The internet is crawling with exciting reports about the Twins becoming a serious player for Orlando Hudson and an agreed 10-year framework for Joe Mauer's new contract. So let's talk about...my second day at Twinsfest?
Yep. Really, I have to, partly because I didn't get to the Nick Punto Day thing, and partly because I want to give some shouts out to some folks I met.
- I met Seth Stohs at Twinsfest, complete with his SethSpeaks.net baseball hat. I gotta admit, that hat is brilliant. It gives readers a chance to easily identify him and we had several long and fun conversations with folks who simply wanted to talk about offseason moves or prospects.
You probably already know this if you listen to his podcast, but he's about the nicest guy ever. If you ever see him, I encourage you to introduce yourself and talk Twins with him. I promise, it won't be awkward.
- Speaking of awkward, I also met Topper Anton of the Twins blog Curve for a Strike. In the course of getting to know each other, he revealed that he attended Jefferson High School in Bloomington, from which I also graduated. Which led to this conversation:
Me: Really? Cool. We probably had some of the same teachers. I graduated in 1985.
Topper: I was born in 1985.
And that's when I punched Topper in the face. Which was awkward.
(No, I didn't. Because he's 18 years younger than me and could probably kick my butt.)
- The three of us headed over to the Star-Tribune booth to meet Howard Sinker who we knew was going to be there from 12:00 to 1:00. It was great talking about the offseason and the plans for the StarTribune.com's new Twins page, which I'm very excited to see. I also met his fiance, who looks way too familiar, but I can't place.
- Also at the Star-Tribune booth was Kirsten Brown of K-Bro's Baseball Blog and her mom. We had a nice conversation about having a Nick Punto Day, which is something in which I'm hoping every Twins blogger can participate. It was proposed by blogger Andrew Kneeland of Twins Target on Twitter a few days ago, and I fully support the idea. His followup email explains it well:
Nick Punto could quite possibly be the most controversial figure on the Minnesota Twins. Some hate him, a few love him, and even more think he is a decent utility infielder.
I thought it would be a good idea to hold a Nick Punto Day among Twins' bloggers. On Feb. 12 (two weeks from now) post your Nick Punto thoughts on your blog, and we will get a chance to see how this incredible blogging community feels about Nick Punto. (In the future we can hold these events for other players, but for now, the focus is on Little Nicky Punto!)
Where do you stand? How do you view the player who Gardy seems to be obsessed with? What is the ideal position for Punto? Feel free to go any number of ways with this topic, but please keep the focus on Punto.
I am going to LOVE seeing what the wide independent audience of Twins bloggers comes up with for this. Praise? Rants? Analysis? History? Whimsy? I can hardly wait.
Which brings up another good question: how can we find all the entries? I think we need a central place where people who are creating Nick Punto entries can post links so we can all find them. Otherwise, this should be an opportunity for the less-known bloggers to show what they can do alongside some of the more read blogs, don't you think?
So I'm open to ideas. Here's the thing: it can't involve me fielding a bunch of emails and posting a bunch of links. Is there a way an RSS feed could be setup that we could all post to and then include on our sidebars for one day? Or someone want to set up a NickPuntoDay.com site that we can all email links to? Post your ideas/thoughts in the comments section or email me.
- Also at the Star-Tribune booth I spoke with Joe Christensen for several minutes about the offseason and internet publishing. He is a kind and very genuine guy.
- And I finished off the time at Twinsfest by wolfing down some lunch while speaking with Fanatic Jack who is a lot less tense than you might expect from listening to his podcast. We had a pleasant debate about several of the Twins offseason moves and priorities over a Turkey sandwich.
And then I left before my car got a ticket. I'll mimic that now, bolting from this entry earlier than I'd like. I hope to be back tomorrow with some real news to talk about. Until then, plan your Nick Punto Day entry!
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6 comments:
You should create an individual user blog hop using MckLinky.
It's free, super easy to set up, and is basically a simple piece of html code you paste on your blog. It allows people to click a button, here on your blog, and paste in their own link for their Nick Punto posts (for example!)
It'd be worthwhile setting up something like this and getting familiar with it, you could host "link parties" in the future whenever you felt like it. The reason I think this is a great idea: every Twins fan with a blog should want to participate in this.
As for me, I have no blog, but I never miss a game. And as for Punto, he has made MANY defensive plays that leave me sitting here, with my mouth hanging open, fumbling for the TiVo remote so I can rewind and watch him a few more times. I think he's amazing. I think he'd play for peanuts, he loves it that much.
...as for sliding into first base head first, I shake my head in wonder. NOT a brilliant idea.
Little Nicky Punto.........I guess Bat-Girl lives on.
v-word = substaba
Maybe something to do with the topic.
How about Mr. Kitts the math teacher or Ms. Satre the bio teacher?
Easy low-tech solution would be to designate one main blog post to explain what's going on and a list of known posts, and then have people put links to additional posts in the comments.
What you want is to get all of the Twins bloggers in a WebRing. These have been around for ages. You put a link on your page that will take people to the WebRing page for the group. One of the things it will do is promote people looking into other Twins blogs because once you're at the ring list you can select to have it take you to a random member of the ring. Also if I remember correctly the button code includes going to the next site in the ring or the previous site in the ring. It's been a while since I frequented any web rings on a regular basis but that's what I remember. It may be that you have to go to the ring page to move around so they get "eyeballs" for their ads.
The ring is a more generic setup and it would be worthwhile even when not having a specified player day.
webrings gets filled up with people who blog for one month and then quit.
I agree with using Mcklinky. (first comment, above). Way easier and full of active, relative posts. And then they'll all be in one spot.
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