This off-season, I intend to do interviews with players, executives, reporters, bloggers, fans, etc., on the subject of blogging and baseball – as I try to learn more about the medium.

Today, I talk with Nelson Figueroa, not only because he pitched for the Mets in 2008, but because he also has a blog of his own, which he writes with his wife, Alisa, titled The Figueroas.

By the way, Nelson and his wife also help with the blog Rally for Recovery, which is currently running an impressive sports memorabilia auction that will benefit former Major League Baseball player Ricky Stone, who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in August 2008.

Matthew Cerrone, from MetsBlog.com: So, to what extent are you guys, as players, aware of blogging and aware of new media? I know that the newspapers are dominant, but are you aware of these other communication tools?

Nelson Figueroa: Absolutely. I think that it’s the kind of media that is so instant and current and there are so many inside tips that you read about. I was in Triple-A and I heard about things that were happening with the Mets organization through different blogs…They can voice their opinions and other things on blogs. So, it’s a new medium that people are taking advantage of and I think a lot of fans use well.

Matthew Cerrone: At the same time, what used to just be facts and then reporting has now become a lot of opinion. Even myself, a lot of times I feel awkward being here, at the stadium, around players, because, you know, I might have said something about somebody and I get paranoid about that. How do you guys deal with that added element now?

Nelson Figueroa: Well, we can’t change it, that’s the thing. That’s the downside to it, because all of a sudden everybody thinks that because they can write a blog they are an expert. You know, they feel they can judge you based upon the fact that they’ve seen two years of baseball, they know everything about the game and what went into the game…

Although it’s a great medium for people to get some inside information, it’s also, in a lot of ways, it hurts some people because there are things that come out that there is no validity to.

You know, you can hear about things, like where a guy ate dinner last night to where they saw him out at a club. There is no way to back us up because if you refute that kind of story, then obviously you must have done it or you must be guilty. So, it makes it tough as a professional athlete to be out and about anywhere…

Because, if one video of you out some place, or one little clip comes out on YouTube, you know, all of a sudden, that gets blogged about more than anything and anything that you have done up to that point. So, it makes it, it is a little tougher to be a professional athlete especially in a city like New York. You know, where there are a lot of eyes on you.

Matthew Cerrone: Does that make you guys want to be more distant, or be a bit more guarded than you would like?

Nelson Figueroa: I think that’s a downside, you know, the superstar, the David Wright, the Pedro Martinez, the Johan Santana, it’s harder for them to go out anywhere. You know, just to go out to the mall, because you never know what somebody is going to write about you – especially in a blog. Or, if someone is going to take a photo of you doing something and it might come out. I think for the superstars, they need to worry about that. Even some guys, up-and-coming rookies who don’t know any better, they go out to a bar and have a shot or two, and there will be a picture of them doing a shot. So, it makes it tough, but then again it’s part of being a professional athlete, so it’s the dual-edged sword.

Matthew Cerrone: At the same time, technically, a player could write his own blog, like Curt Schilling. I mean, you could almost circumvent the media by taking control of the dialogue. Does that ever cross anybody’s mind?

Nelson Figueroa: It does, but, again, because of the various things, whether they are good, bad or indifferent, if your opinion is different than management, different than the manager, different than your follow teammate, you don’t want it to be misconstrued in a certain way. Even though you might be talking about one instance, if it gets taken the wrong way it could affect the chemistry in the ball club and people don’t want to be around you, they don’t want to be near you, people don’t want to go out with you because they think, ‘Hey, this might come out on his blog.’ So, it’s very hard during the season to write a blog.

In the off season, you know, it’s a little different, I could write about my travels all over the world, I’ve blogged about that. I’ve blogged about my experiences with my family life in my downtime. That is something that is really important to me and a lot of people don’t get to share in. So, being that I was in Taiwan and Japan last year, I had an opportunity for everybody to know how I was doing on a daily basis – and people kept up with it… But, it is hard to do it during the season; it is something that is kind of frowned upon just because of that fact.

Matthew Cerrone: Especially here in New York.

Nelson Figueroa: Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you look at Wikipedia, if you go on and read something about yourself you can go on and erase it. But, other than that, somebody can put whatever they want about you. I mean, my sister’s name has changed three different times. It said in 2003 that I converted to Judaism. So, if I don’t stay on top of that and if I don’t stay on top of what is out there about myself and just checking whether it is photos or this or that…

My wife reads the blogs all the time and there was a blog where someone was like, “There are three people on this earth that I would like to kill,’ and my name came up as one of them and my wife just wanted to know why he would say that.

Matthew Cerrone: For the record, I’m pretty sure that was not me. At least, I hope it wasn’t me (laughing).

Nelson Figueroa: I’m almost sure it was not you (laughing).

It was just one of those things that it is a scary world and, again, with the Internet and people having access to the Internet, you know it is hard to police that sort of thing. At the same time, we are fortunate enough that we have MLB securities so that if something like that does turn up, they handle it and that website is probably taken down very quickly.

Matthew Cerrone: Thank you very much, Nelson.

Nelson Figueroa: No problem. Thank you.