Anna Anisin

I thought that I would share this great article that I came across last week:
It was written by John Shea for the San Francisco Chronicle 

Selig's committee lacks diversity

I thought that Shea made a good point about baseball getting ignored by a younger age group for being slow and boring. And if Selig's committee mostly consists of not so young white men, there is definitely a big problem here.



MLB is loosing its youth fan base because they are mostly marketing to not so young white men.
Baseball is a type of a sport where most of the time you fall in love with it when you're young, and if young kids are not exposed to it they will never be interested in learning about the game later on in life.
With their biggest fan base rapidly aging MLB will be in trouble. I think that they are in trouble already with their attendance being down.

And what about women? They are not marketing to us AT ALL!
By creating Baseball Beauties I am hoping to change this a bit and am hoping to increase the female attendance down the line. But without MLB's support there is only so much we can do.

I was really lucky to meet the Money Ball man himself at the A’s premium seat holder’s party, which was held at the bar behind the home plate at the A’s stadium. Not anticipating the horrible traffic, we almost didn’t make it there in time! When we finally got there, Billy Beane (A’s GM), A’s coach Bob Geren and Mike Crowley (A’s President)  were taking questions from the audience about the team and baseball in general. Afterwards, I got enough courage to go up to Billy introduce myself and had a friendly conversation.

Billy Beane on fashion – the weather has been really gloomy and cold in the Bay Area so I decided to wear my Burberry scarf. Billy asked me, “Is that a Burberry?” I said that it certainly is and he told me a story about his Burberry scarf and that he bought it in England a while ago and felt like he was the only male wearing a Burberry scarf until he saw a TV anchorman wearing one. I thought that it was ironic that Billy would notice a designer item!

Billy Beane on Dogs – During our conversations pets came up and it turns out that Billy is a dog lover and is a proud owner of a boarder-collie and a yorkie. I told him that I have 3 Chihuahuas and he replied that he used to have one also a while back. We both agreed that yorkies are much higher maintenance than Chihuahuas but are better with children.  Once again, I would never have thought that a tall man like Billy Bean would be interested in small dogs!

Billy Beane on Money Ball & Brad Pitt – I asked Billy if he was happy that the “Money Ball” movie got picked up by another production company. He said that it’s great that the movie is going to be made after all. I then asked him how he felt about someone like Brat Pitt to be playing his character. Billy laughing a little said that it would be much more exciting if he was 25 and single! He also said that Brad Pitt came over to visit his Danville home. Telling me that both his nanny who is a very casual dresser and wife got all made up when he came over. He thought it was very funny that his wife got up at 6am to get ready for Brad’s visit. I then asked if Angelina came with Brad and he said that unfortunately she didn’t. I bet if Angelina came over Billy would have been up at 6am getting ready! Lol

Billy Beane’s restaurant recommendations – I asked Billy if he can suggest a couple of his favorite restaurants in the East Bay and he said that he loves:

Burma Super Star in Alameda, he said that the one in San Francisco is impossible to get into and the Alameda location is just as great and is more accessible.
He also recommended that I try Oliveto Restaurant in Oakland, great local food.

Billy  has a teenage daughter who is 19 and a 2 year old baby with his ‘new’ wife, he loves  the Bay Area and it looks like the A’s are here to stay!

After our conversation I handed him my Baseball Beauties business card and it got quite a reaction! “I better hide this one from my wife or she’ll think that I’m pulling a Tiger Woods!” Billy said laughing. (he is quite a character, VERY animated,  friendly, smiling every chance he gets) “You can give it to your wife, the website is for women” I said in response. Billy was so taken back by my card that he shared it with the GM and Bob Geren and Mike Crowley, and they all giggled about it referring back to Tiger Woods and his many women.

Thank you Billy Beane for taking your time and chatting with me! Till next time =)