Originally published in Issue #11 of Fish Lines Series Magazine (August 4-6, 2009)

Embracing Social Media
Players Enjoy Being Able to Stay in Touch

By David Hultin

For all the Goldeyes that hail from every corner of the United States, keeping in touch with family and friends is an important part of the daily routine, whether at home in the friendly confines of Canwest Park or miles away on one of numerous road trips.

And while the telephone remains as popular as ever, the increased prevalence of social media has opened up plenty of new ways for the players to stay in touch and share their summer with the world.

But hold on. Just what exactly is social media anyway? The simple answer is that it is an extremely popular and highly accessible form of online content that represents a shift in how people discover, read, share news and information.

One of the most popular social media websites is Facebook, a hugely popular phenomenon where more than 250 million global users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school and region.

People can also add friends and send them messages and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. It appears to be the preferred way that players keep in touch both in the clubhouse and on the road, so say a trio of Goldeyes pitchers.

“I do use Facebook quite a bit,” said reliever Derek Feldkamp. I’m probably on it at least a couple of times a day. It helps me to keep in touch with my college buddies and see how everybody is doing.”

“I usually check Facebook every night so I can keep in touch with my acquaintances, college friends and guys that I played with in the Rangers organization,” said second-year starter Ace Walker. “I really like the privacy restrictions on Facebook, it seems to work pretty well for me.”

“I’m on Facebook to keep in touch with people and use it for updates,” said set-up man Aaron Odom, “because there is a very limited amount of people that I email regularly. Everyone is connected to my Facebook account.”

Something new for 2009 is that the players are equally able to stay connected while relaxing in their own clubhouse or barreling down the highway on the team bus.

“The bus uses cell towers to provide a signal that allows the players and coaches to connect to the Internet,” said Goldeyes general manager Andrew Collier.

There are, however, limitations.

“We can only really use the Wi-Fi on the bus when we are near cities because otherwise the signal doesn’t pick up,” Collier said. “The rural areas are not so good for coverage. Another problem seems to be that when more than two guys gets on it, especially in the rural areas, downloading goes really slow.”

Another form of social media that is growing in popularity is Twitter, a free micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets.

Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers.

A highly unscientific poll of the players found that no one had much use for Twitter. But that is not the case with Collier, who thought it was just another way to avoid work.

However, he gradually embraced the concept after discovering that using Twitter could prove beneficial.

“It is a good way to find out what is going on the world in a quick fashion. I can see what other minor leagues are doing,” Collier said. “I also post updates. When it rained recently, I took a picture of the field and posted it to Twitter telling everybody that we were still playing that night.”

For the many Goldeyes that embrace social media, there are still those quite happy to maintain the status quo, among them outfielder Dee Brown and pitcher Mark Michael.

“I don’t use any of that stuff,” said Brown. “I keep in touch with everyone back home in Florida via email but that is about it. Many times I just call.”

“I don’t use it at all,” said Michael. “I used to have email but not anymore. I guess I’m old fashioned that way.”

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