Some miscellany for your Monday

Big props to Kristen23 from 3 Girls with Heart for bringing up these interesting sports blogger developments. I'd love to see the Nationals offer some sort of specially-designated seating area for officially registered bloggers, but given that the media folks will be waaaay up in the nosebleed section of the stadium, I'd hate to think where bloggers would be located. The very idea that an MLB team would officially recognize and sanction bloggers would be radical indeed, and props to the New York Islanders NHL team for being the first major sports organization to "break the blogger barrier", as it were. With the obvious exceptions of credentialed media members who blog, the very IDEA of blogging is it's "outside" nature, it's empowerment of the fan, the "little guy" to have their voice heard, without the constraints of mainstream journalism nor, alas, it's ethics or guidelines. Blogs themselves are inherently a little bit gonzo and the idea of trading some of one's blogger freedom for some possibly-serious access sounds contradictory. I'd have to think that bloggers wouldn't get the same access as the working press (If I were a career journalist, I'm sure I'd be more than a little ticked-off as having to share any time at all with a bunch of amateurs). It is in a team's best interest to credential the media and give them access. It isn't necessarily in their best interest to start doing anything like that with bloggers, but it COULD be. I'd be first in line to volunteer for such an exercise if the Nationals were willing. That could be a whole lot of fun.

More here: Deadspin, Neil Best, Sports Business Journal and others weigh in on first-of-its kind blogger initiative

and here: Blogger Box, Excellent


Beer developments: I have it on excellent authority (Note: NOT from anyone employed with the Washington Nationals, let's be clear about this) that one of the big beer distributors here in D.C. wants to work with the Nationals to try and build a beer garden area in the new stadium, possibly in the outfield area. That would be SERIOUSLY cool! I am doing my utmost to urge the club to add more local beer representation, such as Wild Goose and Flying Dog (both made in Frederick, Maryland - see my sidebar on the right) and even Dominion (made in Virginia, but I think partly-owned by Anheuser-Busch). Part of the ballpark dining experience ought to be savoring LOCAL food and drink, so-called "signature" meal experiences. One need look no further than Baltimore's Camden yards, with crabcake sandwiches, Boog's Barbecue, Attman's, Wild Goose, National Bohemian and other Maryland delicacies. I hope that such accommodations can be worked out.

New title for Robert Fick: Robert Fick has had a pretty good couple of weeks. His sound play at first base have given a name to his style of defense - "Fick's Picks", by MASN's Bob Carpenter. Today, however, according to MASN's Don Sutton, Fick wants to be known as "Robert Fick: accomplished fly hawk", to which Sutton embellished the word "speedy" before accomplished.