball’s past five years – in the Majors alone.) People have been playing professional baseball for over a century, all the while documenting the games and the players in every new media format available. Much of that documentation is a quick link-click away.

Let’s start at the most jaw-dropping website in professional sports: Baseball-Reference.com. I’ll explain what’s available there with a quick anecdote (as, it seems, is my wont). Shortly after my Dad laid the Handbook on me, we took a trip to Detroit to see my childhood favorites, the Tigers play, and beat, the Yanks. Our family made much of the fact that, while regular players had photos that appeared on the scoreboard when they batted, Rob Richie, newly drafted, had only the Tigers’ logo where his photo should be – implying that Mr. Richie bore more resemblance to Shere Khan than Genghis. In a family of corny jokes, this one became long-running. So, with only this information in hand (Rob Richie’s early appearance, the Tigers winning), I was earlier this year able to scrabble through the pages at Baseball-Reference and find the boxscore for the game itself – August 19, 1989. (Mr. Richie went 1-for-4, with 2 RBI.)

Photo from the New York Public Library on Flickr.

Baseball-Reference has box scores, standings, player data for nearly every game in the history of professional baseball. Want to know what the standings were on the day you were born? No sweat. They’ve got it.

Statistics are one thing. Photos are another. Yesterday, the New York Public Library posted on its blog a series of photos from classic New York and Philadelphia teams (all pulled, notably, from the Flickr Commons). The photos are fantastic – crucial, valuable bits of American history. (I’m particularly taken with this staged photo of someone sliding into second – you can get a sense for how long they held this action-packed pose by noting the blurred man in the background.)

The historical import of such images is reinforced by the Library of Congress’ baseball card collection. Fatima Cigarettes gave us the 1913 Phils and 1913 Yankees. That year, per Baseball-Reference, the Phillies came in 2nd in the NL; the Yanks, pre-Ruth, 7th in the AL. (The Philadelphia A’s, meanwhile, won the AL pennant, and the World Series.) Baseball cards still exist, of course, but target the collector market rather than kids, a transition made clear when, in the mid ’90s, Topps stopped including gum with the cards since the gum left stains. (Little known fact: Topps started as a candy company, using the cards to build gum sales.)

A few decades into the professionalized sport, radio became mainstream. The image is universal: pre-teen boys huddled around a console radio, pounding a fist into a glove, growing agitated over the travails of their favorite team. Sadly, much of this is lost to time, though some of the more memorable calls – like Bobby Thompson’s shot-heard-round-the-world – live on. Major League Baseball (MLB, which tightly controls its own history) has a collection it calls ”Baseball’s Best.”

Then came motion pictures and television. Some of the best footage comes from movie news clips – the first time video of games was presented in the now-familiar highlight-reel format. This video details the last time the Yankees and Phillies met in the World Series: a 1950 Yankees sweep. A dark time. There are any number of similar segments on YouTube – but much of the more modern footage is still only available through the MLB, leaving some fans to resort to other ways of getting their game footage fix.

The Web is dripping with baseball history, including fan sites, like Historic Baseball.com, and professional organizations like SABR, the Society of American Baseball Researchers. It reinforces the web history truism – the more interesting a subject is to a broad range of people, the more complete its history will become.

Of course, the history of the game of baseball continues to be written. Last night, for example, was the first World Series game ever played at the new Yankee Stadium. And like all of the best stories in history, it had a happy ending.