You would think that after all the fanfare Our Washington Nationals made earlier this spring to round up fans to vote their choice for the Fan Vote Bobblehead set for August 28th when The St.Louis Cardinals visit Nationals Park--a special announcement would be made to name the winner? Right?
Instead, during the middle of the 5th inning tonight on South Capitol Street, a simple advertisement is shown on the HDTV Scoreboard picturing the next two bobblehead days: Nyjer Morgan on July 31st (previously decided) and Pudge Rodriguez on August 28th as the Fan Vote Winner. No announcement. No special recognition. No acknowledgement to even thank the fans for participating this past March in the vote. The P.A. announcer didn't even say a word. This notice given after repeated inquiries to Nationals Staff asking when the details will be released about the Fan Vote Winner. And being told there is going to be a big announcement soon.
With one of the smallest crowds of the season as The San Diego Padres are in town, few probably even noticed the ad on the HDTV Scoreboard. Absolutely stunned that an effort supposedly made to increase fan involvement and interest was basically ignored tonight. As fans, we were disappointed there was no fanfare, whatsover, in announcing The Fans' Choice.
Above, please find two pictures of the Nyjer Morgan & Pudge Rodriguez Bobbleheads to be given away on July 31st and August 28th.
All Photos Copyrighted--Nats320--All Rights Reserved
2 comments:
Thanks for the scoop. I was at the game and didn't notice that detail on the scoreboard.
It's not surprising, of course. Communication with fans has not been one of the Nationals' strengths. Sure, they've improved a little, but there's still a long way to go when super-diehards feel uninformed most of the time.
It practically took detective work to get details about Nats U for women before that event, and the picnic for STH on Saturday has had very little advance notice and marketing.
Both Nats U and the picnic are fun events, so you'd think the Nationals would want to promote them heavily to get all the credit they can for activities that make fans happy.
I do wonder what the issue is. Is it that they don't have enough staff to do the job, or instead that they still have too many of the wrong staff, who don't have the instinct to think of fans as customers and ask themselves everyday ... what would I want/need if I were a fan?
It's not like they did a very good job of conducting the fan choice bobblehead vote in the first place. Who even knew about it when it happened?
Looking back at the choices they offered, the only one that makes sense under the current circumstances is Pudge. Lannan is gone, Flores never made it back, Teddy was done in 2007, and who would want a Riggleman bobblehead anyway? So no matter how the fans voted, I'm sure they just picked Pudge - which is probably why they're not even mentioning the fan choice aspect of it at all now.
Actually, since they allowed the write-in option the real winner of the vote had to have been Strasburg. But the bobbleheads probably had to go into production well before he was called up, so I would guess they chose not to do him this year.
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