Results tagged ‘ San Francisco ’
Great Pitching: Athletics vs Mariners
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.
An A’s Fan in San Francisco’s Mission: Recession Pro Sport
A perfect night after a hot day in Oakland is to meet up with my friends at the Coliseum and watch a night game. At the game we’ll get a few beers, eat some nachos, and cheer our crazy brains out. Nothing can replace it.
But now we’re in the thick of a recession and trying to cut back on spending (i.e. going to so many games, i.e. fun). What’s a crazed fan in the Mission to do?
While watching the A’s games at sports bars is supposedly the next best thing to seeing it live, I live in San Francisco where most sports bars will spit in your beer before changing the channel to an A’s game — unless they’re actually playing the Giants, in which case you can expect to have your beer spit on or served in the slowest manner possible. (I know, I know, it’s hard to be a Giants fan right now, it’s hurts to watch them loose) Also, hanging out at bars to watch a game isn’t exactly thrifty.
My friends’ got Comcast, which is nice, but then I have to hang out with her and listen to how her day was between plays. I can do it – but I’d rather not 4 nights a week, and anyway sitting in front of the TV is really boring.
Faced with a summer without the A’s, some buddies and I developed the perfect A’s workout/baseball recession plan. We go to the gym in packs, tell the guy behind the counter to change the channel (they hate to do it, so going in a pack is key here), and try to re-create the baseball game experience on elliptical trainers. Yeah, we’re drinking water instead of beer, and no, we’re not exactly working out very hard.
You see, the trick is to pace yourself. Most games last a few hours, so you can’t be falling over after 30 mins. It’s also important to go slow on the elliptical trainer for all the times Mark Ellis hits a double and you have to start shouting, punching up into the air, and high-fiving everyone near you. Because we all know what an idiot you’d look like trying to give a high five while speeding along on the stair climber.
It’s not all cardio, my friends, we like to throw in some weight training to start off the workout while listening to the first few innings on A’s radio on 106.9 KFRC (I love those announcers BTW). I like to do this for the big games, this way you get that power rush started early for the intense last innings. I also like to do some weigh training at the end of games too as a little cool down after an easy win (playing the Giants).
Like I said, nothing can replace a night game, but when you live in the Mission and you can hardly afford BARTing to work, you gotta work with what you’ve got.
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