Free localized sports--in realtime

One of the toughest things about being a local online sports fan is getting up-to-the-minute scores and play-by-play action on your favorite sports teams. Sure, you could watch the game on local TV coverage. But if you're a frequent traveler or just somebody who spends a lot of nights out, it's not easy to catch third-and-long every time it happens, especially when the team you follow is a high school football team, or worse still, a pro hockey team, whose games aren't often broadcast on the radio.

The answer? Your WiFi-enabled laptop, of course. Most large sports organizations like Major League Baseball and the National Football League now offer play-by-play game charts that are updated just seconds after each play. MLB's free online coverage (called "game-day" on your favorite team's home page) even gives you an animated field diagram with pitch-by-pitch updates, so even if you're in Timbuktu, you'll still get the realtime nittygritty on your favorite team.

Liveblogging has recently become a prevalent online outlet for local sports coverage, too. With many high school football games not being publicized until the next day, it's good to know some folks are liveblogging them. In the cab of your big rig on the way to Idaho on a Friday night, find a WiFi connection and you can still keep up on what happened in your kid's division II high school action. You'll be able to catch box scores updated in realtime if you know where to look.

Tags: baseball, blogs, football, hockey, liveblogging, sports