Friday, June 12th, 2009: The Mets and Yankees play a hard fought ballgame in the Bronx.
With 2 on and 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th inning, Mets Closer Francisco Rodriguez throws to Yankees 3rd Baseman Alx Rodriguez, who promptly pops the ball towards Mets 2nd Baseman Luis Castillo.
Chaos ensues in Mets country:
Thanks to Ray Dice Chan over in the Global New York Mets Fan Group over on Facebook for the intense drawing.
I haven’t watched the All-Star Game (let alone the Home Run Derby) since Bid Selig called one of them back in 2002, but this video is priceless. Chase Utley was being announced as a contestant in last night’s Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium. As he was making his way out, the fans at the ballpark started to ‘Boo’ him. Watch Utley’s response to the crowd at the ‘Cathedral’.
In case you had trouble hearing, that was “Boo? Fuck You”
Now, fan feelings aside (because I’m a Mets fan who is clearly against the Phillies if you read my old Mets posts), I don’t disagree with Chase’s reaction at all. His choice of words could have been more “National TV” friendly, but I think his reaction is correct. This wasn’t a Phillies/Mets game. This was the 2008 Home Run Derby at one of MLB’s most historic fields. This was a showcase of some of the game’s best players. These guys work their tails off just to make it to the Major League level, let alone the All-Star game. This should be a time to throw down your team’s colors and come together to watch some of the best players in the game. Be proud of who is representing your team, but acknowledge the talent of the other players there as well.
If there’s anything that might be guaranteed to happen after that little boo-fest, it’s that the Philadelphia sports writers and bloggers are going to be all over this like crazy glue… and they’re not exactly going to defend New Yorkers.
Opening Day… It’s supposed to be a wonderful occasion for Major League Baseball, the players, and the fans. But down in the District of Columbia, Opening Day turned into Opening Boo. George W. Bush was announced to throw the first pitch before the Washington Nationals played their first game in their new ballpark. What was supposed to be a pretty sweet moment in Nationals history, turned into yet another example of just how much us Americans look forward to the end of Bush’s presidency (including myself). Enjoy!
Boooooooooo!
Approaching the final leg of it’s Third Season, FameCast.com has been slowly becoming a player in online competitions for musicians, performers, dancers, filmmakers, and animation artists. It’s popularity has matched it’s rival-like site, MusicNation. The main difference between the two was the process of voting. MusicNation allowed artists and fans to vote for their favorite artists once per day during each competition’s season. FameCast, however, only allowed artists and fans to cast one vote per round for each contestant throughout a season.
This past October, FameCast changed its ways, and allowed its users to cast one vote per day for each artist they choose to vote for. Instantly, site traffic saw a major increase, and advertisers seemingly started to pop up all over the website. Once can only imagine the kind of Advertisment Revenue this has created for FameCast.
Daily Site Stats as of 11/2/07 for FameCast.com
Full stats can be found here
But just last night, the rankings had suddenly changed on one of FameCast’s ‘stages’, and a negative buzz is starting to fly around artists and fans on the site. Most of the buzz is coming from those who were directly affected by the loss of what FameCast calls “illegitimate votes”. Artists had dropped from a range of 10-17 ranks by around 6:00pm Eastern. Fans have start to bombard the forums looking for answers, and questioning FameCast’s own legitimacy. Part of FameCast’s current response states:
“…Please remember that if an Artist’s rank drops, this does not necessarily mean that the Artist has been falsifying votes, but that he or she may have received illegitimate votes from another source.”
In the end, is it completely fair for an artist to have no real control over their final ranking? Maybe not. But there are two questions I can think of that should be asked from both sides of the table. On the Fan/Artist side, will this issue be something that can be fixed in the future, thus eliminating the lack of trust this might create? On the side of FameCast, does the current “Audit Committee” method need to be changed, and is it going to directly affect the relationship between Site Traffic and Ad Revenue?
Personally, I’ve been involved in FameCast since its first Season. My band, Soundscape Soul performed in their Season 2 Finals. I’ve seen many positive results from our presence on the website. But we were one of the artists affected by the recent “Vote Audit” and therefore was taken out of the running on one stage, while having no options to fix the situation before it was done. We are still on another stage and planning on launching promotion campaigns for the next round, but I would rather see this current issue resolved and laid to rest.
What do you think about the recent “Vote Auditing” that just took place on FameCast? Do you think there’s a link between that and the need for Site Traffic? Will this affect that need? Sound off!
FameCast.com has thrown my band, Soundscape Soul, for a loop (and for the 3rd straight Season). Thanks to everybody’s support, we’ve kept up a #1 Ranking on the Pop Stage and have made it into the Top 10. On the Singer/Songwriter Stage, we had maintained a #3 Ranking. For some reason, we were knocked down to 20th while the voting was closed and therefore missed the cut into the Top 10 on that stage. FameCast has issued a response to the drop in rank by sending me this email:
“Hi Josh,
I apologize for the confusion regarding the drop; the Audit Committee had their work cut out for them. As always, votes deemed illegitimate were removed and the ranks changed accordingly. I assure you that your shift was the direct result of such action.
Thank you”
Please, if you have the time, visit this Forum on FameCast.com, login to or create your account, and post your feelings on what has happened and what you feel should be done to fix the “Vote Auditing” system. Your opinion matters, and can make a difference. You can also leave a comment here. If we can rack up enough comments here, I’ll go ahead and forward all of your suggestions and comments directly to FameCast.
What’s done is done, and our focus returns to the competition. Despite being knocked out of the Singer/Songwriter Stage, we’re still alive on the Pop Stage, and that’s where we’ll need your support the most! Our submission into the Pop Stage (since this new round must feature a new video) is a clip of us performing the first song we had ever written: “Her Song”. We performed this song at the Triad Theater in New York City back in March of 2006. I hope you all enjoy it, and can head over to FameCast.com to vote for the video. Voting will begin on Tuesday, November 6th at 9:00pm Eastern and last until Tuesday, November 20th at 12:00pm Eastern. Thanks again everyone, and enjoy this clip!
Soundscape Soul – “Her Song”
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The Webestrian’s Opinion