When I was living on the East Coast for a decade, I became so
desperate for Padres baseball that I started Alta Vista-ing some of
those newfangled weblogs that were marginally covering the Padres. Over
time, blogs started maturing, gaining followings, and finally, last
season, really getting the attention of the team. I still remember how
excited I got when I discovered
Gaslamp Ball
and could watch the Rally Unicorn (TM) do it's magic to help the Padres
win, when I found The Sacrifice Bunt and could read Melvin's in depth
articles on Padres statistical minutiae, or when I found Geoff Young's
writing on mid 90's Padres obscure players and Steve Poltz (which
convinced me to buy each version of the Ducksnorts Annual). Basically, I
could watch Baseball Tonight for an hour and catch 15 seconds of Padres
highlights in the last 2 minutes of the broadcast, or I could start
reading Padres blogs.
Anyways, it's a totally
different world now. Blogs are pulling in many thousands of readers a
day, or in the case of Padres Jagoff, many ones of readers a day.
Gaslamp Ball is part of the ubiquitous big business of SB Nation,
Friarhood is producing and selling a number of awesome shirts to go
along with in depth coverage, and a collection of smaller Padres blogs
entered into a joint venture that resulted in Padres Public. Seriously,
who could have guessed that mergers and acquisitions plus joint
ventures would be a part of the Padres blogosphere. The Padres had
always thrown a few bones to the larger blogs, maybe at least
acknowledging they existed and occasionally granting some short
interviews. Tom Garfinkel did a great job of at least trying the social
media thing, occasionally tossing out some seat upgrades via the
Tweeter. But last season, it seemed like Garfinkel's last hurrah was to
really try and embrace the bloggers. The team and their new TV
partner, Fox Sports San Diego, really started pushing the social media
thing. Whether this was an initiative created by Garfinkel and his
office, or from some lame consultants that told the Padres they needed
to embrace the hot new buzzwords like social media, at least it
happened.
While much of the Padres social media
initiative involved either Padres Public and Gaslamp Ball, it was nice
to see the blogging community recognized. In Spring Training, FSSD had a
handful of bloggers provide color commentary (Mike Dee, I will
literally fellate you if you select me for this this season. AND
SWALLOW) for an inning at a game. FSSD also started featuring Social
Media Tuesday which basically just involved a lame Twitter poll and a
couple Tweets shown at the end of the game. The Padres Social Media
Night has been an annual occurrence, and 2013's was fantastic, offering
many of us the last chance to meet the great Jerry Coleman before his
sad passing.
In addition to the Padres' efforts, I
think many of the blogs have done such a great job that the bloggers,
for me, are almost as famous as the players on the field. When I'm
walking the Petco corridors and run into Jbox, Rick from RJ's Fro or Sac
Bunt Melvin, I feel like I should pull out a baseball and get their
autographs. God knows what I'd do if I ever met Dex. Meeting Dex would
be like the equivalent of pulling a super rare, limited edition hand
signed baseball card out of a pack. THAT'S SCARCE! Padres Public's
Padres and Pints has brought in local TV celebs and made the Padres
Public dudes into multimedia stars (invite me on! I like binge drinking
and Padres!).
Looking at 2014, I expect more of
the same. The only question is if the Mike Dee regime will value the
bloggers as much as Tom Garfinkel. So far, I haven't seen any evidence
of outreach other than converting the terrible suite off the Padres
store that rarely got bought into a Social Media Lounge for FSSD. The
big question is if Mike Dee sees value in reaching out to the blogs,
although I will note that he has already responded to two Padres Jagoff
tweets. HE KNOWS I EXIST! Garfinkel pretty much ignored everything I
sent to him, even legitimate season ticket holder issues (except for the
time I tweeted that the 1998 Reunion Night game could use more Third
Eye Blind - he agreed and then didn't put on any Third Eye Blind).
Thanks
to my 3 week old baby girl, I had to skip out of Padres Fanfest before
the partying began, but I heard the Friarhood and Padres Public meetups
were awesome. Luckily, with my plan to drag the girl to a ton of games
this year, I'll be able to crush some Sculpins at Petco with an Ergobaby
on and hopefully meet up with some of the blog superstars. Here's my
look at the current 2014 Padres Blogger Power Rankings:
1.
Gaslamp Ball - It's tough to beat the 500 lb. behemoth. They've got
the backing of the largest sports blog network, a collection of writers
across the country, and like 10 years of history. Plus who doesn't enjoy thethingwynn's Padres
baseball card coverage.
2.
Padres Public - Combining the various niche Padres bloggers into one
SUPER BLOG (similar to 80's SUPER BAND Asia) was genius. The Padres
slurped this up and made Padres Public the darling of their social media
marketing efforts.
3. Friarhood - Steve Adler has
put out some awesome clothing that I see all over Petco. I'd consider
rating the Friarhood higher, but his articles don't show up on my
iPhone. They don't format for mobile and I don't feel like zooming in
on my phone and panning the screen for every line. What I've seen is
great, but I just don't read articles on my computer that often.
4. Corey Brock - The official Padres blogger. Writes great articles, has great articles, but is a company man putting out the company line.
5. @padres2014 - Not a blog, but your #1 source for Padres puns during games on the Tweeter. Great one liners.
6-1008. Everyone else.
1009. Padres Jagoff - Obvious Reasons. Dongs. Padres. MS Paint.
