On Saturday, 20 June 2009, The Washington Nationals took a step in the right direction and hosted their first Blogger Day. And no, Bloggers Day wasn’t just some free tickets in the same section and food coupons. What the Nationals did for those of us who blog about the team was open their doors and treat us, sort of, like regular media and give us access that we normally do not possess.
And here’s the recap…
Our day began at 3pm when we all met up at the Media Gate to receive our credentials. We each received our day pass with our names and blog sites listed, as well as the “F” for field access! We were then taken to the media room…you know that place with the MASN and Nationals logos covering the wall where you may see Manny Acta talk post-game or where Ryan Zimmerman discussed his contract? Yeah, that place. We were given time with Lisa Pagano and Israel Negron to discuss Community Relations and the work that the Nationals do for the community, especially with children to promote literacy, and their efforts to get this information out to the public.
When that interview was over, a parade of players came into the room. We were expecting Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn based on the itinerary given to us the day before, however, Willie Harris and Nick Johnson decided to join them. Although, Nick was a little question shy and asked us to leave him out of the Q&A and just let him watch!
The guys were good sports and answered all our questions without any hesitation. Although they may not have been 100% sure why we were there (“I don’t even know what a blog is!” – Adam Dunn), they all seemed comfortable with the laid back and casual atmosphere of our Q&A session. Unfortunately, 10 minutes was all the time we had scheduled for these guys. I wish it could have been longer.
At the end of the player interview, Manny Acta came in to give us 20 minutes of his time. Again, it was more casual than any “regular” interview he would normally give. Instead of sitting at the table, he came down and pulled up a chair and sat on the same level as us. He seemed genuinely interested our questions and seemed to have a good time himself. In fact, I spoke to Manny the next day and he told me that he wished he could have been scheduled for a longer amount a time. He also said he was looking forward to August when there is going to be another Blogger Day and hopes that he can be given more time with us then.
When these interviews were complete, we were guided on an in depth tour of the park by chief tour guide and NatsTown’s favorite usher, Coach. Many of us had already seen these sites, but it was a great time nonetheless. We were shown the Presidents Club, Shirley Povich Media Center, press boxes, and Diamond Club before being deposited onto the field to watch batting practice.
We were then joined by Mark Scialabba who is the Assistant Director of Player Development to discuss our farm system and the future of our younger players. For a very thorough recap of that interview, you really should check out Nats320’s blog post.
Finally, it was close to game time, and more importantly to me at that moment, time to eat. We were invited to dine in the press dining area (or to go out on our own). For ten bucks we were offered a buffet of some sort (I didn’t look at it, so I cannot comment on the offerings although I was told that “buffet” is a loose term) or to order from the grill. My eyes set sites on a cheeseburger and fries; so really, there was no other choice for me. Was the food good? Well, let’s just say for ten bucks, there isn’t much else at Nationals Park that I have eaten that was much better – of course, that is not saying much. I am not a foodie, admittedly, and don’t get all that excited about food in general, but there isn’t too much you can do to ruin a burger, so yeah, it was fine. I will say that the french fries were fantastic with coarse salt and cracked pepper sprinkled on them. Anyway…
For our last interview of the night, Stan Kasten and Mike Rizzo came in and spoke to us for about 20 minutes. They were both very cordial and did a good job of answering most of the questions, although I’m not so sure that Stan is a big fan of bloggers or knows what to think of us. Nevertheless, he was very generous with not only his time, but his press box as well. Stan gave up his press box for the night and allowed all of us bloggers to sit there, with the windows open and laptops on, to take in the game. Some of us wrote our blogs for posting the following day; some of us took the opportunity to get in some more interviews; some of us just watched the game (oh and what a game to watch!).
There were ground rules given to us on this Bloggers Day, and at first we were told not to cheer in the press box. I could understand this with professional media and the Blue Jays executives on either side of our box, and I was ready to obey this rule. However, we were then told that this directive was incorrect …we should go ahead and cheer. A few of us did cheer (myself included) since there was so much to cheer about in that game. I know a few fellow bloggers did not like this or felt embarrassed by the cheering, but heck, I am fan first. If I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t take the time to write on this blog. So cheering for my team is part of the package. If you don’t like it, then leave me out the next time! Oh, and there will be a next time. We were promised another Bloggers Day for sometime in August.
The only bad part about Bloggers Day for me is that I am new to this and wasn’t really prepared to be participating in interviews. I had no decent digital recorder to record the interviews (it was a good test of the iPhone 3.0 software upgrade with memo recorder: test results = failure) and my good camera was out of commission. So I took mediocre shots and was not able to record any of the interviews, for which I apologize greatly. I will, however, direct you to many of the fantastic blogs where interview content was recorded. They did a much better job with this than I did.
One last mention… I titled this post ‘Blogger Day Staring Willie Harris’ for a reason. I managed to squeeze in one and only one question in all the interviews we did that day. My question was to Willie Harris. He was sitting there during the player interviews, and all the attention was being shown to Nick (who was asked questions despite asking to be a spectator only), Zim, and Adam. So seeing that no one had asked Willie anything, I asked him my one and only question: Given how things are going, how does he always manage to come across so upbeat and positive?
His answer in a nutshell…He has to. He has to be positive to be a role model because guys feed off a positive attitude. He has to be positive because he knows that he is going to have way more good days than he will bad days. He said, if you stay positive and play the game hard, the game will give back to you eventually (I’d like to point out that he said the same thing to Debbi Taylor in a post-game interview, but said it to me first!!). I like Willie Harris a lot, and I am so happy that Saturday was a great day for him and that the game “gave back” to him. And I’m not going to say that my asking him that question caused him to a have a great game including that walk-off home run to win the game, because I know that I can’t take any credit for the way a player performs on the field, but I would like to think that maybe after he gave me that answer he took his own words to heart and decided he was going to have a great day. Not that the world revolves around me or anything…
I want to thank the blog Nationals Pride for recording video of Willie’s answer to my question and posting it on their blog.
I also want to thank the Nationals for Saturday’s event. Mike Gazda, Bill Gluvna, John Dever, and everyone else involved were excited for this event, made us feel very welcome, and were completely open to our feedback. And I think I can speak for the other bloggers when I say that the opportunity was appreciated and we look forward to the next time.
Check out my pictures of the event!
Read more about Bloggers Day at the following sites…
Entries (RSS)
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Dave did one today too - http://natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/reports-from-bloggers-day-and-why-it.html
I will have pictures up tomorrow.
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Cheryl - I added it in the post - Sorry about that! Dave did a great job with his!
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:34 am
I am soooo jealous. Maybe they’ll have a blog commenters day at some point.
Well done on the Super Willie question!
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:39 am
Thank you! I need to practice my interviewing techniques so I can do a better job of 1) butting in and asking questions and 2) recording the answers!
I think blog commenter day is a great idea. haha
June 25th, 2009 at 3:52 am
Carolyn - Great job. That was one of the better if not the best question in my opinion. I can’t tell you how many times I would see Willie Harris in April (not playing) but on the top rail of the dugout cheering the players on.
So Monday night I am at the Luis Tiant Washington DC Movie premiere and Mike Rizzo shows up. At the after-party, Mike and I sat at the same table and the whole subject of your \Bloggers Day\ came up. I told him about the Willie Harris interview question and how I wish there were several Willie Harris’s on the team. I compared him to the rah-rah the Yankees get from Derek Jeter and how I thought each team needs an emotional leader.