When I'm shooting pool, I'll come right out and say that I'm trying to think like Jack Cust or I'll keep it to myself, secretly taking on his persona.  I'm usually behind, and that's where most people start to panic.  Not Jack Cust, who's got easy control, a good eye and doesn't let striking out bother him too much.  Jack's a great guy to be when you're playing pool, but right now I feel like Chavez.

I blew my back out - no big deal, but I thought it'd be good to take a  water aerobics class at the gym this week instead of watching games in the cardio room with my buddies.  There's a window above the pool that all the people coming in  pass.  The after work crowd, for the most part are hot and dedicated to their routines.  Now, having a pulled back muscle hurts, but being the only person in the pool under 70 years old -- and knowing that hot people are watching you is excruciating. 

At first, I was blocking it out, focusing on how great it felt to move without my back hurting.  I was next to two nice ladies who let me take the deeper end since I'm pretty much taller than everyone over 65.  Then we started doing these underwater punches that splashed all over the place; in our eyes, our mouths, getting the ladies next to me excited.  They started shouting about how tough they were and how they're going to kick some ***. "Whooo!"  "Whooo!" they echoed in the pool.  Others joined in and people walking by the window stopped to see what everyone in the pool was shouting about. 

That's when I started thinking about Eric Chavez being hurt all season and how everyone's busting his chops about it and how frustrating it must be for him to watch the A's get swept by the Royals (the Royals? the Kansas City Royals?  Really?  That happened?).  Just like all the people watching the old people and me bouncing around in the pool, everyone's watching Chavez and no one's giving him a break.  That's when I decided to become Chavez and play it cool, share some laughs with the ladies, and focus on improvement.

Pretending to be Jack Cust has never really helped my game, but you should see my Cust impression -- it's really good.  I walk to an open corner in the bar and say,  "Okay, okay, I'm in left field" and then I just look around with the expression of a puppy. 

And I'm definitely not ever going to another water aerobics class at my broke *** gym again.  But I'm also going to think twice before photoshopping pictures of Chavez in a wheelchair anymore -- and that's all I can do as a down-trodden A's fan.

I just entered to the most recent MLB contest and was given these instructions to follow.  Who actually goes through all these steps?  Promotions shouldn't make a fan/customer feel taken advantage of  -- just sayin'. 

You've just earned an entry into our weekly drawing for a Sharp AQUOS® 32" Class (31-1/2" Diagonal) LCD TV and now you're on deck to see if you're a potential instant winner. Please follow the steps below.

• Click PRINT GAME PIECE to print your instant win game piece.
• Locate a participating retailer by entering your zip code into retail locator.
• Bring your printed game piece to a participating retailer provided.
• Once at the participating retailer, hold up the printed game piece to the in-store display to find out if you're a winner.

Okay, maybe I'm a little tense on trading day.  Like an old friend with a cheap warm beer Ray Ratto of the SF Chronicle assuaged my fears by confirming them and telling me that the whole thing would be a big bore for both the A's and the Giants.  It was a surprisingly relaxing blow: don't bother believing in the A's or going to any more games this year, the A's are sunk.  They'll break your heart next year too, but if you hold on, they might be good in 2010. 

If Beane were my boyfriend, I would have dumped him a long time ago.  I'm sick of hearing, "it's gonna be better next year"  "we're going to really kick *ss later in the season" or "The A's are thinking 'long term'" "Just wait till you see what these prospects can do".  Not that I don't think Beans an awesome GM.  I wouldn't want anyone else to be our GM in fact, but it's just hard to put your heart into a team of promises.  Promises weaker than the cluttered ad campaigns I see on the BART everyday.  Promises without stories.  If we're a rag-tag team, then I want some good stories about it -- like the Dodgers.  They're full of great stories about their antics, and it just makes winning all the better.

I realize I'm a little too hard on the A's.  I'm sure they've got some great plans up their sleeves.   It's a sunny day in the bay, and I'm curious to see what unfolds by tomorrow morning.

(Friday night)

I'm waiting for the train home at the Coliseum's BART station, 11pm.  The cement seats smell like urine and I haven't quite come to terms with being in third place - the playoffs nowhere in sight.

We saw it coming.  The Rangers have out played us before.  In fact, every time that we've played them this year...

But let's go back to a time when the A's first landed in Tokyo as spring training's darlings; looking good in custom suits, ready to take on 2007's World Champions, and win the series. When summer had just begun and we were ESPN's top team.  Back when we could have done it, when the fan's had faith and when Stomper, the A's mascot, was merely a side show.

Stomer's got some hot dance moves.  He and some kid did a little hip hop dance show that ended with the kid doing a flip over Stomper's shoulder.  It was so sweet.

In fact, it might have been the only sweet aspect to tonights game against the Rangers where the A's just gave up half way through and started playing like the Giants.  Bay Area bottom feeders shoveling dirt over our graves one pitch and missed catch at a time.  Who cares about the A's now?

(Saturday Morning)

Okay, let's do the numbers.

The Game: Comparing the Alexa rankings (the lower the ranking = the higher the site's traffic) of the top sites from google web searches.  Whoever has the lowest total ranking wins!

Oakland Athletics Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search:

1.  mlb.com                                   #208
2.  wikipedia.org                             #8
3.  go.com                                     #65
4.  cnn.com                                   #53

Maybe what the A's need is a drama queen to sell more tickets.  My buddy's up in northern Wisconsin, camping outside of Lambeau Field with posters that read "Keep Favre in Green Bay" while Yankees fans try to determine who controls A-Rod's mind more: Cynthia's psychology or Madonna's Jewish mysticism.  Then there's Manny, who in my opinion is the preferred drama queen of the summer.  Not because I think violent temper tantrums against 60-year old men and teammates in the dugout are cool, but because at least his drama is about the game, about winning, about business, respect -- Manny's drama brings us back to the dirty steroid-pock-faced game of baseball while Duchscherer's just a soft-spoken sweety-pie All Star.  Even Beane's renegade trading can't compete with Coco Crisp's fame wh*ring fist fights.

Maybe the A's should sign on Barry Bonds for more hitting power and a drama queen.  I kid -- kinda.

In honor of Favre's camio in There's Something About Mary back in 1998 (that's right Favre, you were big 10 years ago, get over it buddy), I'm going to play the Meatball game comparing the press Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez are churning up (just like the true baseball champions they are). 

The Game: Comparing the Alexa rankings (the lower the ranking = the higher the site's traffic) of the top sites from google web searches.  Whoever has the lowest total ranking wins!

Since these boys are a part of a team, I'm googleing their names and their team names. "Manny Ramirez Red Sox" and "Alex Rodriguez Yankees", after all, it's not just about them.

Manny Ramirez Red Sox Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search:
mannyramirez.com/home.htm       #986,747
mannyramirez.com/news.htm       #986,747
mlb.com      #208
sportingnews.com            #5,050
sportsnetwork.com           #12,968
courant.com                    #12,781
shop.mlb.com                          #208
http://sports.yahoo.com                    #1
http://sports.espn.go.com                 #64
bostonherald.com            #4,001
theonion.com                  #1,729  (this one's a must read!)
http://www.bostondirtdogs.com        #43,776

Total: 2,054,280

Alex Rodriguez Yankees Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search:
nytimes.com                #101
mercurynews.com        #2,447  (that's great - the Mercury News doesn't show up for any A's google searches, but here it is with a story on A-Rod)
nationalpost.com          #7,911
mlb.com                                      #208
wikipedia.org                   #8
http://sports.espn.go.com             #64
http://www.usmagazine.com/        #1,949
mlb.com                                      #208
yahoo.com                                    #1
popcrunch.com      #3,990
nydailynews.com/     #1,354
mlb.com                  #208

Total: 18,449

Hey! A-Rod wins, but don't expect that to stop Manny from causing more drama through out the season.

Go get 'em boys.

Hey, we got some offense tonight! 

I was at work when Hannahan hit the 3-run homer.   It was so sweet.  I couldn't wait to go home.

The perfect way to run these reports is while I'm listening to the game on the radio.  Being able to watch these top blogs and websites as they put out incredible replays, trading theories and baseball trivia, is such an over stimulated rush!  You have the solid and true coverage from the radio announcers up against these off the wall, unknown, basement writers. I love it.  Okay, it's not quite as perfect as drinking beer in the sunshine of an actual game, where everyone's happy and rowdy and sweet as peas.  Little green peas - my A's fans from the bleachers.  Man, I can't wait for the A's to come back to town.

Better late than never...

I thought that the URLs were automatically linking to the pages, but they weren't so I fixed them.  While the URLs listed are the larger sites, each link will go directly to the page that lists the A's.  I'm also cutting out the news results this time around because I'm lazy tonight.  And I'll be honest.  The As' slump is a real pill for people, like me, who maybe sorta thought that we'd go to the playoffs or at least rank higher than the Rangers by the end of the season. 

God, you know your team's on a loosing streak when instead of reading the sports pages in the morning, you whimper about Barton's head staples while photoshopping yourself bleeding green and gold.  Yeah, I took the sweep a little hard.

Thank gawwwd for numbers, meatballs.

The Game: Comparing the Alexa rankings (the lower the ranking = the higher the site's traffic) of the top sites from google web searches.  Whoever has the lowest total ranking wins!

Oakland Athletics Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search:
1. mlb.com            #205
2. mlb.com            #205
3. en.wikipedia.org  #8
4. espn.go.com    #63
5. insidebayarea.com #22,205  (how did inside the bay area rank above the Chron on google?)
6. sportsillustrated.cnn.com   #53
7. yahoo.com  #1
8. sfgate.com #868
9. sportsline.com   #582 
10. athleticsnation.com    #147,922  (I don't know how they do it, but the writers for Athletics Nation are able to write amazing posts moments after a game finishes.  I love this site.)

Total: 172,049

*sigh*
Okay, can someone please flick one of Barton's head staples for good luck before I do the Yankees?

New York Yankees Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search:
1.  mlb.com  #205
2.  mlb.com  #205
3.  en.wikipedia.org   #8
4.  sports.espn.go.com   #63
5.  legendsfieldtampa.com  #2,017,615
6.  yahoo.com   #1
7.  sportsline.com    #582
8.  nypost.com    #1,038  (apparently, John McCain was at the Yankees game - and not cheering for the A's.  Dear Mr. McCain, you have lost my vote)
9.  mlb.com  #205
10.sportsillustrated.cnn.com  #53

Total: 2,019,965

Awwww, and here I was procrastinating because I couldn't stand another loss by the A's, when the A's win by a ranking of 1,847,916 -- and they owe it all to Legends Field (and wanting to flick Barton in his head staples).

So come on A's, let's rally!!!

Okay, so I missed out on the Yankee's/A's meatball marketing game this weekend.  It was a little depressing to watch the A's get swept.  Especially since I was so excited watch the A's get out onto the field after Beane's trades and kick some high-payrolled Yankee butt.  Didn't happen, and it was freezing in sunny San Francisco. wha wha whaaa.

My friend sent me this ESPN story about All Star uniforms through the years, and it cracked me up.  All the different uniforms in 1975 are soo Charlie Finley. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lukas/080715&sportCat=mlb

It's a new day, and I'm still curious about the A's vs. the Yanks.  But I don't want to take away from Eveland's game against Tampa Bay. 

So stay tuned and we'll see where I get today...

Seth Godin already has Meatball Sundaes, which I'm actually super excited read - but he A's play the Yankees tonight and what am I going to call my marketing game?

Pat Coyle recently followed up the Meatball Monday blog post with his thought on how it applies to sports stadiums.

Who do I get permission from to create a coupon code for 10% off a customers next ticket purchase from mlb.com?  The code would expire Sept 20th, and would be put up on every coupon website there is. With a nice big A's logo and link directly to the A's website. 

I think I'm going to use the name Meatball for my reports anyway.

I thought Blanton would have gotten traded before Harden.  I have an Oakland Athletics google alert, and I still had to be told about the news from a buddy in the office after word broke out.  I saw a picture of Harden in his new Cubs uniform today and it twisted in my guts.  It's hard to lose the players you like, but pitchers are what's keeping us in shape this year so we gotta go with what works. 

I subscribed to both Men's Health and The Sports Business Journal today, and I think I may have sprouted some chest hair...  A feature article in the Sports Business Journal is "Path to the Corner Office: Part 1, Landing the Job".  It's all about the career path to running at team, but my career path is more along the lines of Managing a Marketing or Web Ops department for a sports team.  When I imagine myself in that position, I picture a cross between Drew Barrymore in Fever Pitch, that guy from SNL also in Fever Pitch, and a wealthy NYC socialite/eccentric who lives in a castle above Central Park but charges the battery to her phone, computer, and electric heater with a stationary bike.  That, my friends, is the dream.  The dream is also to have a crisp, clean white three piece suit that I would wear with gold and green stilettos.  Power business woman with Oakland flair.  Of course, I could easily wear a white suit to work any time I wanted to, just as I could get a stationary bike that powers random electrical appliances.  But at the core, I want to work in the sports industry because there's so much going on: it's poetry, it's math, it's music, it's fashion, it's wheeling, it's dealing, it's nonsense, and it's -- it's baseball!  There's the business side of things, pushing sales, working massive cross promotions, filling up stadiums almost every night, and being able to keep up a strong presence in new markets.  Then there's catching and spreading that magical feeling of baseball.  School yard dreams, family tailgates; being an inspiration to people.  It's so exciting to think of and to see the different ways that people catch the small glimpses of that excitement you get when you first step into a stadium in online media.  I mean, that's what's so cool about this blog, is that people get to share all their stories, theories, and hair-brained "meatball" marketing games with each other.  And it's totally fascinating that blogging is such a solitary action, something people do alone and separated from the crowds and mess of baseball - but how we all completely gush over exactly that.

Man, if the A's wanted me to work for free dressed up on some Fremont street corner, giving out hotdogs in green and gold buns, I would do it.  I'm so sad about the poor attendance at A's games I'm about ready to buy 100 or so tickets and just give them out through different promotions like radio stations, boy and girl scout troops and the bad-attitude teenagers stuck in summer school, because they may be little jerks, but everyone needs to see a good game every now and again.

But seriously, what's the best way for a fan outside of the organization to support a team?  Please don't tell me to paint my face or put a flag on my car.
I could get some cheap fliers made with pictures of Jack Cust or Jack Hanahan that say: "They're not Swishy or Chavez, but they're A's, so get out there and start cheering".   I could start some community groups centered around going to A's games.  I could do some marketing for all those goofy A's blogs out there with a lot of traffic where every other link would be to the mlb shop or stubhub (I hate stubhub by the way)...

Hmmm. I'll have to think about this more later.  For now, I'll just set these three simple goals.

Goal #1: get more people to the Oakland Coliseum
Goal #2: get them to buy more beer and ice cream so the stands open back up.
Goal #3: beat the Angels for the AL West title -- and then beat the Cubs to win the World Series
 

Okay, maybe just a Catfish Hunter fan.  And rightfully so!  My friend emailed me this song today, just as I was about to post a blog about the perfect baseball hat and strong branding (boring!) and boy am I glad I didn't.

Listen.  Just listen to this all you A's fans of the world:
http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+Dylan/_/Catfish 

As a huge Dylan and bluegrass blues fan, this song is driving me wild!  I sit around waiting, praying, and dying for good A's songs like this.  That, and it totally validates all of the reading I do in the off-season about the history of the A's. 

I grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota on the banks of the Mississippi River, where Highway 61 cut across our land in front of the kitchen window.  My dad played music for fun and my mom was a church goer, meaning anyone to wash up at our house who could play an instrument would be given a pair of shoes from the Salvation Army, some dinner, and an audience.  Listening to Dylan's Catfish song hits me like it did when I first really heard Dylan.  I was 16, it was Like a Rolling Stone, and I thought, "Highway 61, that's me.  This is me.  The riverboat highway style, the lyrics -- it's me."  And now here I am, after a long day of work (I'm now in charge of  designing some awesome widgets for my company!!!), getting hit like that again by a Dylan song.  I sit around  reading and dreaming about the A's all day (March - October). This is me.  This song, the game, Duchscherer's pitching -- are me. 

I am a fan.  This is my gold and green heart.

So thank you Catfish Hunter.  Thank you A's.  And thank you Bob Dylan for singing what's there.

For more on excellent baseball commentary and fast facts visit Paste Magazine.  Seriously, you'll love it.  Especially their top 10 baseball songs.

I don't usually go to the NFL's website but I went today and was completely blown away by their site's clean organization, branding, and graphic design.  Also, they've got super cool Widgets to post on your blog, website, facebook, etc that lists quizzes, news headlines, and videos. 

http://www.nfl.com/tools

I realize I sound like a I've been paid by the NFL to write this, but no, I really just want something like this from the MLB.  A super cool widget that I can post on my blog with videos of the A's (past and present), A's quizzes, play by plays when games are going on, and of course all the latest in team trading.  I also want links to crazy trading-theory websites, because they crack me up (not as much as my own trading theories).  In fact, I would want to take the widgets thing a little further and have my own mlb profile -- not where I connect with friends, because I do just fine with that on myspace, facebook, linkedin, and whatever else I'm on -- but a profile that features all the latest MLB news that I care about.  How are Swish, Haren, Zito, and Harden doing now that they're on other teams?  Who's on the DL list with the A's right now?  I'd want to have a little collection of favorite MLB videos -- like when Cust had that awesome bunt earlier this year and actually beat the pitcher to first, getting Suzuki home and winning the game.  As well as a little collection of my favorite photos and MLB blogs.  Also, Susan Slusser is my favorite beat writer for the Chronicle - I'd want direct links to her stories in my profile to.  And since I'm making a wish list, I want Big Papi to be AOL's "You've got mail" voice -- like that one promo earlier this summer where you could have him call your friends.  I want him to say, "Hey!  Welcome back!" everytime I log into my mlb account, and I want Nick Swisher to say "Yee ha!" everytime I upload a new photo or post a new widget to my blog or Bengie Molina say "You gonna get that?" when I have new mail (and the new mail would be an awesome mlb promo directed specifically at my interests).  

The profile wouldn't really be to show off to other people like social networking site, but more just for me to login, get informed and check out all the things I like  -- in a super clear and organized way.  SUPER CLEAR AND ORGAINZED being key here.  A product with clean graphics that gets me pumped on baseball, keeps me coming back to mlb.com, and gives the site info on what fans like me want more of. 

So I'd get cool stuff to obsess over, and the mlb would be able to tell what's most interesting to their readership and be able to pitch merchandise and subscription products to them better.

God, can you tell I'm writing this while at work?  I sound a little too latte'd up on promotions, tracking, and viral marketing.  Oh well.

 

 

 

I always enjoy getting emails from the Oakland A's and the MLB about all their different promotions, but while I like hearing about my A's the emails are a bit busy.  Like, "whoa, where do I even start reading?" busy.  I realize there's a lot to promote and report in the emails, but busy doesn't always equal exciting.

Today is different.  Today clean equals power, and I'm happy to display the cleanest email I've ever gotten from the MLB.

My art-school writer friends make fun of me for it; I don't exactly fit the demographic being a 26 year old female who isn't necessarily obsessed with her fitness,  but I'm in love with Men's Health Magazine.  It's my literary candy.  When I'm feeling down in the dumps, or have questions about social interactions at work, problems in a relationship, or just need some solid advice on what to tell my boyfriend to wear when we go out to dinner, I turn to Men's Health.  Aside from Best Life, which is by the same publisher, Men's Health is the all time best magazine out today. 

That said, I'd really like to see a story in Men's Health where they interview baseball players (or any other sports stars - I prefer baseball player -- specifically A's players or course) who show that unmistakable raw intensity on the field but who are completely loving and gentle to their family and kids.

I was a little startled when I read a great blog post by Viki (http://tigervicki.mlblogs.com -- I love this blog BTW - Viki is rad, I can totally relate to her posts soooo much) about how she had been turned off from sports because her earliest memories were of her step father sitting on the couch yelling at a television.  She alluded to the fact that he wasn't a very gentle person otherwise and that his yelling at sports games was a scary experience.  Now imagine if your dad actually were on the field playing and yelling with that same crazed passion.  How do sports stars let go of the game, let go of that absolute drive when they get home?  Do they?  I find it hard to believe that all sport stars are just mean and nasty fathers who have temper-tantrums at a moment's notice -- but then again, I don't know any sports stars, maybe it comes with the territory.  Regardless, I'd like to read about great guys who have that strength to accomplish amazing feats day in and day out, but who are able to put it aside and just relax around there kids - let their kids be what they want to be, etc.

And since I'm an A's fan, I'll say it: I think Men's Health should interview Eric Chavez for this story.  He's got that outstanding capacity to make amazing plays and just shrug each and every one of them off.  Hearing him in interviews, he just seems like he'd be a great dad.  And, I'd like to hear about how he related to his family and team members while recuperating from such serious injuries.

There are a lot of other baseball players that, like Viki's blog, are so serious, it's scary.  Sure they have endurance, sure they can hit and make insane catches, but they're not level headed and it almost makes me shutter to think of them having a family life.  Jose Canseco comes to mind.  I know, he's an easy target, but reading Juiced made me feel that he was a really passionate man, sure, but also, ummm, a bit of a loose cannon. 

So there, Men's Health, if you're reading this write about great guys who don't necessarily find the balance of temperament, since their jobs train them to be out of balance - to always go the extra mile, but to find a place where they can meet the challenges of fatherhood in the right frame of mind.

My dad is a truck driver and a farmer who is an insane work-aholic.  He's a goofy, goofy guy (too much time on the road, I think) who wasn't too much into sports but loved to fall asleep on the couch in front of John Wayne movies.  I watched a lot of John Wayne growing up with dad asleep on the couch and me tucked into his heavy arms.  And it's funny, but hearing about John Wayne or even watching John Wayne movies today don't make me feel nostalgic for those times -- oddly enough, it's Nick Swisher (http://nickswisher.net) who really makes me miss my dad.  There's something about the way he shrugs off a strike out -even when you can see that he's totally pissed.  Or all that ridiculous country music he's got up on his website -- or his "work hard. play hard." tagline.  Dear god, I can just imagine Swish and my dad drinking beers in our backyard singing along to "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" playing on an old radio and laughing their heads off. 

I always think Meatball whenever I see Maeball.  Maybe I should just change the name to: The Meatball Web Report.  Then I can create a logo with some spaghetti noodles or something.  I like that much more than my actual name - what would I use as a logo with my name, a picture of myself?  So boring. 

I know it's a little early for a re-branding campaign, but I'm officially changing this to: The Meatball Report

Then again, maybe I should just get some lunch.  As you may or may not have noticed, I'm not standing in line to receive my Dave Stewart 1980's jersey at the A's/Angels game this morning.  I thought about it: waking up at the crack of dawn only to watch non-fans get the shirt and leave the coliseum just when the coliseum needs them the most.  I thought about drinking Pyramid's Apricot Ale from the bleaches in the sun and cheering on my boys as I worked on a tan, but I've decided to go boating with some friends today in the Bay.  Yes, freezing windburn over baseball, so summer choices are made.

Let's do the numbers!

The Game: I'm comparing the Alexa rankings (the lower the ranking = the higher the site's traffic) of the top sites from google web and blog searches.  Whoever has the lowest total ranking wins!


Oakland Athletics Alexa rankings of top Google Blog Alexa Ranking:
          Related Blogs:
              oaklandathletics1.info                #4,556,786
              mlbnewsblog.com                     #1,220,435
              athleticslocker.com                 #21,362,586
              oaklandathleticsjournal.blogspot.com      #21,410,917
              athleticshomeplate.com           #100,000 (it's driving me crazy that this blog doesn't have a ranking)
1. howdydoodyijnaq.th3blogs.com         #662,897 (the most boring of all the stupid non-fan sites in the world - obviously owned by ebay)
2. mbd.scout.com                              #1,508 (wow, this blog is the coolest ever - I love it!)
3. mlntherawfeed.squarespace.com      #6,271
4. betus.com                                     #9,157  (this site is perfect for all those days at work when I want to talk about baseball stats, but no one else cares so I break it down into "I'll bet you a can of coke Zito blows it" and they say "yeah, sure whatever, Mae")
5. ballhype.com                            #9150  (claims to have the "best stories, biggest fans" but I see nothing of the sort.  Still, great rankings, the A's should zero in on them)
6. devonyoung.com                        #2,067,359 (this blog was a harsh reality for A's fans, even though I don't agree with every point Devon makes -- they're competitive but the AL West does not belong to Texas, thank you)
7. sportsbooks.com                      #379,316 (I think the ebay blog may have been more exciting than this one)          
8. theolympian.com                       #59,463 (the Olympian is cool, they're keeping baseball fire's alive - why am I not seeing any good sports blogs showing up from the Oakland Tribune?  I mean, come on, Oakland is a part of my search term - what does it take?)
9. athleticsnation.com                    #151,529
10. blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com    #34,010 (Seattle is a baseball city!)

Total: 52,020,384

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Alexa rankings of top Google Blog Alexa Ranking:
          Related Blogs:
              halofan.livejournal.com                #53  (I hate livejournal blogs)
              mvn.com/mlb-angels                  #28,634
              angelswinblog.blogspot.com       #3,655,700
              mlb.com                                   #206
              angelshomeplate.com                #100,000 (okay, what are these team "homeplate" blogs and why don't they have a ranking?  They're all really tacky and whoever's running them needs to take down the Google ads and get A. some decent content and B. real advertising.  These sites are an eye sore.  Conjunctivitis - these sites are the pink eye of baseball blogs.  Whoever's running these needs to pull themselves out of their martini glasses or whatever funk of life their in and get these puppies off the ground.  They have so much potential to be a great guerrilla marketing tools.  Ahem...*stepping off soapbox* lets get back to the numbers)
1. devonyoung.com                #2,067,359  (I like this Devon Young guy - I like him a lot)
2. sportsbooks.com               #379,316
3. searchforvideo.com            #6,733
4. squarespace.com              #6271
5. angelswin.com                  #7,843,825
6. jasonkearney.net               #3,211,617
7. ncsportsmagazine.blogspot.com      #6,711,608
8. athleticsnation.com            #151,529
9. ryanspoon.com                  #237,737
10. misandryreview.com         #4,896,225

Total: 23,052,541

Winner: Angels

Well bummer, I thought maybe the A's would pull ahead in the blog arena because, well, I have no good reason why they would - they live in a larger metro area and win more games - but it was all I had to hope for today after losing the series.  But it looks like the Angels are all around winners.   Damn you red sparkly Disney magic!

I was thinking that I would change the Maeball game a little for the All-Star break by comparing each individual player's websites and find out who is more popular, the American or National league.  It's going to take a lot of work, so it probably won't be figured out in one night.

Now onto the American West Division rivals: The Oakland A's and Los Angles Angels of Anaheim.  But first, I want to say that Pixar (based in Oakland) needs to come up with a movie about the A's similar to Disney's Angels in the Outfield.  I realize that Disney owns the Angels and Pixar, but the A's really need some California movie magic poured over their ticket sales. 

Possible ideas for movies:
Athletics from Outerspace 

Okay, so that's the only idea I have.  But that's a good one.  The Athletics come from another planet, much like superman, and save the world from something big and scary.

Back to number crunching.  I don't have a calculator, so forgive me if this is all wrong.

The Game: I'm comparing the Alexa rankings (the lower the ranking = the higher the site's traffic) of the top sites from google web and blog searches.  Whoever has the lowest total ranking wins!

Oakland Athletics Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search:
1. oakland.athletics.mlb.com          #206
2. athletics.mlb.com                      #206
3. wikipedia.org                             #8
       News Results for "Oakland Athletics"
             1.  canadianpress.google.com      #2 (I can't believe Google owns Canadian Press)
             2.  mercurynews.com              #2,407 (yay!  the mercury news got onto the google search this time around!)
             3. ap.google.com                    #2  (Google really owns the Assoc. Press, sheesh)
4. espn.go.com                     #2891
5. sportsillustrated.cnn.com   #52  (sports illustrated finally made it onto the search)
6. sports.yahoo.com              #1  (how is it that yahoo is #1?  They don't own the AP)
7. sportsline.com                  #3,517 (CBS website)
8. oaklandfans.com           #4,986,045  (Coolest website ever!!  Go Oakland!!)
9. sfgate.com                        #860
10. athleticsnation.com             #151,529

Total: 5,138,434

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search:
1. angels.mlb.com                         #206
2. wikipedia.org                                 #8
3. tickco.com                             #32454
        New Results for "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim"
            sportsnetwork.com          #12,927
            sportsnetwork.com          #12,927
            sportsnetwork.com          #12,927
4. foxsports.com                        #282
5. sportsillustrated.cnn.com         #52
6. sportsline.com                        #571
7. baseball-almanac.com             #34,271
8. mlb.mlb.com                           #206  (I don't really understand why mlb.mlb.com goes to an angels page, or why it's so far down on google's top search - but there it is)
9. latimes.com                          #491
10. sports.yahoo.com                 #1

Total: 107,098

Angels win by a ranking of 44,431

There's a lot of new sites popping up on the searches.  I'm excited to see what I pull up in the blog search. 

Go A's!

I recently emailed the Oakland A's customer service and asked if WiFi was available in the Mcafee Coliseum.  They replied that it wasn't, but when I brought my laptop to the game tonight, I found that customer service had lied.  I know, I know, the A's are playing the Angels - why would I want to bring my computer?  Why would I want to even bring my cell phone?

Well, I'll tell you.  I'm a writer, I'm a marketer, and I'm a fan.  Being a fan means that I find a lot of relaxation and enjoyment from being at games, jumping up and down, and shouting my head off.  I also find a lot of inspiration.  Inspiration for new ideas on promotions, blog posts, and who knows what.  I could, and should bring a notebook and be happy, but tonight I brought my laptop and I'm glad I did. What I'm not happy about are all closed down beer and ice cream stands.  It's a full stadium tonight, and all of these people have to wait in tremendous lines while stands like these are locked up.  Dear A's: I will buy enough beer and ice cream to keep these stands open. What gives?







 

I've got a feeling that yesterday's activity with pull the A's ahead of the Mariners for the blog traffic report.  That's just my hunch  -- I mean, who doesn't want to know the minute details of every A's trade?  Families across the country were gathering in front of their favorite blogs yesterday to catch up on Duchscherer's wheeling and Beane's dealing.   (This blog is seriously turning me into a nerd) 

Lets do the numbers!

You know the drill: I'm comparing the Alexa rankings (the lower the ranking = the higher the site's traffic) of the top sites from google web and blog searches.  Whoever has the lowest total ranking wins!

Oakland Athletics Alexa rankings of top Google Blog Search:
       Related Blogs:
                            oaklandathletics1.info      #4,559,548
                            mlbnewsblog.com           #1,294,300
                            oaklandathleticsjournal.blogspot.com      #21,409,306
                            athleticslocker.com         #21,377,100
                            athleticshomeplate.com      No rank = automatic #100,000
1.)  netvibes.com      #4,489
2.)  athleticshomeplate.com      #100,000
3.)  rodrigo3192.th3blogs.com      #746,357
4.)  theolympian.com         #59,890
5.)  msnbc.com      #2,087
6.)  nwsource.com   #33,913
7.)  squarespace.com      #6,230
8.)  athleticsforlife.net    No rank=automatic #100,000  (Ooh my god, I'm in love with this blog!)
9.)  sportsbooks.com      #370,535
10.) thegreatamericanpastime.blogspot.com      #9  (this isn't actually a high traffic site, it's just a blogspot site and it screwing with my game - grrrr)

Total: 50,163,764

Seattle Mariners Alexa rankings of top Google Blog Search:
       Related Blogs:
                         nwsource.com   #33,913
                         ussmariner.com   #68,192  (blog actually has nothing to do with baseball - should I disqualify it?)
                         seattlepi.nwsource.com      #1,085
                         marinerlocker.com            #21,404,190
                         mlbnewsblog.com            #1,294,300
1.)  betus.com      #9,137
2.)  dortheakvns.th3blogs.com      #746,357
3.)  drivelinemechanics.com         #879,181
4.)  btlsfan.com         #171,258
5.)  theolympian.com      #59,890
6.)  ballhype.com               #9,187
7.)  deepcenterfield.wordpress.com         #24,613,461
8.)  marinershomeplate.com         #No Rank = automatic 100,000
9.)  umpire.ca         #5,995,023
10.)  jacqueline5983.th3blogs.com   #746,357

Total:  56,131,531

Winner:  The Oakland Athletics by a ranking of  5,967,767

Well, you never know what's going to turn up with a blog search.  The Mariners definitely have better bloggers over at the Seattle PI.  I'm curious as to why the Contra Costa Times hasn't showed up in any of my searches yet...hmmm, oh well, I guess.
            

Maeball game: Athletics vs Mariners  July 8, 2008 (game 2 of series)

The dorkiness starts here -- it's time for another round of Maeball!  This series' match up is the Oakland Athletics vs the Seattle Mariners.  Man, remember last year when Joe Blanton got in a fist fight with the Mariners?  What a weird day.  I was sitting in section 217, grabbing onto my friend's arm shouting, "Oh my god! Oh no!  Oh my God!" as it went on.

Right now, I'm in my kitchen, I'm listening to the A's game on the radio as Duchscherer pitches the top of the 7th; Athletics 2, Mariners 0.  I'll wait for another post to tell you about my dream last night where Rich Harden was playing for the Cubs in the World Series.  How I had texted my buddy in LA about it at 8am this morning, asking him what he thinks Beane is up to - man, what a day! 

This post, however, is all about marketing; and in that vain, I'm curious to see if all the money the Mariners have notoriously wasted away this year has had any affect on their online popularity.  Are people talking about them more online because of their losing season (18 games below 500, I believe - ouchie!)?  Or, is the A's recent news of trading Harden and Gaudin for Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, and Matt Murton enough to raise traffic on sites discussing the Athletics?  What we're comparing is the extended negative coverage of the Mariners this season and the sudden press the A's have suddenly received from the Harden trade.

You know the drill: I'm comparing the Alexa rankings (the lower the ranking = the higher the site's traffic) of the top sites from google web and blog searches.  Whoever has the lowest total ranking wins!

Seatttle Mariner's Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search:
1.) mariners.mlb.com    #206
2.) mariners.mlb.com    #206
3.) wiki.org    #8
    NewsResults
        1.) freep.com     #3,732
        2.) ap.google.com    #2
        3.) canadianpress.google.com   #2
4.) seattletimes.nwsource.com    #1,085
5.) baseball-almanac.com    #34,447
6.) sportsillustrated.cnn.com    #52
7.) seattlepi.nwsource.com    #1,085
8.) yahoo.com        #1
9.) blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com    #33,913

Total:1117,232


Oakland Athletics' Alexa rankings of top Google Web Search
1)  athletics.mlb    #206
2)  athletics.mlb    #206
3)  wikipedia.org    #8
    NewsResults
        1.)sportsnetwork.com    #12,883
        2.)bloomberg.com    #657
        3.)canadianpress.google.com    #2
4.) espn.go.com    #61
5.) nytimes.com    #206
6.) sportsline.com    #562
7.) cnn.com    #52
8.) sfgate.com    #861
9.) athleticsnation.com    #149,734

Total: 165.019

Mariners win...but...

Holy Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!  Duchscherer just pitched a full shut out game in 1 hour and 49 minutes with just two hits from the Mariners.  He's got an ERA of 1.78!!!!!!!

Duchscherer, American League All Star steals the show from Harden's trade but not from Seattle's bad press.  Mariners win in San Francisco by a 47,787Alexa ranking, but lose in Oakland by 2 runs.

Both teams need to invest get more mlb domains (ie oakland.athletics.mlb.com, and athletics.mlb.com).  I don't know how of if that's possible, but that's what they need.  More domains and content mean more traffic views.

Seattle needs to put more content into nwsource.com, freep.com, and thebaseball-almanac.com.  The Athletics need to  work on the Sports Network and Athletics Nation.  Athletics Nations has once again become an awesome blog with posts titled: We're Not as Rich Now, But We Still Have Duke posted by Nico.  It's good to see a site with such potential writing great posts.

So, what is have here is C.C. Sabathia, featured in Bay Area car commercials, playing with the Milwaukee Brewers going up against Rich Harden and the Cubs for the National League's Central title.  How does this affect the Athletics' road to the American League's West playoffs?  I'd love to hear what you think.

I didn't get to blogs today - maybe tomorrow evening.  

I asked for some feedback from Seth Godin about making my new A's marketing game a little more refined and easier to read.  Alexa rankings aren't always the most accurate.  Seth suggested I check out compete.com which is a great site for looking into what keywords your competitor's sites are receiving the most traffic from, but not so great at getting hard site rankings to compare teams with. 

Unlike competing companies, all MLB teams have a MLB site, which gives them all the same rankings and search word components.  Also, I can only view data up through May, 2008 - which is ridiculous if your tracking online marketing.

So after much deliberation, I'm going to stick with the Alexa/Google data for my popularity contest and note some interesting stats along the way.

For instance sites that receive the most traffic from the keyword MLB are:
mlb.com
go.com
yahoo.com
sportsline.com
foxsports.com

Which means that these are the top 5 sites people are going to for mlb sports coverage.  The more the A's or any team is mentioned on these sites, the more popularity and revenue they should be drawing in.

Top sites for the keyword Baseball:
mlb.com
live.com
msn.com
wikipedia.com
mirasearch.com

Top sites for the keyword Oakland Athletics:
mlb.com
untd.com
yahoo.com
wikipedia.com
msn.com

This is a list of the 10 high traffic sites that have the most common A's keywords.  13 sites total if we include the top sites that came up when I googled  "Oakland Athletics" the other day (sfgate.com, athleticsnation.com, and tickco.com)  13 sites that the A's should target before all others. 

But how to get mentioned more in these sites?  Constant press releases (ie Nick Swishers growing his hair out last year), winning more games, expensive advertising, celebrity gossip/endorsements, or pulling together an army of bloggers who write about a team each day and slowly generate stories for the larger sites?  I'm not sure, but apparently the Chicago Cubs, Yankees, and Red Sox do.

The most common keywords/search terms that directed traffic to MLB.com  are:
mlb
mlb.com
Chicago Cubs
Yankees
Red Sox

I would have to pay the compete.com to pull up the complete list of mlb teams in order of traffic they bring to the MLB.com site.  I'm curious as to what do these teams get from the MLB for directing the most traffic and sales to the site?

I would love to pick someone's brain about this -  if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to get more information, read the information, and make a game with the information, please email me at:  rebeccamaeschultz at gmail dot com

Tracking the A's

I'm interested in the Oakland A's popularity on the web compared to the teams they're playing almost as much as I'm interested in winning the games so I came up with a little game of my own.

Here are some basic stats that I'm going to report on from Alexa.com. I'd really like to do a more integrative report, where I compare sports coverage on TV game ratings, but for general comparisons Alexa will do fine.

Oakland A's vs Chicago White Sox: July 4th, 2008

I took the first page that comes up when I search "Oakland athletics" and "Chicago White Sox" in both a web and blog google searches.  The sites listed on these first pages are then ranked by Alexa according to the traffic they receive.  This way, we can see who's writing about the teams and how popular these sites are.  Whichever team gets the lowest Alexa ranking (with Alexa higher traffic = lower ranking number) wins!  

Searching "Oakland Athletics" only gives us a small percentage of sties that are actually writing about the A's.  Other search terms could include "A's", "Oakland A's", "Althletics", etc.  But for the sake of simplicity, let's just stick to Oakland Athletics.

Google Web Search "Oakland Athletics" page 1 sites and their Alexa ranking:

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com        #205
http://athletics.mlb.com          #205
http://en.wikipedia.org      #8
http://sports.espn.go.com     #61
http://www.sfgate.com      #859
http://sports.yahoo.com      #1
www.sportsline.com      #543
www.athleticsnation.com      #151,738
http://shop.mlb.com      #205
www.tickco.com     #29,858

A's Web Total: 183,683

Google Blog Search "Oakland Athletics" page 1 sites and their Alexa ranking:

http://athletics.mlbnewsblog.com      #1,284,550
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com      #2,106
http://mbd.scout.com      #1,533
http://ballhype.com      #8,899
http://blog.libero.it/thedfense/5015509.html     #156
http://oaklandasnews.livejournal.com      #53
http://point-spreads.com     #102,041
http://www.btlsfan.com      #171,335
http://www.athleticsnation.com      #151,738
http://www.athleticshomeplate.com       No Alexa Ranking (site's traffic is too low - not in top 100,000)  Automatically gets ranking of  #100,001

A's Blog Total: 1,822,412

Google Web Search "Chicago White Sox" page 1 sites and their Alexa ranking:
http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com      #205
http://en.wikipedia.org      #8
http://sports.espn.go.com      #61
http://www.sportsline.com      #543
http://www.stubhub.com      #2,978
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com      #974
http://www.baseball-almanac.com      #34,058
http://sports.yahoo.com      #1
http://www.tickco.com      #29,858
http://www.chicagotribune.com      #974

CWS Web Total:  69,660

Google Blog Search "Chicago White Sox" page 1 sites and their Alexa ranking:
http://www.betus.com      #9,049
http://www.whitesoxlocker.com      #10,387,755 (ouch!)
http://whitesox.mlbnewsblog.com      #1,284,550
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com      #2,106
http://www.youtube.com       #3
http://blog.libero.it/thedfense/5015509.html      #156
http://point-spreads.com      #102,041
http://www.emueagles.com      #636,467
http://bleacherreport.com      #8,236
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com      #3,651

CWS Blog Total:  12,434,014

Google Web Winner:
Chicago White Sox

Google Blog Winner:
Oakland Athletics

Overall Winner:
Oakland Athletics

Summing up:
The Chicago White Sox won by a ranking of 114,023 on the web search, which is the most popular kind of search, meaning that the White Sox are probably selling more tickets and merchandise because they're generating more fans.  (I'm guessing that if people love the Sox enough to send traffic to blogs and sites, they love the Sox enough to buy tickets and merchandise)

Athleticsnation.com has a great google ranking, but their Alexa ranking is through the roof.  The A's can take advantage of having a site with such a great google ranking by investing in some advertising on the site or start pitching content to the writers for more accessable posts.  Come on A's, Athleticsnation.com has an amazing google ranking, give them some love and attention - it will pay off in a big way.

I think the CWS may have won if we had some actual stats on the Athleticshomeplate.com site.  The Athletics Home Plate site has soooo much potential as a site that could generate a lot of ticket/merchandise sales and general popularity for the A's.  Love and attention guys, that's all these sites need.

Also, Yahoo is #1 in Alexa rankings - both teams should be working to get as much posted about their teams on Yahoo as possible right now.

Last year, my friends an I were jumped at the Rockridge BART station after an A's day game.  It was a big bummer - two drunk guys from the game picking on us because I guess girls in A's gear look like easy targets.  As we left the BART station, they followed us, spit on us, and eventually threw some punches at us before taking off.

I don't remember who the A's played that day, but I do remember that Joe Kennedy was pitching and I was so angry that Bob Geren didn't take him out of the game sooner.  Needless to say, I don't have great memories of spending my last 4th of July with the A's.

That was until I went to last Friday's game against the SF Giants.  I'd had a super busy/stressed out week and decided to take myself to the A's game before going home or even talking to anyone that night.  The great thing about the A's is that you can scream and yell and jump and wave your arms around -- and just get everything out of your system before returning to the real world of responsibilities.  And this was a game to shout and jump and really cheer about, you could feel the energy from the coliseum all the way from the Fruitvale BART stop.  At the game, fans were wild, passionate, and friendly.  I splurged on a nice seat above the A's bullpen.

While the game was great and I'll share some other post, my favorite part was when the big screen played highlights from some Bull riding competition, when some cowboy had gotten his hand stuck in the saddle and was being repeatedly trampled and horned by the bull.  The clowns ran out in a storm of dust and distracting colored waving, but could do no good.  This cowboy was going to get trampled, his arm locked tight to the bull's back, and the bull's horn's  locked hard into the cowboy's ribs.  The highlights started to the usual cheer of the crowd until the crowd realized that the cowboy was a dead man and that they were witnessing a bloodbath.  With my hands covering my mouth, nervously laughing, I looked around at the crowd - most of who's faces were also covered by their hands, their brows were
furrowed in concern and an overall gasp of "Dear God!" seemed to ride through the coliseum like a terrified wave.

The cowboy was eventually released and surprisingly walked away from the angry bull much to the satisfaction of many a sensitive, vegan Bay Area fans.  And then they played the replay in slow motion and the crowd yet again gasped in disbelief of the raw violence played on the screen. 

It was great.  I've been to more bullfights in Montana than friends' birthday parties.  I love every second of it, and it brought back a memory of last year's 4th of July where they showed replays of the hot dog eating contest again and again on the big screen.  And as the half chewed chunks of hot dog meat spewed from the contestant's nose and over-stuffed mouth, and as the crowed watched in horror as the screens kept playing the vomit explosion, my friends toasted America and the Oakland A's.  You can't plan a perfect comedy like that!

Go A's!

The A's are playing the White Sox tonight, which I am super excited to watch.  This past April was my first time every visiting the South Side of Chicago.  It reminded me of when I lived in Wisconsin and visited my mom's office where everyone smoked.  I'm not sure what about the South Side brought back that particular memory, but there it was - clear as a bell.

The North Side, where I went to my first Cubs game (they played Milwuakee!!) reminded me of a Midwestern Brooklyn, which I guess is what it's going for.  What is a Midwestern Brooklyn?  A little more white, a little older, but just as trendy a crowd as the actually Brooklyn, I guess.   At times it reminded me of Greenpoint and Park Slope.

But enough about that, to get pumped on playing the White Sox, I visited my old friend, Nick Swisher's website.  Nickswisher.net.  I could go on an on about how much I LOVE Nick's site, but for now, I'll just keep it to this entry in his blog:

Hey, did you hear the story about how Jason Giambi bought a gold thong and wore it under his uniform to get his bat going?...(baseball players are very superstitious!)...But I can top G... my secret weapon has been Toby Hall's pants.... yes folks...the traveling pants! I've been wearing TDog's pants to shake up the 'ol mojo and I'll continue to wear them...I think we have a thing going with lucky pants! Ozzie has worn the same uniform pants every day since our winning streak began....7 days in a row --same pants....no washing! Now you gotta love that!

Nick Swisher is both the disgusting, loud mouth little brother running around the house in his unwashed junior varsity uniform and the sweetest, funniest, good-time guy in major league baseball today.

Go get em Swish!  (but let the Sox lose anyway)