Can Hong-Chih Kuo stay healthy if he starts using a touch-screen computer monitor?
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Every day, my e-mail inbox is filled with story pitches. I get e-mailed by everyone imaginable, from batting glove manufacturers to civil rights activists. On Tuesday morning, I was e-mailed by a publishing company hoping to exploit the death of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to get the names of one of its authors in the newspaper. About an hour later, I was e-mailed by the representative of a university inquiring if I wanted to interview one of its business professors to talk about Steinbrenner’s effect on sports. That’s nothing out of the ordinary.
But the other day, I received what was – how can we say this? – certainly one of the most interesting pitches I’ve received in some time. The pitch came from a public relations firm representing MicroStar International, a Taiwanese computer maker that entered a “unique technology partnership” with the Dodgers last week.
Hong-Chih Kuo and Casey Blake were at the news conference announcing the partnership last week, and with Kuo having been selected to the All-Star team, the firm wanted to know if it would make me any more inclined to write about the partnership.
The e-mail included this gem:
“The computers are all-in-one models with multi-touch user interface (similar to iPad technology ... like Tom Cruise in Minority Report); meaning, no keyboard, no mouse -- just finger to screen. Will this be less strain for Kuo’s elbow?”
Ah, yes, that bloody mouse. Perhaps that what was responsible for Kuo’s four elbow surgeries.
But since it’s not my place to pass judgment, I ran the idea by Kuo.
Could the “multi-touch user interface” keep his elbow intact?
Kuo laughed.
“I don’t know about that,” Kuo said, still laughing. “I can try. I’ll try anything.”
So, there, MicroStar International, you got your wish. You got a mention on our blog.
-- Dylan Hernandez