Memo to Pirates Front Office: Bloggers Exist Part II

Read Part I here: http://buccoblog.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2007/01/memo_to_pirates.html

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I received a lot of email from fellow bloggers sharing their experiences with the teams they follow and I appreciate the responses. I was kind of surprised how many fellow bloggers had even attempted to gain access or have had access ripped out from underneath them, for one reason or another.

From what I gather from the emails, some of the teams do work with bloggers to varying degrees. Getting access seemed to depend on the influence of the blog, not how much or how little they hammered the team they follow.

But what influence?

At first I thought it was site traffic but research quickly debunked that theory. Some of the blogs with team access had less than 1,000 hits per week.

It seemed to boil down to the blog's market.. some cities like Pittsburgh have a high number of online readers.. nnd the blog's credibility and content.

To those who emailed me employment offers with their papers or print associations so I could get more access to the Pirates, thank you.. but, no thank you. I didn't expect the old school print medium to rise up in my favor. Actually, I was shocked it did.

I suppose that goes to show you just how limiting the Pirates stance is not bringing their bloggers into their fold. Especially a blogger by the name of Joliet Jake who pays MLBAM to be an affiliate of the team.