Yesterday, panic swept across the nation! If you’re not a sports fan, you probably didn’t even know it. For several long hours, the ESPN website was down. I realized the problem when I checked on a baseball score after coming out of a staff meeting. The Reds were ahead of the Cubs 2-0 in the fourth inning, which wouldn’t have triggered concern except that the Reds were ahead of the Cubs 2-0 when I went into the meeting an hour ago.
ESPN is good about alerting us to rain delays, and this wasn’t a rain delay. The top of the fourth inning wouldn’t last an hour, so I knew something was rotten in Denmark (or Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN is based). I picked up my smart phone, clicked on the Fantasy Sports app repeatedly and feared the worst. Those darn Russians have hacked into ESPN’s website and taken over. Soon, TASS would be broadcasting their games.
A search of the internet revealed the truth. The website was down for most users. There was panic in the streets. People kept clicking their ESPN app over and over, as the minutes became hours. A website called downtector.com had posts from desperate fantasy baseball fans bemoaning the fact that they couldn’t set their lineups. Fortunately, order was eventually restored to the universe, and ESPN was back in business by 6 p.m. CDT.
Doubting Thomas' Fantasy Sports 