David S.Sorry Sports Fans …….I haven’t posted because I had a Strepp infection and then got a concussion playing basketball against a caveman type center. My mom always says, “There is nothing less christian than Catholic school basketball!” The caveman won that battle, but he’ll be washing my car and mowing my lawn someday.
Anyhow, I wanted to share my experiences from The Brewers fan festival, Brewers On-Deck. It’s an annual meet, greet and autograph event held at a Milwaukee convention center. It was sooooooooooooooo fun! I got tickets as a Christmas present and I was thrilled to death. So, my “Fan First” meeting was with Nyjer Morgan, A.K.A., Tony Plush came up to me to chat and gave me a “high five”. I got on T. V. (I was the good looking one) with him and there was a mob of people following Nyger. So I joined in the fun. It was crazy. This guy was hilarious running all over. He grabbed a microphone and would interview random people and just do bizarre things like chowing down on someone’s nachos. He was great to the fans. Crazy fun…….or maybe just plain crazy………(my gramps is a psychiatrist and thinks you may want to go back on your meds…..I’m just sayin…)
“Fan Flop” Alert – Newly acquired Aramis Ramirez, took this intro opportunity to demonstrate to awesome Milwaukee fans what a complete arrogant, snotty jerk he is. Ramirez seemed irritated and barely acknowledged people that waited in line and PAID for his autograph. Hey Ramirez, show some respect to the people of this state and to the game that gave you your fame. Lastly, get over yourself!!!
Mr. Taylor Green and Bleacherboy
“Fan Favorites” – The highlight of my day was meeting my favorite player, Tayor Green. I told him that he was my favorite Brewer and his face lit up. He looked at me, smiled and seemed sincerely grateful. He gave me his autograph and took the time to talk. I felt like he could remember what it was like to be a kid who loved baseball. He seemed kind and genuine to all those that greeted him – So…Big Shout Out to T.G.!!!!! My “spidey senses” tell me that Taylor will have a bright future. I look forward to seeing him play this season. Honorable mention also goes to Alex Gonzalez and Martin Maldonado, two young players that were humble and happy to see their fans. ( “Flops” – some of the handlers that overmanaged the access to players and weren’t too friendly)
Mr. Gantner teaching me about "The Weapon"
“Legends” – It was great to see Stormin Gorman Thomasand get his signature. Truly a stand up regular guy. I also had the honor of speaking toBrewer great, Jim Gantner. He ran an instructional clinic then took the time to talk to me about the “weapon”. Mr. Ganter said that when he played second base he would throw the ball, a.k.a. -the weapon, during a double play right at the baserunner’s head to make him duck. He went on to tell me that when I’m not pitching, and I play third base – this approach is very effective. Thanks Mr. Gantner for talking to me like an old friend.
So there you have it. The “circle of life” in Brewer baseball…….Rookies and young guys happy to get paid to do what they love-playing ball; the Ramirez types with big egos that have lost perspective; and the veterans that want to share their knowledge and are gratefull to have been there………and a kid who can’t wait for the season to start!
Bleacher Boy 
Good one,
Guess wat ppl who r gonna read this he gave the strep to me I call us strepp bros.
That was so cool how u got to meet all of those random breweres they better have a good year unless the mariners win the world series I would be happy either way
~he who must not be named online
Bleacher Boy,
Loved the post. I hate to say it, but one player always seems to have a dim view of fan interaction at events like this. Sorry Aramis decided to smell more like a cattle product cologne than be a ball player that day. Sounds like you have a blast, and that is what is important. Getting to meet your favorites and just being in that scene of fan love and admiration for past, present and future Brewers stars shows you just how deep the Brew Crews history goes and how far you can dig into that history and find gems of gold. You asked my advice on blogging, just write from within and I know you will do fantastic.
Nice blog entry! This looked like a fun event to go to. I wished I lived in Milwaukee so I could go to this event.
-Quinn from nybisons
http://www.nybisons.mlblogs.com
Ok, so here is the comment I owe you. It appears you have taken the first piece of advice I would have given you, which is to interact with others as you would wish for them to interact with you. This is to say, comment on other people’s blogs and leave your url, so if they wish to, they can return the favor. Point #2: I would just say to try and find your niche as far as entries are concerned. Right now it seems as though you just blog about whatever is happening in the baseball world. I would just say to ask yourself if this is something you really like writing about, or if there is something more enjoyable you could be doing. With life outside of the blog, it WILL, eventually, get difficult to post regularly at one point or another. If you are writing about something that pleases you, it will just be that much easier to keep on writing. Point 2a: I would just try and keep the theme of the blog fairly consistent. When I started my blog a year-and-a-half ago, I tried out a few different types of entries. I realized that the only people that were reading every entry were the people that were interested in the blog because of me. However, half of the people that were visiting the page for the content were being turned off when I switched themes, because I was writing about something they weren’t interested in. I was unintentionally angering the people interested in topic A when I posted in topic B and vice-versa. As a result, the people interested in reading about a specific topic were being alienated and they visited the site less often, because they didn’t want to go to the site to see an entry about the topic they weren’t interested in. That is why my entries now have a more thematic element to them, now. Given, I haven’t yet worked out all the kinks and might change my format yet, but I try to make my winters go in the following order: look back at the past year, look back at the offseason once it nears its end, and look forward to the upcoming season. Once in the season, I write about my adventures going to games and trying to catch baseballs. Point #3: Don’t expect to have success right away. It seems you have had some pretty good success yourself, but Mlblogging at least is a bit like the economy. In that, it takes a little while for you to see the effects of your work. Also, don’t focus too much on viewing statistics. It is nice to know people read your writing, but again, like the economy, for every thing that you have control over, whatever you do with your blog, nothing is *guaranteed* to get you more people that read and enjoy your writing. This is because every blog is different (or at least should be) and every action you take, and decision you make when it comes to your writing has its own dynamic, because your blog is different from any other blog out there. Lastly, just on a curious note, why did you go with the MLB modern theme, why not the Brewers’ fan theme? I hope this helps.
-Mateo
http://mateofischer.mlblogs.com
Thank you so much for checking out my blog. I really appreciate the advice. I chose the MLB modern because I wanted to write more than the Brew Crew. By, the way I really liked your blog. It kept me interested and it was very well written.
Thank You,
David
Cool blog! It’s always neat to read about a fan’s experiences at a fanfest type of event. I especially liked the story about Taylor Green and your pics were great, too.
– Malcolm
http://theballparkguide.mlblogs.com/
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