By Sean in DC

First off, my apologies.  I am off on vacation with my family this week, so I need to make this short.  Second, injuries are killing me!!  Third, for those two issues to arise at the same time is a bad, bad thing … let me tell you!

I’m sure many of you are on the go with work and/or family vacations and events that come up during the summer months.  I haven’t met a spouse or employer who consults a fantasy owner on his/her fantasy league schedule on a regular basis, so what do you do when you’re busy and Alex Rios, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria … who are all on your fantasy teams … go down?  This was my predicament last weekend.

The first scenario is that you just miss out on these events all together.  It’s this scenario that makes you realize that you cannot count on that local paper you get at your hotel of choice in the morning or the local sportscaster who tells you only about some local kid who is in the Olympics and completely fails to inform you that a quarter of your fantasy team just hit the DL. What’s the saying - ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’?  This was me five years ago.

The second scenario is that you are on the hook for all the news that’s important to you. Whether it be via your Blackberry with that browser that is almost impossible to navigate but is able to get you the box scores and game notes that are important to you … or you have email access and your buddy lets you know just so he can rub it in your face that your team is in chaos and he has Johan Santana who is pitching lights out lately.

The problem is you can’t get access to the Internet in a workable format so as to be able to do anything about it.  This is when you scream bloody murder and either 1) make a bee-line to the hotel bar to drown your sorrows or 2) scour the Yellow Pages and find yourself in some strange Internet café surrounded by strangers slurping down coffee and whom you are positive will somehow get access to all your personal info and wreak havoc with your credit rating as soon as you leave town.  All this and you just paid $15 for 3 minutes of Internet access so you could replace Alex Rios with Jack Cust.  This was me over the last few years.

The third scenario is a very different one … a very modern one. You see, a few weeks ago I stood in a long line at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning and plunked down my hard earned cash to purchase the latest gadget craze to strike the nation.  Yes, I bought an iPhone. Since then, I have been able to keep up with all my favorite fantasy writers and blogs via Google Reader whether on the morning train, in my office the day our computers went down, or while traveling 10 hours from home as I’m doing right now while typing this.  I was up to speed on the injuries pretty quickly and didn’t panic or cry.

What is most amazing to me about the iPhone is that I was able to get on the Internet and to all of my fantasy team sites - ESPN, Yahoo!, Sporting News, and Sportsline - and make the changes I needed.  Admittedly, it wasn’t as easy as if I had a nice big screen and full keyboard and mouse but I was able to do it fairly quickly and painlessly.  I am already sold on the idea that the iPhone is the best thing since sliced bread … and my fantasy teams agree.

For those of you that have been fortunate enough to get an iPhone, there are lots of cool “Apps” for it. Here are a few:

MLB At Bat - from MLB.com.  It delivers real-time scores and in-game video highlights of every game directly to your iPhone.

Baseball - Imagine all historical baseball player statistics immediately accessible on your iPhone (or iPod Touch)!  Major League stats from 1871 to 2007 are included, with no waiting for web access.  Great for resolving arguments at the ballpark, at the bar, or in front of your TV, it’s basically a portable baseball encyclopedia!

LiveSportz - Allows users to see live, play-by-play updates of any Major League Baseball game, with NFL football coming in the fall. The graphical display shows all the fielders and runners in position while also showing the score, the ball/strike count, and a description of the last play.

SportsTap - Gives you access to all the MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA, NASCAR, Formula One, IndyCar, AFL, PGA, LPGA, ATP, WTA, MLS, English Premier League, and UEFA Champions League scores and stats on iPhone or iPod Touch wherever you are.  SportsTap provides detailed box scores with in-depth team and player statistics as well as season statistics and transactions for many leagues.

There are also “Web Apps” that work through the Internet browser. Many of these work for other mobile phones as well. My favorite of these is ESPN.

I am still waiting for a good version of a Yahoo! web app to make Yahoo! fantasy changes easier, but in the meantime the actual browser works fine on my iPhone.

Now, at last, I can enjoy my family vacation without worrying about my fantasy teams.