It is time for teams to have more engagement with their blogs

So I saw something on twitter today that made me insanely jealous, the Mets are having a blogger conference call with GM Sandy Alderson. 

Yes, lowly bloggers get to ask questions to the guy who is in charge of making the biggest decisions for a Major League Baseball team. 

Let me repeat that, the Mets are having a blogger conference call with GM Sandy Alderson. 



It seems as if us basement dwellers may be finally getting some well-deserved recognition. The mainstream reporters probably aren't too thrilled with this (I still remember Tim Kawakami's less than welcoming comments about bloggers being at Giants media day last year) but I think this is a trend that will be impossible to stop. 

While the Giants aren't quite there yet, and I don't expect them to be here anytime soon with Brian Sabian's disdain for the "lunatic fringe", it is probably just a matter of time before this is a regular occurance. 

More and more we are seeing the democratization of news and sports news is no exception to that. With the traditional barriers to publishing and access to information falling with the spread of technology and at the same time less and less traditional newspaper people covering sports this looks to me like it's the future. 

The Giants aren't quite on the cutting edge of granting access like the Mets, but they do seem to at least see blogs as having a legitimate role in shaping the conversation about sports and have been somewhat accommodating to the blogosphere in the recent past. 

For example last year many of us Giants bloggers got invitations to come out to media day and in the second half of last season friend of the blog Bay Area Sports Guy was a regular fixture in the press box. 

This progress is commendable but let's face it I want more and I don't think it is too much to ask for. 

While it may hurt the team's ability to control "the message" like they can with CSN or KNBR, I think that in the long run having more people, not less, having access to information and the team will be beneficial to all parties involved, including fans you can get more unfiltered and informed opinions. 

The Giants seem to be on the forefront of engaging their blogs and Fanbase so this is one area regarding the team that I am actually optimistic about.  

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