MLB President Bob DuPuyhas added Internet blogger to his already voluminous job description, at leasttemporarily.
DuPuy is blogging dailyfrom the World Baseball Classic, providing an often candid behind-the-sceneslook at baseball’s debut attempt at staging a global championship tournament. Ararity for such a high-level sports executive, DuPuy’s initial blog posts haveaveraged more than 900 words each, traversing from MLB’s reasoning behind theschedule and organization of the event to reflections on crowd reactions ateach game.
“I would never havedone it, but it has been fun so far,” DuPuy said from Tokyo, one of the WBCfirst-round game sites. “Eventually, it will turn to work.”
“Bob’s ClassicChronicles,” found at worldbaseballclassic.com, are the brainchild of BobBowman, president of MLB Advanced Media. With both MLB and the players’ unionattempting nearly every initiative imaginable to put a positive face on themuch-debated WBC, Bowman said DuPuy’s writing provides a fresh, exclusiveelement.
Getting the immenselybusy and time-strapped DuPuy to consent to the idea, however, took some work.DuPuy, though one of the driving forces behind MLBAM’s meteoric rise, hardlyfits the demographic profile of a typical blogger given his age, 59, andprofessional background as an attorney and university professor.
Bowman made threeunsuccessful requests to create the blog before making a final appeal as DuPuyboarded his flight heading from New York to Japan for the start of thetournament.
“I told him, ‘You’vegot 14 hours. Just think about it.’ Thankfully, he finally said yes,” Bowmansaid. “And it’s already been a great thing. I get these e-mails from him allthe time, and they’re extremely well-written, and his passion and love for thegame just comes right through. So I figured why not share some of that witheverybody?”
As of Wednesday,DuPuy’s blogs had drawn more than 550,000 page views, according to MLBAMofficials.
Many of the initial fancomments responding to the blogs implored DuPuy to settle the fractious stadiumlease debate in Washington, D.C., with the vitriol of some responses proving“hard not to take … personally,” DuPuy said.
But once the Nationals’stadium matter was settled before DuPuy left Japan for Orlando and thetournament games there early last week, the fan comments on the blog turnedmore positive and directed toward the WBC.
No plans are in placeto continue the blogs after the end of the tournament.
“I’m sure he hopes itdoesn’t keep going,” Bowman said. “But it’s an incredible asset for us, gettingthat inside look at the Classic. The fans love getting that inside flavor, andBob’s got just a great feel for this.”
