TheLeviathan

Apparently for a small segment of Twins fans the following things constitute "good business practice": 1) Complete disregard for consumer loyalty/customer satisfaction 2) Priced gouging for all non-essential services offered 3) Premature press releases (damn interns!) 4) Singling out your two best customers (parents with children and hardcore baseball people) and openly giving them an "FU" 5) Not caring about customers because at some unknown point in the future when you hope to be good you know you'll get money from them. 6) Making the "Well every other business is doing it!" excuse look like something that not just 6 year olds employ as logic. Maybe this explains why this organization feels entitled to do things like this.

Yeah but that was HIS run. Gardy said so. God that quote disgusts me more each time I think about it.

Except those three examples are very different. One is basically $60 for an autograph session at home plate during BP, another struck me as a one-time $15 fee for the season with extra perks, and the other was a season ticket holder perk. (Totally understandable) What these, and glunn's earlier suggestions, show is just how incredibly stupid this idea was. There are literally hundreds of ways to use the extra perk of BP to generate fan good-will and the Twins utterly failed to do so. In fact, their true motive was apparent to everyone but apparently them. (Or the intern who somehow has the power to release items to the press if you want to believe in fairy tales) The problem is we have more than a few people in this fan-base that are apparently content to be slapped in the face by their team and turn around and say "may I have another please sir?" This borderline military-esque vision of fandom that some people have is truly astounding to me. You can be a critical fan! You don't lose your fan card just because you don't like the team gouging you. You don't have to put up with every ham-handed, money grubbing plot and shrug your shoulders out of fear of not being a "true" fan. I mean, my god, have some self-respect too. Just because you love the team doesn't mean every insult to your experience as a fan need be accepted. I take going to the game as an event. I show up the minute they open those gates. I love to be among the first walking in and just enjoying the experience of the ballpark. That's part of the appeal of going to the game. HD TV has pretty much eliminated the "need" to be there. I go for the experience. For this team to try and jack $15 more out of me because they know some of us love that experience? It's insulting. It's petty. It feels like basic contempt for their customers. I wouldn't put up with that from any other industry I give my money, so just because it's sports and I'm a fan seems like a pretty dumb reason for this to be any different.

The rest of your analysis shows then how it was the other suggestion - stupid. You have many good ideas here for how to turn what was a customer relations disaster into a customer relations boon! Businesses sacrifices profits all the time in the name of image. (Hell, they frequently absorb unnecessary costs for this as well) What is so baffling in this move is that the Twins seemed completely unaware of how damaging this would be to their image. I tend to agree with you that it wasn't contempt, but it sure as hell was utter stupidity.

Of course there is investment. There is always investment in positive consumer relations. The point is you don't blatantly sabotage that for pennies. It's either utter stupidity or contempt, I guess I'm not really happy with either.

You know what bugs me? That they don't charge parents $15 a pop to use those changing tables in the bathrooms. Those screaming infants need them, but I mean, if they want to bitch about what poor customer service that is.....maybe they should consider the alternative of not having it at all? If I did hashtags it would be "missing the point".

No, I agree. Just unfortunate he didn't capitalize - because he was given two poor pitches to work with that were right there.

Woofta. Someone isn't going to be able to resist this one. I'm straining here.

I won't hate on Mauer, but boy did he have some pitches to hit in that at-bat.

Coming next - $1 per "moment of fun" and additional $1 if it was something the Twins actually did on the field that caused it.

A) There's a saying we have for school children about jumping off a bridge I'd like you to consider with that logic. If the Twins are dumb enough to have to gauge how their fans will react to something like this on social media - I have even more issues with the front office than I previously thought. It's nothing short of incompetence to be that ambivalent to your fanbase that you don't realize when you're soaking them for the sake of soaking them. Over peanuts to boot. Is there no one with half a brain in the decision-making room that said "Um, we just cut payroll two years in a row....this seems like rubbing salt in a wound"?

Those concerns about team defense are starting to rear their ugly heads. Nice double for Plouffe though. Opposite field baby.

So wait, you're blaming fans for being outraged at what was clearly a money-grabbing scheme spurred by utter contempt for fanbase feelings? I mean, cmon man, that's just credibility crushing to defend that.

Yeah, "his run" bothers me. How about no run instead?

They are welcome to make business decisions like this (extra service, extra fee) - I'd just advise them to have a bit more awareness of their fan base. Observe: Two consecutive awful seasons, continued payroll decline, a model of basically "wait for 2015"........and you want to charge people an extra $15 who ARE emotionally invested in your product? At that point, you're all but kissing their wife while you pull the cash from the poor guy's wallet. It's not smart in a larger business sense because it cannot appear anything but petty given the team's current status. So the "business decision" defense is just ridiculous in my eyes.

Yeah but .50 out of every dollar is going to improving...the...oh wait.

A crazy, scary idea indeed. I'd almost appreciate it if I thought it'd matter.

King movies are so hit or miss. They are either huge hit or huge miss IMO. So I'm right with you - dare to be epic with that series. I think The Gunslinger is one of my top 5 books and one I've read more times than I can count but damn would the fanboy in me go nuts if they pulled it off.

But that's what I mean. Is Gardy already so much in love with Correia that we've entered the kind of delusion usually reserved for slappy, head-first sliding middle infielders? If so, that's scary. And could very easily explain the insanely stupid strategy in the eighth.

The original plan of 3-4 movies intermixed with a TV mini-series sounded like a dream come true. Unfortunately the "come true" part hasn't happened. When I finally read the final book I had to read 1-6 again in what could best be described as a "bender".

The better idea was simple to me - pitch around Gordon - nothing good to hit. Then let Burton work to Escobar hoping for a double play. It's a bit scary to think Correia is getting this much love-fest from Gardy already.

Ah.....that takes me back. Your words are, as always, Ka-Me for our Tet here at Twins Daily. (Hurry up and get that movie made dammit!)

Eh, this is just Dave being Dave. Too soon. Sadly, he's got the most potential of our crap MI possibilities. Would be nice if he put together a decent at-bat from time to time though.

I'm surprised they pitched that aggressively to a hitter like Gordon. Especially when your stuff is only marginally better than your average AA pitcher. Give him the ol' Unintentional Intentional Walk and get Burton in to face Escobar.

Yeah, he's not hitting much hard, but he's working counts and drawing a pretty healthy share of walks. It's just been a bit surprising to see a competent aspect to his offensive game I didn't expect to see.