"It's a digital world and a handheld world," -- Lynx point guard Lindsay Whalen.
Some of the latest competition for cable and broadcast television in showing live sports events is coming from social media,
That will be in full effect Friday night when the Twins game at Houston is livestreamed by Facebook and the Lynx game at Phoenix is on Twitter.
Those streams are among the latest workarounds for people who are considering cutting the cord from cable and satellite TV.
Some details:
Both MLB and the WNBA have agreements to livestream games. On Facebook, 20 games are being shown on Friday nights this season using the home team's broadcast crew, which means a night away from Twins announcer Dick Bremer and whichever member of the five-man rotation of analysts is scheduled to be in Houston.
The game will be shown on MLB's Facebook page, which brings the added dimension of real-time comments (for better or worse) from livestream viewers. Or, as a Facebook official put it in an email: "Baseball games are uniquely engaging community experiences, as the chatter and rituals in the stands are often as meaningful to fans as the action on the diamond. ... Major League Baseball can re-imagine this social experience on a national scale."
The Lynx-Phoenix game is part of Twitter's 20-game package to stream WNBA games over the next three seasons. This will be the first time the Lynx have been on Twitter.
The Lynx will also be on Twitter August 25 vs. San Antonio and August 30 vs. Indiana.
For Minnesotans, the difference between the Twins and Lynx tonight is there is no local TV of the Lynx-Phoenix game, which means that fans would otherwise have to pay to watch the game on the web-only WNBA League Pass, which costs $1.99 per game and $16.99 for the season.
There's more about the WNBA's deal with Twitter on the Lynx web site.
And here's where you can watch the game on Twitter, even if you don't have an account.
