Results tagged ‘ baseball ’
Sad Weekend for A’s Fans (with Bosox Friends)
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…
Bob Dylan was (is) an A’s fan
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.
Baseball and Men’s Health Magazine
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. 
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!
Refining the Maeball Game
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
Day Games
It’s top of the fourth, 2-0 Oakland, Bobby Crosby just hit a double with a broken bat…
Thank GOD for day games! Without day games, I’d be bored out of my mind right now, listening to NPR — which is fine and tolerable. But I’m far more productive and all around happier when I turn on my 106.9 KFRC at work. Do they broadcast A’s games on any Spanish-speaking radio stations? That’d be awesome.
Cust and Duchscherer at Macy’s
When I heard that Jack Cust and Justin Duchscherer were going to be signing autographs at Macy’s earlier this month, I took a well deserved day off of work and took myself out to a ballgame and then to Pleasanton for the signing. The game was awesome, I snuck down to the seats right above the A’s bullpen, had a beer in the sunshine, and watch Duchscherer close down the Tigers with the help of Cust’s home run.
Taking the BART over, I imagined myself getting my picture taken with the guys in some campy poses. Like Cust and I arm wrestling or Justin and I high-fiving. But when I got to Macy’s I realized my camera’s batteries were dead so I ran a dead sprint around the mall and down some road (in snake skin heels – why I wore heels to a ballgame is beyond me) to a liquor store for a disposable camera. The 16 year old clerk decided to hassle me about buying a cheap camera to “remember the night with” – what a jerk. I paid it no mind though, because soon I would be impressing my friends with the coolest A’s pictures they’d ever seen.
Which didn’t even come close to happening. I barely got my green sparkely jacket signed (they were only suppose to sign Macy’s baseballs) and was able to mumble out “good hussle” to Cust. He said thank you. In my imagination, though, I not only recounted to the guys how much joy watching games is for me, but thanked them from the bottom of my heart for their hard work and making summer fun. And somehow saying all of that would spark just a fraction of the absolute excitement and happiness I get from baseball in them.
I said good hussle and was herded out of line. But man, I’m telling you, the night before that Jack Cust (who isn’t know for his speed) outran the first baseman, driving Kurt Suzuki home to score the winning run. I was listening to the radio at my house and jumping for joy in the kitchen — and I truly meant good hussle!
I developed my disposable camera last night. Here are the pictures that came out (pretend that Cust and I are arm wrestling with snarky smiles as Justin looks on laughing — pretend that we’re all buddies and they know how much I appreciate them for playing with their hearts):
villagebicycle
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