Debit Card Woes, Work Load Flows

Had a great day today .... until about a 1/2 hour ago I was sitting down to order some books from Amazon. And, I realized that my check card was no where to be found in my wallet. The last purchase -- a strawberry milkshake (poorly stirred), from a McDonalds in Elgin, Ill. So hopefully the block on my card that Bank of America placed on my "lost" card works and no one uses it. The card is probably right under my nose, and i'm sure i'll see it tomorrow morning, but better safe than sorry.

In other news....

We start another homestand tomorrow @ the Bandits and hopefully this one goes smoother in terms of attendance than the last. To quote A League of their Own, "if we don't have fans, we don't have a league." Hopefully the early attendance woes are due to kids still being in school and whatnot. I'm still worried though. Anyways I was on Amazon to purchase some books to hopefully help me do my job better. My PR/Media teammate and I are doing well this season in terms of coverage (we have a weekly column in the Daily Herald, the Elgin Courier is running our stories again, Mouthpiece Sports just filmed a Tattoo U piece similar to this one and WGN and Scoop Jackson are showing interest), but more is always better so I hope to expand on some things very soon and build some more solid media connections before the July series against Venezuela. Time waits for now man as they say.

I just don't know what else to do... not many media outlets take us seriously. All we need though is for them to come out to 1 game and then it's like BAM... this is a cool sport. Recently we got an email from a father that brought his daughter to one of our games.

[My daughter] loved the game, and I did as well finding I am becoming a huge fan of softball. But i am writing to you, because it was after the game that made such the impression upon my daughter. It was more than just the players signing autographs, it was the sincere interactions with the young girls waiting for autographs that struck me. All the players were wonderful and while I hesitate to single any particular player out, your pitcher Ms.Thorson was so accommodating. I do not mind the hour plus drive as from what I experienced today, my daughters will have a great experience that will stay with them for a long time.

That is what we work for, that is what we want to happen when everyone comes through our gates at the Bandits. We have an outstanding product, we just need to get people to realize it more. Once they come once, most people are hooked. In terms of my job, I would really like this love of the game mentality to strike the media personnel like lightning so that they too get hooked and begin writing more and more about the Chicago Bandits.

Don't get me wrong, we're having a much better season this year in terms of media coverage, but I am aiming for even more. I want our media coverage to fuel more ticket revenue, more team popularity and most importantly to make us enough money so that some day soon the NPF will be able to pay its players enough $$ on a yearly salary where these women can only worry about softball and not have to get second jobs to compliment their player salaries.

Peace Out -- it's time for some MLB 2k9

Looking ahead

As I frantically try to fill my blog for monday's deadline, I'd like to take a look forward ... what will I do upon graduation? Many of my classmates (and college grads country wide) are jobless, and have no where to turn for work. While I don't make much money, I'm glad to have a job. First things first, I can see myself maintaining this blog more now that i'm out of school than when I was in school... so it will be interesting to see if that is the case as my post-grad life goes on. I imagine I could use this blog as a place to share information on what I do during my day-to-day life.

I work as the Director of Media Relations for the Chicago Bandits, a women's pro fastpitch softball team in the NPF. My job is to get the Chicago Bandits organization and our players lots and lots of press converage in various media outlets. This is a struggle at most times as women's sports often get no love in the media world. The women (all college graduates) that play on the Bandits are some of the best athletes in the world. Many of them are Women's College World Series (WCWS) alums and some are even Olympic atheltes. The most recognizable athlete on the team is Jennie Finch. She has won 3 Olympic gold medals and has become sort of a celebrity/role model for millions of young softball playing girls across the country. The stardum has not gone to her head though. Being part of the Bandits organization, I have gotten to meet, talk to and hang out with many of the players. I must say, I was a little worried before I first met her that she would have the "i'm a superstar, what do you want" attitude.

I was completely off base.

Finch might be one of the most down to earth athletes I've ever met. She is genuine and really has interest in what people say. There is a reason she has become such a big star and great role model for the millions of girls that look up to her. She has also become the biggest poker chip in the game of media coverage. I really hate to say it, and I often try to avoid using her name, but sometimes you have to dangle the large bait in order to get the fish to bite.

Thankfully, My PR/Media teammate (Sarah Russell) and I haven't had to dangle Jennie Finch. We've actually had some great headway this season in terms of coverage. John Radtke of the Daily Herald and Andy Rohr of the Elgin Courier have become two of the most flourished Bandits writers or space-givers this season. Andy has been out to the first 3 games, of 5; and Radtke has done wonders for us by getting us into the Herald consistantly (something that happened 0 times last summer).

As the first homestand has just concluded, I have ideas on how to get us even more coverage and hopefully it will help spur revenue -- that is after all, the main goal of our staff.

We want to make the NPF and pro softball a league/sport where women can play and be respected like the professional athletes that they are. We don't want them to have to balance their pro career with another job. (many of them are teachers/coaches in the offseason) We want the women of the NPF to be able to only focus on softball throughout the year -- like the players of the MLB do.

Blogging On A Busy Schedule

I don't want to speak for other students, but I found it really hard to maintain a blog this trimester. It could be that I overloaded myself with work, work, and school, but in the end all that matters is that I couldn't find much time to keep up with a blog. It just wasn't part of my normal routine and it was very hard to bring blogging into my routine. I'm sure I'm not the only student this trimester that has had a hard time keeping up a blog.

Personally, it was hard for me to think of things to write about that related to the class. Or to think of things that I thought would be interesting for people to read. Part of the problem was time, the other part was probably effort. I'm a senior and I'm so ready to be out of school. I cannot wait to get on with my life. I fooled around for years in junior college before coming to NCC. Once I got here, I got down to business.

Long n short of it, I was lazy this trimester because I was so anxious to graduate.

Twitterific

I am rapidly becoming additicted to Twitter. Not only do I enjoy the constant updates to my cell phone, but I find it great that the application allows for interaction between celebrities and normal people. Tony Hawk, the professional skateboarder is probably one of the most entertaining Twitter users around. He constantly updates his account with his where abouts, news about himself and what he's doing -- all in a first person account. Hawk goes one step farther with fan interaction by hiding skateboards in various locations that he passes or visits. Hawk then tweets the location of the skateboards so that his followers can find them.

Others, like the Chicago Red Stars (more on them in a later post) have used social networking sites to expand the popularity of their organization. It has worked, as they are quickly becoming a great venue for family fun and entertainment. They've even tapped into the soccer communities popularity by winning over some of the fans from the Chicago Fire and international soccer.

I use Twitter and as I said, it's addicting. With no time during my day to read about news, entertainment or sometimes even sports, i find that twitter updates me on what i want to know when it hapens.