A recent comment left on this site may be indicative of your thoughts regarding what you see on the website. We want to give you, the fan, a combination of:
- easy to find information
- accurate information
- lots of information aggregated (combined) in one place so that you can pick and choose your information that you want to read
- unique content, including things which are funny or interesting or directly affect your experience when you go to games
- helpful information for industry insiders and players
- an appreciation for the history of the independent baseball industry (since 1993) — for example, you can get daily independent baseball trivia questions on the sidebar
- relevant ads which are specific to independent baseball such as where to buy books on Amazon, merchandise on eBay, getting notified of tryouts and much more
Here is our reply to the comment from a few days ago:
Thank you for your comments. The site is still undergoing changes. Regarding your thoughts about the news people care about, you are welcome to PM me. The concept behind this site is to one day, ultimately, offer a combination of aggregating everything related to the independent leagues in one place (scores, stats, trades, news, etc.) PLUS have unique & exclusive content or at least offer commentary on other low-publicized content such as a team’s new YouTube videos or funny Instagram photos.
Regarding the ads, since the site is free and not funded by any team or league then the site must derive some sort of revenue to stay afloat. Please remember that even team websites have ads on there, so the “needless trappings” is a necessary function for now until the site becomes self-funded without the ads. Additionally, some of the ads on this site are hyper-relevant to independent baseball fans & insiders including:
* Available team items on Amazon (no team/league mentions its inventory available on Amazon)
* Old items available via eBay (few teams/leagues mention their old inventory on eBay)
* Independent baseball books available on Amazon
* Where to purchase non-official merchandise of folded independent baseball teams such as t-shirts, caps, and other non-logo apparel
* Where players can notified about tryouts + get helpful how-to information about making (and staying on) independent baseball teams
* Where fans can go to find sports jobs anywhere from the U.S.
As for old comments they may be archived, but with the need for increased search engine traffic having older comments (even your older ones) being live can at least show the engines that there is activity on the site.
As for more recent news, we are working on a way to combine all of the latest team-specific news (news/press release area, local newspaper updates, Twitter/Facebook, Instagram/Pinterest, YouTube and other news) into a combined widget. That way all fans can click on the team of their choice and then get all of the updates in one place instead of having to jump around from site to site. This has proven to be more daunting with teams switching their website infrastructures in recent months, as the RSS feeds and other updating notifications have been getting garbled.
We have been toying with adding an “auto-blog” where the news you see on the sidebar is pumped automatically through the main blog posts now appearing on the home page. This can open up some concerns, but it is something we are considering. For now, the news on the sidebar at least organizes the most recent information at a glance; and we are keeping the main blog posts now for our self-produced blog posts & upcoming exclusive content.
Managing a site like this is not an easy task, but is has been providing fans with at least some sort of value since the end of the 2009 season. Hopefully by the 5th anniversary will help us finally turn the corner and become a valuable resource beyond just being an “aggregator” site. It has to make financial sense, so once that is dialed in with all of the available paths we then can step on the gas and go down the path which benefits the most amount of people.
The independent baseball leagues have some of the funniest, wildest, and craziest stories which exist in professional team sports. It will take some time, but we look forward to start to offer fans that type of content which keeps people laughing, intrigued and touches them emotionally. Due to logistics, this likely will be done via podcasts or e-mail Q&A, so we are working on ways to deliver the content effectively and in a way which can benefit many people.
The original intent of the independent leagues was to offer a product different than what MiLB or MLB is offering. Keeping with that mindset, over time we intend to offer things which MiLB, MLB, summer collegiate leagues and international teams are NOT offering. Our long-term aspirations include content which can benefit lots of fans anywhere in the world including:
* Lots of “how to” advice specific to baseball such as “how to throw a slider” videos from independent baseball pitching coaches
* Tips for parents of youth baseball/softball players such as how to choose the right glove, etc.
* Snippets of tips from existing content on how to make an independent baseball team
* Help for alumni (players and employees) of independent leagues/teams, including things not offered yet by the other pro baseball alumni organizations
* Ways for fans to get involved
* Helping the teams & leagues with new revenue streams that allow them to make money nationally, year-round and online. This opens up new channels beyond the “local, physical world, and seasonal” approach which has limited the teams from having extra cash to survive lean times
* Offering tips & information for aspiring interns and employees of independent pro baseball teams
* Much more
As always, thank you for your consistent thoughts and comments. As the site improves you are welcome to PM me and discuss the site’s path. Independent baseball needs more loyal fans like you who are passionate about the product instead of being just casual fans who go to local games because it is the best available entertainment option that night.
Thank you again for your consistent contributions and I look forward to discussing the upcoming changes with you offline.
Regards,
Matt
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Get notified of upcoming independent baseball tryouts from either of these services: first service or the second service. Prospective players can find some helpful resources here
See the list of former / folded independent baseball teams since 1993 and get non-official merchandise featuring those teams: Former Independent Baseball Teams And Merchandise
Do you collect or sell baseball cards and other sports memorabilia? If so, then here are some helpful resources plus where to get independent baseball merchandise from folded teams. Click Here to discover more.
Matt-
My apologies. I’ve been hitting this website since it first opened and I really have no excuse for not writing in sooner. You have done a fantastic job here and I have referred people to this site many, many times. This is absolutely the place to be for all indy baseball and I love the site. Whatever you need to do regarding content I have no doubt will make the site only that much better. The ads here do not bother me and never; furthermore compared to (many) other sporting websites, the ads here are not intrusive or annoying. I would like to further thank you for keep the adult oriented ads away from here. Im sure those are an easy source to go to but you havent and so I thank you.
I have to say that anyone who has anything negative to say about this site and its contents has quite likely never run one of their own, so it annoys me greatly to read that someone else has seemingly complained about how you do things here. Im quite certain that this has been nothing short of a labor of love, one that you do because like so many of us you love the indy leagues, and Im also willing to assume youve probably received little to no financial windfall from your time and effort, quite probabaly making you wonder from time to time why youre doing this. If thats the case, please dont get discouraged!!!! This is absolutely the very best site for indy ball and one of the best for sports info, period. Dont let any detractors get you down. Everything you do, have done, and will continue to do is deeply appreciated. Keep doing what you love. And on behalf of the silent majority out there, I would like to say THANK YOU.
My apologies for not replying to this post sooner as it was stuffed in between an extraordinary amount of comment spam which I do my best to block so that it doesn’t go live on the site. Many, many thanks for your encouragement! You are very kind to express the understanding of what it takes to run a site which doesn’t receive any financial benefit from the teams or leagues… and I greatly appreciate your understanding of my staying away from the types of ads you don’t want to see on here. If I had “caved” and taken every private e-mail request from those types of ads, I might have earned enough to justify buying an independent team 🙂
As for other people’s comments, I take them in stride and actually do what I can to find areas in which to improve. Having been around independent baseball off and on since 1997, as well as following it closely from the 1993-1996 era before becoming a bullpen catcher with the Waterbury Spirit (there’s a name from the past!), I know that even “die-hard” fans will have varying opinions on their own team. That’s why I always defaulted to what I figured to replicate on this site that which was good for business when I was in uniform — information that was “family friendly”.
I do agree with others that I need to add more value to each post so that casual readers, fans of individual teams & players, and even the teams/leagues/players/coaching staff insiders themselves will have reason to share any given post on any given day. I need to add more “value” than just aggregating/centralizing content which, in theory, could be gathered from other websites. This is part of the business model change for the website; and I look to re-launch the site’s mission in the coming weeks. Yes, I have to find a way to make it more lucrative financially as I want to be able to pay a staff some sort of respectable compensation to get me unique content which is interesting to all parties at least 2-3x a week. I hope to be able to do this shortly, and without those annoying “pop up” ads you see everywhere else!
Feel free to PM me with suggestions on the types of ads which you think people would enjoy (or at least not mind!) while still maintaining the majority of any given post to be about useful content which is tough to find elsewhere. Also, instead of JUST aggregating/centralizing content to add value to readers everyday feel free to PM me your thoughts on:
* The type of commentary you and others you know who follow independent baseball would like to see about a particular news item. For example, if a team signs a pitching coach or hitting coach I would like to have interviews with that person. If a team comes up with a new promotion, would you like to see commentary on the economic impact of that promotion, its social media measurement, or something else?
* I am working on the technology aspect (RSS, iFrame, etc.) to bring all of the updates like transactions on one page. That way you & other readers have one place to go to get the most up to date player signings. What other hard-to-find information would you & others like to see?
Again, many thanks for your encouragement. It is appreciated more than you realize!
Matt