Schaefer: In case you missed it

[Benjamin Grimm]

I kind of buried a (relatively) important announcement in the Schaefer 2015 thread, so I'll post it again here so that the few remaining people who may care about this are sure to see it.

Due to declining participation, 2015 will be the final year of Schaefer voting in the Crane Pool Forum. Everything will continue as normal for the remainder of the season, and we'll put this thing to bed for good when the season ends.

Thanks to everyone (humans and robots alike) who participated over the last eleven years. It's been fun, but this feature seems to have run out of gas.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Yes! I might actually win this thing.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

My fault, sorry.

[Guest d'Kong76]

It was a good run, thanks for keeping it going all these beers!

I read in The Wall Street Journal that Manufactures Hanover and
Sinclair are already battling for sponsorship rights for a similar pro-
motion in 2016. Stay tuned!

[Guest themetfairy]

Thanks for coordinating this as long as you have.

[Edgy MD]

Side-effect in part of the forum's slow demise.

I still think this can live on nicely with a voting form affiliated with each game at the UMDB. Hopefully that takes much of the work out.

Thanks for the hard work.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

We should sell the Schaefer Award to a more popular website.

[Zvon]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: We should sell the Schaefer Award to a more popular website.

Maybe if it's launched from the boards facebook page it'll pick up some steam. When you post for a call to vote it should hit the walls & feeds of all those friended by the CPF on fb. I bet there are other old fans who fondly remember the Schaefer Met Player Of The Game. Maybe they'll get involved. You would have to be loud about it initially, to get folks attention.
I hate to see this go away.

I also don't understand why every one here does not vote. It's such a simple thing.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Edgy MD wrote: Side-effect in part of the forum's slow demise.

We should probably just shut the ol' girl down in December.

[stevejrogers]

Zvon wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: We should sell the Schaefer Award to a more popular website. Maybe if it's launched from the boards facebook page it'll pick up some steam. When you post for a call to vote it should hit the walls & feeds of all those friended by the CPF on fb. I bet there are other old fans who fondly remember the Schaefer Met Player Of The Game. Maybe they'll get involved. You would have to be loud about it initially, to get folks attention. I hate to see this go away.

Create a Twitter # for Schaefer voting? Maybe open a space on Redditt? Maybe a Tumblr site for repostings? Or whatever is going to replace Facebook?

[G-Fafif]

How about if we have a forum where there's an easily understood established protocol and you can vote for several days after the game and a really diligent moderator continually tabulates the results and announces them with great visual flair on a going basis?

This wheel's been invented twice, once in the '70s, then in the '00s. If the end of the second ride is indeed at hand, I heartily tip my cap and thank Grimm for the yeoman work.

First David Letterman. Then Jon Stewart. Now Schaefer. Late nights will never be the same.

[Benjamin Grimm]

First, to everyone above who has thanked me for doing this for eleven years, you're welcome. It's been fun and I too am sorry to see it end.

Maybe if it's launched from the boards facebook page it'll pick up some steam. When you post for a call to vote it should hit the walls & feeds of all those friended by the CPF on fb. I bet there are other old fans who fondly remember the Schaefer Met Player Of The Game. Maybe they'll get involved. You would have to be loud about it initially, to get folks attention. I hate to see this go away.

I'm afriad that sounds like it would take far more effort than I'd care to expend. I'm sure that there are hundreds of people (if not more) out there who would like to participate in something like this, but I'm not inclined to go beating the bushes in an attempt to find them.

Create a Twitter # for Schaefer voting? Maybe open a space on Redditt? Maybe a Tumblr site for repostings? Or whatever is going to replace Facebook?

I think the Twitter hashtag suggestion is a pretty good one. If we were at the beginning of this Schaefer revival and if I was a proficient Twitter user, this might very well be the approach I'd take. But I know fairly little about Twitter, other than that it doesn't interest me very much. And I know nothing at all about Redditt or Tumblr, and I mean that literally.

I still think this can live on nicely with a voting form affiliated with each game at the UMDB. Hopefully that takes much of the work out.

I've considered that, and haven't ruled it out. It would take a little (but not a whole lot) of start-up development and if I manage to motivate myself to do that between now and next April, I might put such a thing in place. At the very least, I expect that I'll at least post my own votes to the UMDB so that the single-game results appear in the box scores and the Players and Pitchers of the month will continue to appear on this page. If anyone thinks that they would participate in off-forum voting let me know and I'll keep you posted, through PM, of whether or not that will happen. I may (or may not) continue to post the end-of-month and end-of-year results here, although perhaps without the custom 1970s baseball cards.

I also don't understand why every one here does not vote. It's such a simple thing.

How about if we have a forum where there's an easily understood established protocol and you can vote for several days after the game and a really diligent moderator continually tabulates the results and announces them with great visual flair on a going basis?

That sounds like it should work, and did, I suppose, for a number of years. I think that there are still enough people posting on this forum, and participating in IGTs, to keep this viable. Voting should really only take a few minutes, but for whatever reason, there are only four or five people (beyond me) who seem interested.

There's a story that Redd Foxx, when playing in Las Vegas, walked on stage one late night and only saw five people in the audience. He said, "Five people! I'm not doin' a show for five fuckin' people!" and then walked off stage. I guess I can identify with how Redd Foxx felt. This Schaefer thing is not a very big effort; it only takes a few minutes a day, but even that seems like too much of an effort for the entertainment of five people. And my apologies to those five devoted voters: I really appreciate your sticking with it as long as you have.

First David Letterman. Then Jon Stewart. Now Schaefer. Late nights will never be the same.

David Letterman, by announcing his retirement over a year in advance, indirectly inspired me to announce the end of Schaefer at this point in the season. Each October I think that I may not want to keep the Schaefer thing going the next year, but by April I'm always willing to give it one more try. I realized that the only way to get off this merry-go-round is to announce the ending at a time when I'm aware that I no longer want to do it, rather than keep deferring the decision to April, a time when I've forgotten the discouraging participation from the year before.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I'll ketchup Mon morn... ya'll should too!!

06/09: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22865
06/10: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22871
06/11: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22874
06/12: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22879
06/13: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22881

[Benjamin Grimm]

Voting for all three games played against the Braves this past weekend will close on Wednesday, some time after 10 a.m.

Schaefer POTG 6/12/15: Mets 5 Braves 3
Schaefer POTG 6/13/15 - Braves 5, Mets 3 (11 Innings)
Schaefer POTG 06/14/2015 Mets 10, Atlanta 8