A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Social media blunders: Why open the gates so late?

Social media in 2019 is a powerful tool. 

It can be a lot of fun, it can sometimes be mean, and it can be somewhere in between. It’s also a place for a lot of information, which is great. But, if you are putting out information and something seems a bit off or fishy, then somebody likely will be there to call it out.

That seems especially true on Twitter.

For those who don’t follow minor league baseball teams, there are a lot of teams who embrace social media (especially Twitter) and really have a lot of fun with it. And, at the same time, if they post something not fully right, they will usually man up and take the blame and try and have fun with it. 

Not so, recently, in the case of the Trenton Thunder, the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. 

Now, before I get into the whole situation, let me be clear on one thing – I have no issue in what they did in regard to gates and such. It is their right, and they had reasons. But, the fact that they gave false information, then basically doubled-down on it before giving away their true reason (without admitting the first was false) is where this goes wrong. 

Look, I understand what Minor League Baseball is all about. And I love it. But I don’t like when teams swerve fans, especially when there are facts to back up the fan side of things. 

Trenton is one team that usually has a pretty good grasp on things. I even blogged about it in 2016 (https://hoohaa.com/?p=10103). This time, not so much. 

With that in mind, here’s the story. 

It started with a simple Tweet on July 22 – talking about the game that night being postponed. The kicker is that it was a scheduled bobblehead day. For those not into minor league baseball – bobblehead nights are usually massive draws and most of the time only with a limited amount to give away (usually anywhere from 500-2,000). When some stadiums seat upward of 8,000-10,000 people, it’s often necessary to get in line an hour or two early to have a chance. 

So, Trenton postponed this game. And then posted these two tweets:

And …

Harmless, right? People seemed OK with it, but something stood out.

The gates for season-ticket holders would open at 5:30 p.m. – the same time as the first pitch was scheduled. And if you weren’t a season-ticket holder, then you were stuck waiting for the gates to open at 6 p.m. – 30 minutes after first pitch.

People picked up on this. Check out some of the responses, as well as the replies from the team (these are from each of the original tweets, not just one of them):

I mean, really?

I’ve probably been to a dozen or more Eastern League doubleheaders – single-admission and starting earlier than “normal” and been allowed in at least 30 minutes before the first pitch. This got me really wondering. So I had to ask.

And while asking, I got a more truthful answer.

I responded to that with this, which didn’t receive a reply.

On the other thread, they were questioned, too:

This received the “real” answer as well, along with a funny response from their opponents – Akron.

In searching other social media for this situation, Trenton held the line with the Eastern League rule, but when called out, the team again noted the bobblehead deal.

Those responding didn’t seem thrilled with this. And one idea came out that made sense (and I had wondered why they didn’t do this initially, either) — why not have a different entrance for those wanting to just get into the game and not worry about a bobblehead?

So, let me share some of the Facebook goodness, too.

You have to give the team credit for sticking to their stance — but the rule. This is what really got to me. They said it was a league rule, but haven’t shown anything about it. And, in the end, if you were doing this for the bobblehead (which, to be honest, makes no sense why not to open early… if people want the bobble, they’ll be there. Reality is… the night you were washed out was the bobble night — so all bets are off after that. I guarantee you’d still give away 1,500 bobbles), then say so from the beginning without throwing your league and some “rule” out there.

Especially when not everybody cares about the bobblehead. This, from the night of the doubleheader:

But, being the former newspaper person I am, I was really curious. Could this possibly be a true rule?

I think we all know the answer, but I needed to at least try and find out. So, I tweeted at the Eastern League.

Shockingly enough, I never received a response. I’m guessing it isn’t a rule.

And then …

I’d like to point out that I went to a Binghamton Rumble Ponies doubleheader on July 31. First pitch was scheduled for 5:35 p.m. Sound familiar?

Note when the gates open.

Apparently if it was an Eastern League rule… Binghamton didn’t get the memo. Or maybe it was just for a week or so. And why would I think that?

Well, on August 1, Trenton was again scheduled for a single-admission doubleheader. Note the start time. And note the gate time.

Fireworks and drink special night, but doesn’t appear to be a bobblehead night. Maybe that’s the rule they were referring to … or maybe …

Here’s the kicker to this doubleheader — in the opener, Trenton had a no-hitter. Only the sixth in franchise history — yet the second this season. In the minors, doubleheaders are seven-inning games. That no-hitter took 1 hour, 27 minutes to complete.

Let that sink in for a second — 1 hour, 27 minutes. The Trenton’s Brian Keller needed just 70 pitches for this dandy. IF, this had been a bobblehead day. And IF they had pulled the same bull about when the gates open. And IF you are were toward the back of the line because you got there a little later, there’s a chance you aren’t in the stadium and to your seat until about an hour into the game, give or take.

IF that had happened, the Trenton Thunder would have robbed fans of watching a dandy of a game, seeing history, and seeing something that not everybody gets to see on a regular basis in it entirety. And if you had stopped off to grab a hot dog or something, who knows how much you would have seen.

IF that had been me in that situation, I would have flipped. I love bobbleheads. And I have a lot of them. And I like giveaways like anybody else. But when I go to a baseball game, it’s for the game first — everything else second. Maybe Trenton will realize moving forward that many others think this way as well and not rob a possible amazing experience for a rescheduled giveaway item.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Harrisburg, Trenton show why MiLB can be so much fun

For the past two years, I’ve embarked on a Summer of Baseball.

Most of the games I’ve attended are minor leagues. Taking away the obvious reasons — cheaper, closer and, often, way more fun — I enjoy minor league games more than major league.

Sure, it’s fun to see the majors and such. But the minor leagues gives you the chance to see so many different things.

And many minor league organizations “get it,” too. By that I mean they understand players come and go, but the franchise is what it’s all about in the community.

Also, teams will often jab each other in a bit of fun.

Such as how it was with the Harrisburg Senators and Trenton Thunder on Wednesday.

Before I let the tweets speak for themselves, I need to say that this made me laugh and I give kudos to both teams for having this exchange. This is the type of thing that splits the minors from the majors and makes the minors so much better.

Here’s the exchange from the other day. Enjoy!

Minor leagues… all the more fun. Well done Harrisburg and Trenton!

I’m so ready for baseball!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please Like HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

A social media grows — how do you protect yourself?

The social media world — how do you handle it?

When I was a youngster, social media wasn’t even thought about.

During the day, you’d go outside and play. You’d run around, breathe in the fresh air and be carefree. If it wasn’t a school night, the basic premise used to be that you headed home when the street lights came on.

Fellow parents knew where the group of kids were. They’d peek and watch out, but wouldn’t helicopter.

social_media

Social media is running the world, it seems.

We could scrape knees (ouch!) and get dirty without having to report everything to parents. It could also be done without people threatening to sue somebody else.

But we live in a new age.

All the bad things we see out there in the media happened way back when. It’s a sad state, for sure. But they happened. Kids were kidnapped, there were people killing others and violence.

The big difference was the reporting of it.

If, for example, something happened in Oregon, we didn’t always hear about it in New York.

Now there’s the Internet, of course, and with that comes social media.

Ignore everything I said above. This isn’t about society, per say, with social media. This is more on a smaller scale. This is about you or me or people we know.

And I’m curious — how free are you with your social media?

The other night, after attending an event, I posted, on Facebook, a photo I took of a friend. I tagged him in it and that was it.

The next day, I had two friend requests from people I had never met and, as far as I know, never spoke with them.

And it was connected to said photo.

I didn’t accept and left it at that. But it got me thinking … how free are you with things like this?

I’m very protective of my private life. Though my job doesn’t put me in the “public eye” per say, I have a public job … so it’s pretty open. My private life is just that — my private life and I like to keep it that way.

I have a few rules, when it comes to my personal Facebook account:

  • I have to know you (and usually in real life — it’s rare for me to friend somebody I only know through the online world, but there are exceptions);
  • I can’t work with you (again, a few exceptions to the rule have and will happen);
  • Don’t post about things like politics and religion, and stay away from posts that do (and the same goes for my blog).

It’s that simple.

I also like to keep my list to fewer than 250 people … and even that is way too many in my eyes. But I’ve connected with family and older friends, so I figure it’s all good in the end.

Every 6-8 months, I’ll go through the list and weed some out. Mostly it’s people I haven’t kept in contact with and such. It’s just part of life.

But I’m not free with the Facebook world, that’s for sure. My settings are private etc. as I want to keep it that way.

I’m a little more open and free with things like Twitter and Instagram, but I don’t look at that as I do the ‘Book. Instagram is more of a photo documentary of things that I see. And Twitter … I don’t use it as much as I used to, but have been trying to do a little more with it. Though I keep those pretty open, I still try and make sure there’s nothing too crazy on them. Though I dabble in other social media, there would be the big three.

So how about all of you?

How do you deal with social media and how much do you let others into it? Discuss below as I’d love to see what you all think!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

The next step in gaming…

Do angry birds find a way to make you happy?

It doesn’t seem to matter which way you turn anymore, the future of social networking and gaming is merging at every corner.

Word with Friends.

Draw Something.

I’m not the greatest at drawing.

Scramble with Friends.

Dice with Buddies.

Song Pop.

Oh the list could go on and on. If you have access to a smartphone or, for that matter, Facebook, the games are coming from all over.

It’s about time to check the virtual farm, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s time to collect rent from somewhere in your city, of which you built from a small town to a major metropolitan area.

There’s so many games out there, I can’t keep up. Well, I don’t even really want to try to keep up. I’m on all of these games. But I can only pay attention to one or two at a time. If I did all of them, I’d never get anything done.

I guess I could set aside 15 minutes a day and play just that span. Maybe then I’d be able to keep up on everything. Who knows.

But there are so many games!

And then the ones that aren’t even connected to others. Such as Angry Birds. Or Bejeweled Blitz. (For the record, there’s a Bejeweled game for playing others… but I don’t know how to actually score big and losing everything by more than 200,000 points doesn’t seem fun). There’s Boggle and Tiny Tower and Temple Run. Don’t forget Doodle Jump or Order Up or Parking Frenzy.

Holy cow can it go on and on!

But it’s those social ones that can really get you.

You find opponents who are better than you and you want to get better to beat them. Or you find ones who are worse than you and you want to continue to play them and stomp them to boost your stats.

Those stats are huge, too!

My biggest addiction is Dice with Buddies. It’s quick to play and you can check in on it here and there. It’s basically Yahtzee, with a different name.

It’s funny with video games. I’ve played them throughout my life, but I’ve never gotten too into them. As a kid, there was the Atari 2600. Yes, I’m serious. And yes, it was an awesome system. In fact, I’d love to get my hands on a working one because I still have a bunch of the games. Talk about a throwback of fun. And what a great blog post it would make. Oh the games were awesome. Frogger. Pitfall. Donkey Kong. Elevator Action. Defender. Space Invaders. I could go on and on.

I never had stats like this on the Atari!

From there, it was the flip-open Nintendo. That’s where the likes of Super Mario Brothers came to life. Games like Pro Wrestling and Ice Hockey were awesome. And Tecmo Super Bowl? Awesome! And getting to and beating Mike Tyson was one of the greatest things one would ever do in gaming!

I received a Super Nintendo for Christmas one year and that was the latest and greatest in gaming. It was during the Sega wars and things like that.

Then came Playstation. Wow.

That’s as far as I went. The new systems are incredible. The graphics? Amazing. And the fact that people can hook up and play online (which is a total blast, for the record) is insanely cool.

Imagine being able to play someone in the old days of Atari baseball? As if!

Now there are systems like the Wii, where one can do so many things with the game.

But not everybody sinks money into the gaming systems. They have their phones. Computers. iPads. And whatever else. So that makes social networking games — where you can utilize Facebook and Twitter to find friends to play against — an even bigger market.

It’s items like this that make me really wish I had done something in college with gaming and learning how to make these games. Then I’d just need the perfect idea and a way to do it.

Maybe I could still make my millions. It’s never too late, is it?

Never mind. No time. I need to figure a way to draw “hula.”

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

… and I’ve jumped to the iPhone

What a sweet screen this is. Very nice!

I had an upgrade available with Verizon.

So, a discount on a new phone. And with this new iPhone 4s out, I was curious. I read things. I solicitied opinions. Was it worth tossing my Motorola Droid X aside and go with the iPhone.

Yep.

What a world of difference!

I’ve had the phone since Sunday. I think I got a bit lucky, actually. I called a Verizon person I knew, who unfortunately wasn’t working at his place (which was in Binghamton, where I needed to go to pick up a suit… ya know, for the job search, interviews etc.) Alas, it didn’t matter because he knew his store didn’t have any left.

Shocker!

He did note that I should call the Oneonta (which is much closer to me) store to see. I did that. But apparently the person I talked to wasn’t supposed to tell me whether they had any in stock or not. I guess it makes sense. After all, if he tells someone they have the iPhone in the store, then that person comes in and the phones are gone… well, ya know.

So I said to the guy, “Look, if I come in and you are out, that’s my fault. But I want to know I have a fighting chance if I come over.”

He whispers that they have a few.

The new iPhone's box (created with Instagram)

Now I had to make the choice. Go with the iPhone or stick with the Droid and wait for something else down the line. Ahhh, what the heck.

Shower up, get dressed and head over. I find the guy I had talked to on the phone, he asked what I wanted (16gig, black phone) and he went to the back and came out with one.

The last one.

Sweet!

Forty-five minutes later, I was walking out with an iPhone 4s in hand — starting my journey into the world of the iPhone.

Boy was it different.

I didn’t get the chance to mess with it too much as I had to bolt to Binghamton to grab my suit. But I messed around with it that night. I looked at apps. I downloaded a few. I played with a few others and saw how the phone worked.

My first impression?

Awesome. Better operating system. Sharper image. The camera? Oh my. This camera is absolutely amazing. As someone who is a photographer, I wanted a phone camera where the images were sharp and came out nice. When I am going to do serious shooting, nothing will beat my Canon 7D. But when I am with friends or just tooling around, the iPhone will be a very nice piece of equipment to have.

Photo shot straight out of the camera.

In fact, I started a slight 365 project on my Tumblr account the day I got the iPhone — My first 365 days with the iPhone! I don’t know if I’ll complete it and if I don’t, no biggie. But I will be putting my images from the iPhone on my Tumblr account as it’s quick to upload there. Most of the images will be done with Instagram.

I still have thoughts of doing a true Project 365 (well, it will be 366 because 2012 is a Leap Year) starting Jan. 1, so who knows if this project will fully go on as I don’t know if I’ll be working on two of these projects at one time.

If you are on Tumblr, feel free to follow me to check out the photos I’ll be posting.

Here’s one thing I’ve really found out about the iPhone — it’s so much better than my Droid X was for doing social networking things and games.

I’m hoping I can connect with a few people through this post and, in some cases, learn some things.

Instagram's app page

Take, for example, Instagram.

I’m really loving this app. It’s almost worth switching to the iPhone to have this. The ability to mess around with photos taken on the iPhone and post some really cool stuff is wild.

But it’s hard to connect with people, it seems.

It will search your Twitter and Facebook accounts and your contacts list. That’s good. But it apparently doesn’t tell you that you are being followed or if you follow someone etc. I’ve talked to a few people who I followed who hadn’t even realized it. One who I needed to request to follow!

That doesn’t take away from the app. I love it. But there could be some cool things to have to make it a little more user friendly. Possibly a search for topic, too. It doesn’t appear you can search for direct subjects, rather just people.

The same leaf photo from above, fixed up via Instagram.

If you are on Instagram (name: hoohaa29), feel free to follow me. I check my followers and will follow back as well. I like finding new people and see how they use the program. It’s really wild.

I’m really starting to dig some of the other programs, too. Some of the other camera apps are really nice. They give you the chance to do some cool things with processing on the phone.

There are some cool foodie apps, too, such as Foodspotting and Epicurious. There’s apps such as Untappd, which help you rank and talk about beers.

Way too cool.

Though some of these apps are available on my former smartphone, the Motorola Droid X. I did love that phone. It was great for me for nearly two years.

There were things about it that really bothered me. Like, for example, it shut off at odd times all on its own. In the middle of phone calls even. I’d hate to be on an important call and have it turn off. Then it took a long time to start back up. The browser was decent but choppy. And many times the apps and such would go all haywire and require them to be forced closed. The thing that turned me though is that there’s no real checks and balances with their apps. I’ve read a bunch about the Droid’s marketplace having some bad stuff. And that’s not just the Droid X — that could happen to any phone operating the Droid system. So, it was time.

But this iPhone. Amazing.

The screen is crisp. The camera is awesome. The internet moves quick. It’s everything I read about it.

It’s funny because a Twitter friend noted that I needed to get it. And, if I didn’t like it, she’d buy it off me.

She doesn’t need to worry about that.

I’m keeping it.

***

Reminder! Contest going on! I am holding a contest this week for an autographed copy of Bill Walker’s book “Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail”. It runs from October16- to 12:01 a.m. Oct. 28. You can see all the details on the contest page. Enter for your chance to win!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!