Stories

Here are some stories I’ve written:

Recent – Business and Technology

Super Bowl Safety – State Tech magazine (February/March 2009 issue)
On Feb. 1, Don Sarginson will join 72,500 raucous football fans at Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium for Super Bowl festivities, from tailgate parties and the NFL Experience theme park to the 6 p.m. kickoff.But when the teams take the field, Sarginson won’t be watching from the stands. Instead, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy will join the FBI, the Tampa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies in securing the stadium from terrorist attacks, hostage-taking and other threats. They know they must protect the venue like linemen protecting their quarterback. But for this game, they’ll strictly play defense, deploying high-tech tools, such as sniffers for hazardous materials, X-ray imaging equipment and surveillance cameras inside and outside the stadium. More

Giving Healthcare a dose of IT – Baseline magazine (January/February 2009 issue)
Hospitals, medical clinics and doctors in private practice have long discussed the need to improve health care with information technology—such as computerizing patient records—but few have done it because of the cost and complexity. The Fallon Clinic in Massachusetts is among those taking action and making the vision of high-tech medicine a reality. More

CalBusiness – UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business (Fall 2008 issue)
Every Sunday during football season, Paraag Marathe feels partially responsible for whether the San Francisco 49ers win or lose. He doesn’t catch touchdown passes, kick field goals, or sack quarterbacks. But he signs the players who do. More

Let the Games Begin – BizTech magazine (August 2008 issue)
What do Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, comic book creator and toy designer Todd McFarlane and New York Times best-selling fantasy novelist R.A. Salvatore have in common? Successful in their respective fields, they’ve teamed up to strike it big in the video game industry, forming 38 Studios, a startup that’s generating online buzz within the gaming community even though its first PC game is more than two years from release. More

Sports

Book excerpt: “Giants: Where Have You Gone?”
Bob Brenly is having a rough week – and it’s about to get worse. His 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks are struggling with a 14-20 record and are mired in last place, eight and a half games behind the division-leading Dodgers. It’s only May 14, but the local media are already speculating his managerial job is in jeopardy. Ace Randy Johnson has made matters worse, first by publicly second-guessing him for pulling him from a 1-1 game in the seventh inning, a game the D-Backs later lost. Then yesterday, the southpaw flamethrower dissed the team after pitching brilliantly for the second time in a week, but still losing 1-0. More

Giants could learn from D-Backs’ rebuilding effort – San Jose Mercury News
Does this sound familiar? The team’s left fielder is the face of the franchise, the team’s slugger and once carried his team to the World Series. He’s near the end of his career and is a free agent, but he feels he can still play, wants to end his career at “home” and has publicly expressed his desire to do so. The team, however, is in the midst of a rebuilding effort and wants to get younger, so what does it do? In the case of the Arizona Diamondbacks, they cut Luis Gonzalez loose at the end of last year and committed to a full youth movement by deciding to let unproven rookies and second-year players play everyday, and they’ve been rewarded this year with an 81-63 record and a three-game lead in the NL West with 18 games to play. More

Giants fans head to the ballpark to watch… Warriors basketball – San Jose Mercury News
Last Thursday night, it’s cold and rainy, and I’m shivering in my seat when the crowd begins cheering for no apparent reason. I look at the field, at the scoreboard, and back on the field – and nothing is happening. A few seconds later, the crowd roars again. It’s around the seventh inning, the Giants are down two runs, and the few thousand diehard fans remaining in their seats on this dreary night aren’t even clapping. And then I realize: The booming cheers – that even players on the field could hear – are coming from inside the ballpark, where Giants fans are watching playoff hoops on TV. More