Archive for the ‘Blog Entries’ Category

We just wanted to thank everyone who participated in Tuesday’s #Dawson4TheHall campaign. I’ve been on the road this week and hadn’t had a chance to share the results and I know some of our listeners have e-mailed us and inquired.

The raw stats are in the graphic above for those curious “numbers people” out there, but there’s somewhere else that I’d rather take the discussion if you’re game. We received this e-mail from Jason, a listener from Lafayette, IN:

Jason’s halfway right. No Hall of Fame voter is going to see a Twitter campaign and immediately decide to change a “no” for Andre Dawson to a “yes.” That would be silly, and I think I did a poor job of explaining my perspective on this before we started the campaign. I liken #Dawson4TheHall to a highway billboard that thousands of people glance at as they pass it going 70 mph. No matter what each person personally thinks of The Hawk, if anything, now they’ve seen and processed that someone cared enough to put the billboard up.

This kind of subtle marketing is just about impossible to measure, but the biggest companies in the world use it constantly. I call it “tiny positive moment” marketing. Keep an eye out when you watch a movie over Christmas break. Every company that has a product appearing on screen paid for the privilege of you seeing their product for a split second. If the camera moves and then focuses on their logo, you’ll know they paid even more. And that concludes the lesson for today, and I’m sorry I assigned homework.

My hope is that a few ballot holders drove by and glanced up on Tuesday. We’ll probably never know, but either way we had a lot of fun painting the billboard with everybody.

Thanks again,

Lou

Next Episode Note: Sheps and I will return with a brand new Winter Meetings recap episode this Friday afternoon. Hopefully we’ll have a certain outfielder trade to discuss!

Join us and Cubs fans everywhere at 1:20 p.m. Central Time today, and tweet #Dawson4TheHall until our hands collectively ache.

This is going to be a fun day.

(Photo Credit: kvanb50)

All event details can be found by clicking here. We are set to begin the push at 1:20 p.m. Chicago time on Tuesday 12/8. It’s only a few days away!

We need everyone involved to pull this off. If you click on the Share button to the left of this post, there’s an easy way to e-mail your contacts or share the #Dawson4TheHall details via social media sites like Facebook.

Be creative! This push is for all Cubs fans and Andre Dawson supporters. If you don’t have a Twitter account, create one now.

To change your background, login to Twitter and go to Settings > Design > Change background image. Browse your computer for the new background file and then click “Save changes.” Not too tough.

Twitter Background 1 (White)

Twitter Background 2 (Light Blue)

Twitter Background 3 (Brown)

These were created by Tim Souers over at Cubby-Blue, please do yourself a favor and check out his excellent artwork (and sense of humor).

Andre Logo – 504px wide by 497px tall

Andre Logo – 300px wide by 296px tall

Text Banner – 728px wide by 90px tall

Text Banner – 468px wide by 60px tall

Text Banner – 360px wide by 42px tall

To add a twibbon to your Twitter profile photo, click here and press the blue “Show my support now” button. Thanks to Julie over at League of Her Own for the suggestion!

Thanks to all the great Cubs fans and Andre Dawson fans that responded to this idea on Twitter and in the post below earlier this week. This project is a go!

We’re calling on all Cubs fans to post comments that include the special hashtag #Dawson4TheHall to Twitter starting on Tuesday December 8th at 1:20 PM Central Time. Tweets must include the #Dawson4TheHall hashtag in order to be counted, and we also recommend that the #cubs and #mlb tags are included.

The goal, you ask? We want to draw as much attention as possible to Dawson’s bid (his 9th) to become elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. If enough people send tweets using the #Dawson4TheHall hashtag, it will become a trending topic on Twitter. The timing could work out very well as many beat writers and journalists (some of whom have an actual ballot to cast) will be keeping an eye on Twitter to monitor the winter meetings from Indy that day.

Please tell all the Cubs fans you know! If everyone tells 5 people and so on, this has a good chance of working. Show your support for one of the best Cubs outfielders ever!

Big thanks to Tim Souers from Cubby-Blue for creating these awesome graphics.

Media Note:
If you are looking to cover this event and need a quick interview, please send an e-mail to hosts@cubscast.com or find us on Twitter, we’re @cubscasthosts.

NOTE: We’re organizing #Dawson4TheHall Day on Twitter, which will be Tuesday, December 8th. Please tell all the Cubs fans that you know, we’ll need everybody involved. The Hall of Fame needs to see our support. Help make #Dawson4TheHall a trending topic that day. More details to come.

As mentioned in today’s episode (download – mp3), the voting body of sportswriters will commence voting over the next month and an official results announcement from the Hall of Fame will be made on Wednesday January 6, 2010. Last year my favorite all-time Cub, Andre Dawson, received 67% of the vote, and it’s ludicrous that he wasn’t elected in any of his first 8 years on the ballot. Cubs fans including myself obviously want to see The Hawk elected, and there’s a couple things we can do.

There’s an online petition going that was just started recently. It’s a little pathetic right now (only about 100 signatures), so please show your support!

Also we love it when Cubs fans are so passionate about something that they create a website. Enter Charley, the guy behind Hawk4TheHall. Be sure to check out this great site for some awesome posts regarding Dawson’s career and Hall of Fame credentials. We just found it this morning and it’s been bookmarked.

Check back soon for more details on the Twitter blitz on December 8th.

Several listeners have sent us Cubs songs that they’ve heard (or sang) over the last few months and it took us awhile to edit everything together, but today we’re proud to release a special music episode (download – mp3) today on Thanksgiving. If you enjoy lame parody and auto-tuning, this is a gold mine for you. If not, you still might enjoy it so please take a listen. Sheps screams “Word to your mother!” and that’s definitely worth the price of admission. Yeah, it’s free.

The songs included are:

1. World Series Champions – Kevin Henrickson
2. Milton Bradley and Jim Hendry at Dinner – Lou
3. I Guess That’s Why I Bleed Cubbie Blue – Danny Rockett
4. Ricketts Man – Lou
5. Get On the Big Blue Train – Ted Norstrom

In case it was hard to understand, here are the lyrics for Ricketts Man:

I blocked the view last night – that’s right
1060. Addison.
But Horseshoe rollin high as a kite by then
I hate that roof so much it causes strife
It’s phony, Cubs ad space
In such a timeless fight

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Till Cub fans know it ain’t about the sign
I’m not the man they rent the roof off home
Oh no no no I’m a Ricketts man
Ricketts man says Binionaires will never own

Boxcars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
Those books, are old as Zell
And there’s no pun there to save them if you did
Child homelessness I don’t understand
It’s just my job five days a week
To be a Ricketts man—, Ricketts man

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time…

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Lou

The “Sell or Buy” segment will never be the same.

As mentioned towards the end of today’s episode (download – mp3), we want to send a shout out to our friend and longtime listener KC in Denver. He heard us joking about using coin purses a few episodes back and sent a package to our mailbox. Needless to say, upon opening it I had a healthy laugh. Well done KC, thank you for these coin purses (pictured – right).

It goes without saying that these will be utilized mostly by Sheps. However, I did fill one with all the non-U.S. coins that I have collected over the last year.

If you have a chance to check out KC’s company, please do. He does first class work on the web, and also brews his own beer.

Lastly unless big news breaks we’ll return with a new episode on Monday, but keep an eye out for a decidedly musical special Thanksgiving episode on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I know, the terms musical and Thanksgiving shouldn’t go together for reasons we won’t discuss, but this is something you’ll want to hear.

Safe travels and have a Happy Thanksgiving,

Lou