Results tagged ‘ AL West ’
Oakland, my Oakland
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
Maeball: Athletics vs Angels (blog)
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!
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