Mets, Blogs, Media and Access
The Mets are doing an amazing job using Twitter and blogs to help communicate with their fans this off season. They’re effectively spreading a very cohesive message, but they’re also listening to what fans are saying, which, to me, is the most useful and significant part of Web 2.0.
Last week, the team held a conference call for select Mets bloggers to talk with Sandy Alderson. Yesterday, the same group of fans were invited to the team’s Holiday Party, where they were treated no differently than print, television or radio.
It’s a brilliant and necessary strategy. However, with it, other Mets fans, who have not been invited in, and at least one reporter, seem to now be wondering how this new access will impact the independent nature of these elite blogs and whether it will unintentionally soften criticism on each site.
This is not new to me.
I partnered with SNY in late 2007. In that time, I have been dealing with these sort of questions, accusations and conspiracy theories from hundreds of fans, every day, for years. I have had a daily press pass since 2008, I’ve been granted exclusive one-on-one interviews with players and management, and I have developed relationships with team executives. Yet, while I admit to being political and opportunistic at times, I know I’ve remained the same pragmatic, passionate and eternally-hopeful fan I have always been, while also growing the blog from 1 million page views per month to 3.5 million page views per month. If you think otherwise, or have questions about ‘blogs and access,’ I challenge you to go back and read how I wrote during the end of the Art Howe era, or when the Mets put Jose Reyes at second, or after the Scott Kazmir trade, and compare that to how I expressed similar frustration during the collapses, the injuries and the foolish decisions of the last few years. It’s all equally honest, passionate and critical, but always even-keeled and pragmatic, which is how I not only treat sports, but also politics, art, and anything else we might have discussed before or after SNY.
I know this is true. People who have an open mind, who have been paying attention, and who do the research, know this is true too. However, I totally understand the skepticism and concern, because I had it about myself four years ago as well.
My concern has always been this…
I love baseball. I enjoy yelling at the TV after a bad play or high-fiving a stranger in the stands during a rally. I am thankful for being able to talk baseball with my dad. I love the feeling he and I share when the Mets win, and, as much as I hate the feeling after they lose, I will never quit it. But, to do this, baseball can’t become too intellectual and it has to at least remain emotional enough to experience being happy or angry about a kid’s game. The thing is, the more you look ‘behind the curtain,’ the more you become aware of the ‘business of baseball,’ or know ‘how the sausage is made,’ the more sterile you make it and the less fun it becomes. Thankfully, I don’t aspire to be a ‘journalist,’ or a beat writer, or work in the front office. I am happy just being a Mets fan. And so to keep it this way, I set boundaries for myself. Yes, I have the ability to be in the lockerroom and talk to players before every game. Yes, I have contact information for people with answers. Yes, ‘I know where the sausage is made.’ However, I rarely go in, if for no other reason than that is not the typical fan experience.
I know all to well that Chuck Klosterman is correct when he writes, “There are certain readers who seem to get the wrong idea about everything.” Because of this, there is no point in blowing up your ego, making a public declaration about ‘the importance of access,’ or getting too self-analytical about it all. The point is, we’re all our own version of a Mets fan. There are a million of us with a million different, equally-important experiences. Don’t over complicate it: Just be you, and people will either choose to connect with you online or not. Content in the world of Web 2.0 is a meritocracy, and so if the majority of my readers didn’t feel I was honest or authentic enough as a Mets fan, and I no longer fulfilled something for them, if my harshest critics are correct, people would have stopped reading, MetsBlog would stop growing, and people would find a new blog to read. The thing is, I am who I am, I still give a shit, people know it and MetsBlog keeps gaining readers.
So, my advice to Mets bloggers who are experiencing this new-found access would be: understand why you blog, pay close attention to where the curtain is, so not to peak behind it too often, and then just be you.
Personally, I write MetsBlog.com because I’m the same Mets fan today that I was as a kid. Sure, these days I get paid to plug in. But, If I was not a fan, or if I stop being a fan, believe me, I’ll stop writing the blog – because, money or no money, if I lose my passion and lose my voice and authenticity, the blog is doomed anyway, so why bother. I know this, because I believe it to be the key ingredient to anything Web 2.0, not just writing a Mets blog. However, I’m honest with myself about it, and so I know where the line is for me. These other Mets blogs now need to determine where the line is for them… and if they do so, and mentally set it in stone, from my own experience, I promise you and mainstream media that the only thing to change will be better content and more informed opinions… all while their love for the Mets will remain.
