Aug

14

The hits keep coming… thanks to you

Posted by Greg | Filed Under News | 10 Comments

CodBall, which celebrates its third year this month, has almost never stopped to ponder its own existence. We write about baseball, not blogging.

Three seasons ago when I wrote the first post for CodBall, I had no idea how long it would last. As I explained then, I just wanted an outlet for my thoughts and prodigious reading on the topic of baseball. Much to my family’s bemusement and then disappointment I kept on writing, joined with Andrew, then Dave, and we collectively kept writing.

The other day I glanced at our blog dashboard, which is where we do the behind the scenes work on this blog. I noticed we passed over 2400 comments and are approaching our 500th post. Whether you’re counting homers or articles, 500 is a lot.

In a recent email, Andrew let our CodBall crew know that this past season we had 20,000 visits to the site. We had over 8,000 readers. On average you spend over two minutes on the site reading through the content, which is pretty good as websites go. We average 321 visitors a day (again, I’ll take a .321 average any day!).

In addition to the site, we have also seen an impresive amount of listeners to our CodBall Conversations podcast, which is featured on iTunes. We’re just about to release our 24th episode, and we have interviewed everyone from the legendary John Wylde to Cotuit’s Ivan “Have a Hit!” Partridge. Our partnership with WCAI keeps Cape NPR listeners in touch with the league, and provides high quality content for the podcast.

So, as we reflect on the 2009 season and look ahead to 2010, we wanted to pause and say thanks for sticking with us. We’ve made our fair share of mistakes along the way and there are more mistakes ahead of us. But baseball is a game of failure, so long as you succeed a quarter to a third of the time at the plate.

Comments

10 Responses to “The hits keep coming… thanks to you”

  1. James Stewart on August 14th, 2009 6:40 pm

    Thanks, Greg (and Andrew) for your work on the blog- I came across it this summer- I’ve enjoyed three summers of Cape ball now and am getting more hooked on it, if that is possible. Really enjoy meeting and chatting with the players- the inter actions with the folks connected with the various teams are awesome- very much all baseball fans (you have to be, I’d say).

    I loved the wrap up to the season on the Cotuit broadcast- the announcers went through everyone connected to the team and talked about their contribution- made you realize how special there team was to the citizens of Cotuit.

    I look forward to following you guys in the future- and am really anxious to see the ratings for the players here this season- following the MLB draft very closely these days.

    Thanks again!

  2. CapeMan on August 15th, 2009 8:35 am

    Thank you Greg. This site has really become more than just a blog. It has evolved into a real source; perhaps the most consistant source of Cape Cod League information & features. Many of the outlets that cover the league “go to sleep” after the final pitch but you keep on pluggin all year around…thank you.

    I also feel that what should be the main source of information not directly affiliated with the league, The Cape Cod Times, is very inconsistant with its’ coverage. Not only do they “go to sleep” during the offseason, their year-to-year coverage is not very good.

    I realize that budget cuts have hit everyone and I’m sure the CCTimes is no different but when the largest newspaper in town can’t cover the largest sporting event(s) right in their backyard, I think it is beyond budget restraints.

    Only a year ago, they had a blog that was always updated. Where did that go? I think it was used once during the All-Star game.

    Having someone do Twitter was a nice step forward but I think the number of feature stories, Cape League Notes and Commentary pieces were far less than in 2008.

    Anyway, didn’t mean to pick on the CCTimes. I just think it is a worthy point; especially in comparison to a blog that is being run for the most part out of Seattle and provides more in depth, interesting and up to date information on the league on a budget that I’m sure is far less than the major newspaper that is in the backyard of the league itself.

    Keep up the good work and keep those off-season posts coming.

  3. Ben Schwartz (CCBLStuff.us) on August 15th, 2009 12:38 pm

    This site really is great, it’s certainly the best of its kind. Thank you for all the work you put into it!

  4. Cale on August 15th, 2009 5:08 pm

    I’ve been reading since the beginning, and all I can say is Thank you guys! I love the Cape League and College Baseball. This is a great site. It is obvious how much you three care about the blog, CCBL, and baseball in general. Heres to many more

  5. willie on August 16th, 2009 11:09 pm

    Great coverage, lots of debate, and the links to photos and other stories pretty solid. We even got a BLOG link of a kid attempting to be a scout giving his take, even though it wasn’t very comprehensive or thorough.

    The stats, measured at the end and at intervals throughout the season indicated that all the CCBL players had some nice moments.

    Well done!!

  6. Baseball34 on August 16th, 2009 11:53 pm

    Great job. I agree that the CC Times coverage was horrible this year. They would never update the scores on their website and would screw up the game schedule.

    By the way how did the word of codball go around. Ifound you guys on a follow Friday on twitter

  7. Andrew on August 17th, 2009 9:22 am

    @Baseball34

    Most of our traffic comes through search engines. But, we have exchanged links with a number of related websites and even a few Cape League teams (e.g. Chatham’s website has a link to us on the main page that gives us a lot of traffic).

    We also have a relationship with WCAI-FM Cape & Islands NPR. And as you mentioned, this season we also gained additional exposure through Twitter. I’m sure we also get a lot of traffic from word of mouth.

    We haven’t really promoted the site at games, but we do sometimes wear our CodBall shirts and go on live broadcasts.

    Our goal is not to really provide daily recaps… the combination of CCT, the league, and (especially) Will/Right Field Fog do a good job. We like to be, as Greg says, the “voice of the bleachers”. We like telling stories more than reporting on stats.

    One of the things that made us start the site, was that the league just seemed to die in the off-season. After the last pitch, there was a celebration… then you got in your car and drove home. Then, you read about it the next day and that was it. Nobody talked about the Cape League until June of next year. We like to keep the conversation going year around and we hope that at least some of our new visitors will join us!

  8. Lloyd Christmas on August 17th, 2009 3:31 pm

    Does anyone have video to put up on YouTube for the Braves title? I thought WBZ would archive their videos, but apparently they do not.

  9. CapeMan on August 20th, 2009 1:46 pm

    Lloyd..you might want to check with Teamline. Cotuit also broadcast the game and they do archive the games. You’ll have to pay for a DVD but they could probably get one to you. I’m just not sure if the quality would be worth it since Cotuit’s video is shot through the fence.

    Alternatively, why not contact WBZ directly? They may not have the video available online but could probably arrange to have a copy made for you.

  10. Lloyd Christmas on August 21st, 2009 2:55 pm

    Thanks, CapeMan, I’ll check it out.

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