Archive for Administrative Stuff
Open Thread: Comment registration and editing
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Since the three of us started River Ave. Blues and the site and its community began to grow, we’ve tried to add various elements to the site to make it user-friendly. We started with the straight forwarding commenting form and added threaded comments for RAB’s first birthday. We’ve since branched out to Twitter and Facebook and launched RAB Tickets earlier this year.
This weekend, we soft-launched a new feature: optional commenting registration. For over three and a half years, frequent and infrequent RAB commenters have had to put in their information every time they want to comment, and we’ve depended upon the honor system to keep commenting handles in check. Now, you can register for the site and stay logged in. As a bonus, those who register now have the ability to edit their comments for three minutes after posting.
In terms of details, this is an entirely voluntary feature. You don’t have to register, but you can’t edit your comments unless you do. To register, you need a valid e-mail address. It can be an anonymous one, but you must be able to receive e-mails at this address to complete the registration process. We’re not going to use your e-mail address for any reason other than to communicate with you personally if necessary, and we won’t be harvesting or selling e-mail addresses. To register, click here. Once you’ve registered, you can sign in right here or by clicking the link above the “submit comment” button beneath the commenting box. And please register with your own unique commenting handle and not someone else’s.
For the editing process, just follow the prompts on the screen. We’d prefer that people edit their comments for egregious typos and spelling mistakes, but we realize that some people will try to change what they say. That said, three minutes is a lot shorter than you think. As we fine-tune this system, we’ll look to add more features for registered users only. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via email.
Now, enough of that site administration stuff. Unfortunately, because the Padres lost, we don’t have baseball until Wednesday afternoon. We do have the Dolphins and Patriots squaring off on Monday Night Football. So feel free to use this as your open thread tonight, and I leave with you quite possibly the most amazingly terrible or terribly amazing video around:
Details for the RAB/FanGraphs Live Discussion
Posted by: | CommentsTomorrow’s the big day, the first ever FanGraphs and River Ave. Blues Live Discussion in New York City. It will be held at the Florence Gould Hall, which is at 55 E 59th Street (between Park and Madison). The event starts at 9 a.m., and you’ll want to get there early. Ben, Mike, and I (and a few others) are the opening act.
Here’s one last reminder of the details…
NY Baseball (9:00am – 9:40am)
Joe Pawlikowski, Mike Axisa, Benjamin Kabak (All RiverAveBlues.com), Matthew Cerrone (MetsBlog.com), and Mark Simon (ESPN) will be discussing all things baseball in NY. Moderated by Carson Cistulli.
Baseball Media (9:45am – 10:30am)
Jonah Keri (Bloomberg Sports) will host a panel comprised of Will Leitch (Deadspin, New York Magazine), Michael Silverman (Boston Herald), Matthew Cerrone(MetsBlog.com), Alex Speier (WEEI.com), and David Biderman (WSJ) to discuss how baseball media coverage has changed in recent years and will continue to evolve.
Baseball Stats (10:40am – 11:15am)
Jon Sciambi (ESPN), Mitchel Lichtman, Sky Kalkman (Beyond the Boxscore), Dave Cameron, and David Appelman will discuss where advanced baseball stats are right now and where they’ll be headed. Moderated by Carson Cistulli.
Bloomberg Sports Presentation (11:20 – 11:35)
Bloomberg Sports will make a presentation of a brand new product.
FanGraphs Q&A (11:40 – End)
Dave Cameron, Carson Cistulli, Bryan Smith, Joe Pawlikowski, Mike Axisa, and David Appelman will take questions until we’re officially kicked out (a little after 12:00).
Afterparty (3:30pm – Game Over)
Additionally, we’re going to host a game-watching party for attendees to gather at a local watering hole and view that afternoon’s Boston-New York match-up together. Those who make it to the event will be invited to join us for several more hours of fun later in the afternoon. Details and directions will be given at the event.
You can get your tickets for $15 plus $1.36 surcharge in advance, or risk a sellout and pay $20, cash only, at the door.
We hope to see plenty of RABbers there.
Details for the RAB/FanGraphs Live Discussion this Saturday
Posted by: | CommentsWe’re just a few days away from the first ever FanGraphs and River Ave. Blues Live Discussion in New York City. It will be held at the Florence Gould Hall, which is at 55 E 59th Street (between Park and Madison). The event starts at 9 a.m., and you’ll want to get there early. Ben, Mike, and I (and a few others) are the opening act.
NY Baseball (9:00am – 9:40am)
Joe Pawlikowski, Mike Axisa, Benjamin Kabak (All RiverAveBlues.com), Matthew Cerrone (MetsBlog.com), and Mark Simon (ESPN) will be discussing all things baseball in NY. Moderated by Carson Cistulli.
Baseball Media (9:45am – 10:30am)
Jonah Keri (Bloomberg Sports) will host a panel comprised of Will Leitch (Deadspin, New York Magazine), Michael Silverman (Boston Herald), Matthew Cerrone(MetsBlog.com), Alex Speier (WEEI.com), and David Biderman (WSJ) to discuss how baseball media coverage has changed in recent years and will continue to evolve.
Baseball Stats (10:40am – 11:15am)
Jon Sciambi (ESPN), Mitchel Lichtman, Sky Kalkman (Beyond the Boxscore), Dave Cameron, and David Appelman will discuss where advanced baseball stats are right now and where they’ll be headed. Moderated by Carson Cistulli.
Bloomberg Sports Presentation (11:20 – 11:35)
Bloomberg Sports will make a presentation of a brand new product.
FanGraphs Q&A (11:40 – End)
Dave Cameron, Carson Cistulli, Bryan Smith, Joe Pawlikowski, Mike Axisa, and David Appelman will take questions until we’re officially kicked out (a little after 12:00).
Afterparty (3:30pm – Game Over)
Additionally, we’re going to host a game-watching party for attendees to gather at a local watering hole and view that afternoon’s Boston-New York match-up together. Those who make it to the event will be invited to join us for several more hours of fun later in the afternoon. Details and directions will be given at the event.
You can get your tickets for $15 plus $1.36 surcharge in advance, or risk a sellout and pay $20, cash only, at the door.
We hope to see plenty of RABbers there.
Reminder: RAB and FanGraphs Live Discussion in NYC on August 7
Posted by: | CommentsMark your calendars for August 7. That’s the day that FanGraphs invades New York City to bring you the first, but hopefully not last, FanGraphs Live Discussion. It’s going to be an eventful morning of baseball talk that will feature a number of top baseball minds discussing and analyzing the game. Best of all, RAB will be a big part of it.
Ben, Mike, and I will lead the New York baseball discussion, one of the many panels at the event. We talk baseball with you guys every day, but this format will allow for a more intimate, more guided discussion. We’ll be led by FanGraphs’s Carson Cistulli, who hosts and produces FanGraphs Audio. Check that link for an example of Carson’s inimitable discussion-guiding skills. They are, as I’m sure he’d say himself, white hot.
(Also, check back at that link soon; I’ll be on the pod in its next appearance.)
In addition to that we’ll have a riveting discussion of baseball media that will feature former Deadspin editor and current New York magazine contributor Will Leitch, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, Alex Speier of WEEI, and Wall Street Journal contributor David Biderman. Best of all, RAB fave Jonah Keri will moderate the discussion.
There will, of course, be plenty of nerd stat speak going on, featuring Mitchel Litchtman, better known as MGL, from The Book blog. And then there are all the FanGraphs notable, including founder David Appelman, Dave Cameron, and Bryan Smith.
You can catch the event at The Florence Gould Hall, which is up on 59th Street between Madison and Park, which is close to 4, 5, 6, N, R, and Q subway stops. You can buy your tickets here for $15, plus $1.37 processing fee.
If you miss this you’d better be dead or in jail. And if you’re in jail, break out!
Join us for the FanGraphs Live Discussion
Posted by: | CommentsOn Saturday, August 7th, FanGraphs and River Avenue Blues are hosting their first ever Live Discussion. The event will consist of three hours of conversation about baseball, analysis of the sport, and how the game is covered. Hosting the event will be David Appelman and Dave Cameron of FanGraphs along with Joe Pawlikowski, Benjamin Kabak, and Mike Axisa of River Ave. Blues. Notable guests include former Deadspin editor and author Will Leitch, baseball consultant and analyst Mitchel Lichtman, Wall Street Journal contributor David Biderman, self-proclaimed egomaniac Jonah Keri as well as other writers from FanGraphs and around the web. This is your chance to talk baseball with analysts and fellow fans of the game.
A ticket to the event will cost $15 (plus $1.36 surcharge), and can be purchased here. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street, New York, New York.
Join us for a morning of baseball conversation that will entertain and enlighten.
Ticket prices coming down for tonight’s game
Posted by: | CommentsTonight promises to be a special occasion at Yankee Stadium. Before the second half opens against the Tampa Bay Rays the Yankees will pay tribute to George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard. YES will carry the pre-game ceremonies, but I figure that many of you will want to go to the game. If you already have tickets the Yankees suggest you be in your seats by 6:45. If you don’t have tickets, well, you might be in luck. After an initial spike in prices following George Steinbrenner’s death Tuesday morning, ticket prices have fallen a bit.
As long as you’re not angling for field-level, you should find some decent ticket prices. (Though I guess that depends on what you consider decent prices.) Check out RAB Tickets and see if anything strikes your fancy. I’d also recommend checking back around 3:00 to see if any prices have dropped at that point.
How New Yorkers and Bostonians spend the Fourth
Posted by: | CommentsLater this afternoon I’ll make the death trip. After the game ends I’ll take my packed bag and head to, gulp, Penn Station, where I’ll grab a train out to Jersey for weekend festivities at various relatives’ houses. It’s the way I spend most Fourth weekends. Horseshoe tournament in South Jersey, poolside BBQ in North Jersey. The only downside is that so many other people are escaping the city that it makes for a madhouse at Penn and Port Authority.
That’s what New Yorkers do, though. On holiday weekends we escape the heated confines of the city and traipse the suburbs for the weekend. Then, of course, we return to the city and thank our lucky stars that we don’t actually live there. Suburbanites should not be offended — it’s just the mentality of living in the city.
While this means a frenzy at the public transit stations, it means fewer people clamoring for Yankees tickets. As you can see in the graphic below, tickets for the game on the Fourth are actually a bit lower than they are for the rest of the season. In Boston, however, it’s a different story.
Yes, in Boston the game is the attraction. I guess people don’t flee to other parts of Massachusetts during the weekend. No, they’re demanding Sox tickets even more. I’m sure this has something to do with Fenway being perpetually sold out, but it also probably relates to Bostonians not fleeing the city like New Yorkers.
If you’re looking for tickets for this weekend, make sure to check out RAB Tickets.
Also, we’re running a contest in conjunction with TiqIQ. You’re going to have to get creative to win this one, because it’s a pretty simple question. The more elaborate story, the better chance you’ll have.
Where are you going to watch the game on the Fourth?
Answer in the comments. Most creative/elaborate/hilarious will win a $100 eBay gift certificate.
You can now get your Yankees tickets on RAB
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During the last few series I’ve been winging it with Yankees games. If there were cheap tickets available on StubHub I’d jump on them, making last minute plans to hop on a bus up to the Stadium. During the Phillies series, though, I encountered a logistical issue. StubHub stops selling tickets two hours before the game. So while I waited for tickets to come down below $10, they became unavailable completely.
It made me desire more options for finding tickets. There are sites out there that search multiple directories, but I’ve never had much success with them. So when the guys from TiqIQ got in contact with us, we were receptive. What they’ve provided us is essentially our own outlet for Yankees tickets.
As you can see in the photo above, the TiqIQ-powered RAB Tickets lays out options for you, from which you can select the best seats at the best price. Here’s what’s going on for the Jays series this weekend:
And here’s what TiqIQ provides:
- Aggregated Listings: TiqIQ track tickets from major sellers including Stubhub, TicketsNow, eBay and TicketNetwork.
- We show these in both a Market Tab (Stubhub, TicketsNow, TicketNetwork, eBay) and Auction Tab (eBay)
- TiqZone Categorization: TiqIQ breaks each stadium up into TiqZones, which are groupings of sections that we’ve determined are comparable in value.
TiqIQ Statistics: TiqIQ provides ticket-level buying intelligence through the IQ rating and TiqIQ Statistics. - Event Details: TiqIQ gives you time and location information on the event.
If you’re looking to head to a game now or in the future, make sure check RAB Tickets along the way.
Open Thread: The RAB Mailbag
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Photo Credit: Ross D. Franklin, AP
We’re going to try something new here, the RAB Mailbag. It’s exactly what you think it is. Send us questions either via email or through the Submit the Tip box under The Montero Watch, and we’ll pick the best and answer them once a week or whatever it ends up being. It’s a trial and error thing, we’ll figure it out as we go. If some questions require a longer, in-depth post, we can certainly do that too.
Anyway, here’s tonight’s open thread. The Mets are playing the Twins, and there’s another game on MLB Network, but who you see depends on where you live. Clemson and South Carolina play at 9pm ET (on ESPN2) in the College World Series; it’s an elimination game for USC, and if Clemson wins they advance to the finals. UCLA and TCU are finishing up their game (on ESPN2 as well) as we speak. If UCLA wins, they go to the finals. The regular game thread will be up later, so kick it here until then.
RAB’s Ground Rules for the 2010 MLB Draft
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It’s the most wonderful time of the year, MLB Draft Day. D-Day has historically been one of the busiest and most trafficked days of the year for us at RAB, so we need to take a moment and lay down some ground rules and explain how this thing is going to go down.
First and foremost, please take a second to review our Commenting Guidelines. Even if you’ve been with us since day one, give them another look as a refresher.
Secondly, the draft is three days long this year, and I’ll be liveblogging all three days. The liveblog will mostly be me relaying news, sharing thoughts, taking questions, etc., but the liveblog posts will also serve as a draft open thread. Please keep your draft related comments there. We’ll obviously have plenty of non-draft content on the site as well, so keeping your discussions in the appropriate threads will make everyone’s life easier.
I will also be posting short capsules on select players after the Yanks pick them. I won’t write up a capsule for every player the Yanks pick, just the notable ones. For example, here’s Slade Heathcott’s capsule from last year. Use these posts to discuss that player and that pick only, any other draft talk should go back in the draft open threads. No one likes to repeat themselves in a bunch of different spots, so this is to everyone’s benefit.
It’s unlikely to happen because we’ve since upgraded to a dedicated server, but we have experienced technical difficulties on draft day before, and I suppose there’s still a chance the site may crash at some point. I’m hopeful the liveblog will help alleviate the load on the servers, but who knows. The important thing to know is that if the site does crash, you have to please be patient. Hitting refresh a million times a minute will only make it worse. Wait a minute or two before you try to reload the site. We’re fully aware of it whenever the site goes down, and trust us, we’re doing all we can to get it back up and running.
Finally, the best way to follow along with all of the draft content we’ll have over the next three days (and beyond) is to subscribe to our draft feed. You should also subscribe to our regular RSS feed so you don’t miss anything else. If you’re not familiar with RSS feeds, check this site out. Basically, an RSS reader like Google Reader will bring the information right to you, so you won’t have to check your favorite sites multiple times per day. Once you start using one, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Other than RSS, you can also follow RAB on Twitter @RiverAveBlues or @RABFeed. We use the former for random thoughts or to discuss stuff things with you guys, while the latter just automatically tweets a link to each new post. You can also follow the three of us individually @mikeaxisa, @bkabak, and @joepawl. And finally, there’s also our Facebook page.
Draft day is without a doubt one of the most exciting days of the year, and we ask that you follow along with our ground rules to make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone. Thanks in advance.
