Greenville Drive Baseball

[linkerjpatrick]

Maybe you should send that link to the Drive! Great looking site that is also well laid out.

I agree. That's the way I would design a site for one of my clients. Intuative navigation, most everything is "above the fold", ad placement really benefits the advertisers yet is still out of the way and artistic without being overly busy.

[cundvale]

If that happens, you would think that a city like Birmingham, AL could contend for an Atlanta AAA club.

I think Birmingham is way too close to Atlanta to get the AAA club. I believe it would detract from attendance here in Atlanta. You see a lot of Alabama plates in the parking lot.

[RestedTraveler]

I think Birmingham is way too close to Atlanta to get the AAA club. I believe it would detract from attendance here in Atlanta. You see a lot of Alabama plates in the parking lot.

You could make that argument; however, from the flip-side of the coin, people in Rome, Jackson, and Birmingham that follow these players up through the minors would already be their fans when they reach Atlanta. It would help strengthen the fan base, I'd think.

Additionally, the trend these days seems to be that major league clubs try to place their AAA and AA teams (and even some A teams). The Braves are moving in this direction, in fact. Look at the Rome Braves and the (Jackson) Mississippi Braves...they're right in Atlanta's back yard, just as the Greenville Braves were before thy moved to Mississippi. The Colorado Rockies have their AAA Team in Colorado Springs (the Sky Sox). Cincinnati has their A Team in Dayton and their AAA in Louisville with the AA not too far away in Chattanooga.

[whitehourseview]

You could make that argument; however, from the flip-side of the coin, people in Rome, Jackson, and Birmingham that follow these players up through the minors would already be their fans when they reach Atlanta. It would help strengthen the fan base, I'd think.

Additionally, the trend these days seems to be that major league clubs try to place their AAA and AA teams (and even some A teams). The Braves are moving in this direction, in fact. Look at the Rome Braves and the (Jackson) Mississippi Braves...they're right in Atlanta's back yard, just as the Greenville Braves were before thy moved to Mississippi. The Colorado Rockies have their AAA Team in Colorado Springs (the Sky Sox). Cincinnati has their A Team in Dayton and their AAA in Louisville with the AA not too far away in Chattanooga.

Scranton, PA is the Yankees AAA club, Norfolk, VA is the Orioles AAA club, Memphis is the St. Louis AAA club, Tacoma is the Seattle AAA club, Omaha is the Kansas City AAA club, Pawtucket, RI is the Boston AAA club, etc. Makes it easier for mid season call ups and injury replacements to have a guy within driving distance.

[cundvale]

Scranton, PA is the Yankees AAA club, Norfolk, VA is the Orioles AAA club, Memphis is the St. Louis AAA club, Tacoma is the Seattle AAA club, Omaha is the Kansas City AAA club, Pawtucket, RI is the Boston AAA club, etc. Makes it easier for mid season call ups and injury replacements to have a guy within driving distance.

Wow, I am surprised to see so many AAA clubs so close to their parent clubs. Thanks for the info. This is a great forum and y'all have made my wife and I homesick for Greenville.

[Greenville]

Although the talent gap between AAA and A is huge, I would prefer to keep our class A Greenville Drive than get a AAA Braves team. We had the Braves, they left, and they missed their chance. I like having the Red Sox farm team in Greenville, playing in a mini-Fenway Park, in the great stadium in the West End. I don't want to give that up, not even for an AAA franchise.

[whitehourseview]

Although the talent gap between AAA and A is huge, I would prefer to keep our class A Greenville Drive than get a AAA Braves team. We had the Braves, they left, and they missed their chance. I like having the Red Sox farm team in Greenville, playing in a mini-Fenway Park, in the great stadium in the West End. I don't want to give that up, not even for an AAA franchise.

I don't think anyone seriously considers Greenville AAA ready. Seating space alone would virtually require West End Field to be torn down and rebuilt or have a new park in another location.

[DowntownCityGirl]

Plus you have to add the fact that our new team is just that - completely new to Greenville. This was Braves territory (and still is to a certain extent) for decades, yet look how much support is out there for a single A team downtown. Greenville has tons of "can do" attitude!

...you mean, tons of "Drive?!"

Seriously, I'm with you on that one. The owners have done a terrific job, but their success says a lot about the community here, too.

[RestedTraveler]

Former Greenville Drive players, Bubba Bell and Michael Bowden garnered Red Sox Minor League Player of the Month honors for April.

Way to go, guys!

P.S. ... I had to go elsewhere to find this information ... wasn't on the G-Drive site.

OK...THIS NEWS is finally on the G-Drive site...3 days later. Don't mean to be so picky, but it's fun to make fun of. I'm sure this site will totally rock one day...I have faith.

[RestedTraveler]

The G-Drive just took 3 of 4 from first place Augusta, dropping Augusta to second place, a game back of Asheville in the division! The game last night went into extra innings and I caught hell from Mrs. RT for keeping my daughter out so late on a school night, but it was worth it. Looks like today's game was a rout and Jonsey is finally getting some run support...something he hasn't had much of at all for this season or last season.

OK...now onto the web site...the header for the G-Drive site looks much better now....still no improvement on the rest of the page though. Hopefully the new header is a sign that things are changing. Everything to the right of the "Upcoming" "Game Center" "Merchandise" and "Click Here to Listen to Drive Home Games" section is way off to the right of my screen and I have to scroll over to view it, which is a bit of a pain in the arse, to say the least. They should stick all of the content into the first three columns and truncate the fourth, at the very least, if they change nothing else about the site. I guess they're just working under the assumption that everybody has 1280x1024 resolution on their display?

Rested Traveler - busting the chops of the G-Drive Web Site Development Team since 2006.

P.S. How did I know the GreenJackets were in first place in the division? I didn't find the standings on the G-Drive site, that's for sure...I had to go HERE.

Edited May 15, 2007 by RestedTraveler

[phillytiger]

OK...THIS NEWS is finally on the G-Drive site...3 days later. Don't mean to be so picky, but it's fun to make fun of. I'm sure this site will totally rock one day...I have faith.

Standings on the Drive website have been there since it launched. On the Gamecenter on the front page, there's a tab that says Standings.

[RestedTraveler]

Standings on the Drive website have been there since it launched. On the Gamecenter on the front page, there's a tab that says Standings.

A couple of things about this:

1. It's not very intuitive - it's not really even a "tab" as much as it is a blue thing that doesn't even really look like a button or any other active control. I'd personally like to see the standings there permanently on the front page and not be something you have to attempt to drill down to anyway. The standings are one of those essential pieces of content that should be there in your face as soon as you go to the site.
   
2. I've clicked on it a number of times over the past several weeks and it only gives me XML errors
   

Warning: fopen(/tmp/milbstatscache/stats_xml_leagues_l116_standings.xml) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /data/www/lib/php/classes/MILBStats2.class.php on line 1372

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /data/www/lib/php/classes/MILBStats2.class.php on line 1373

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /data/www/lib/php/classes/MILBStats2.class.php on line 1374

Kudos on the new page headers though - they're very sharp!

Edited May 16, 2007 by RestedTraveler

[Galley]

Taking 3 out of 4 from Augusta is certainly an accomplishment; way to go, guys!

[RestedTraveler]

Taking 3 out of 4 from Augusta is certainly an accomplishment; way to go, guys!

Yes, it is! Now if we could just win 10 more and get back to .500. Hey..it could happen! You've gotta believe!

[breed]

A couple of things about this:

1. It's not very intuitive - it's not really even a "tab" as much as it is a blue thing that doesn't even really look like a button or any other active control. I'd personally like to see the standings there permanently on the front page and not be something you have to attempt to drill down to anyway. The standings are one of those essential pieces of content that should be there in your face as soon as you go to the site.
   
2. I've clicked on it a number of times over the past several weeks and it only gives me XML errors
   

Just to pile on... page content shouldn't be moved when you change tabs.

[whitehourseview]

Just to pile on... page content shouldn't be moved when you change tabs.

Do like I do, just subscribe to their RSS feed and never go to their website, I haven't been since the roll out of the new site. My eyes are grateful.

[Galley]

Wow, what a game tonight! There was a real "web gem" catch by Greensboro's center fielder, an amazing play at the plate, An inside the park home run when Jason Place was unable to run down a long deep fly ball in center, and a walk-off hit (his first) for Exposito.

[gs3]

Love this billboard!

[RestedTraveler]

Love this billboard!

I thought it was funny, too, but my little girl has informed me that it scares her...she's evidently had nightmares about the wall eating baseball players since she first saw it.

[BigTone]

Since I took the night off Saturday, and wasn't in town to hear anything about the game, but when I went to work at the stadium today. I seen an outline of a person on the center field wall. I was taliking to my boss and he told me that Jason Place ran full speed into the wall Saturday night. Some of the other players put up a "chalk" outline of his body on the wall. Not sure If it stayed up during the game, but it was pretty funny to see it when we first got there.

[gs3]

I seen an outline of a person on the center field wall. I was taliking to my boss and he told me that Jason Place ran full speed into the wall Saturday night. Some of the other players put up a "chalk" outline of his body on the wall. Not sure If it stayed up during the game, but it was pretty funny to see it when we first got there.

I love this!

[Galley]

Since I took the night off Saturday, and wasn't in town to hear anything about the game, but when I went to work at the stadium today. I seen an outline of a person on the center field wall. I was taliking to my boss and he told me that Jason Place ran full speed into the wall Saturday night. Some of the other players put up a "chalk" outline of his body on the wall. Not sure If it stayed up during the game, but it was pretty funny to see it when we first got there.

Yeah, he smacked it pretty hard. The game was delayed more than 10 minutes while he recovered. BTW, he stayed in the game.

[RestedTraveler]

Hey! Kudos to the G-Drive Web Development Team! The XML errors I had been getting on the standings are no longer a problem ... AND ... they've replaced the city names with the nicknames:

Team W L GB

Sal Northern

Power 28 14 -

Grasshoppers 27 18 2.5

BlueClaws 22 20 6.0

Captains 20 24 9.0

Shorebirds 19 24 9.5

Suns 19 26 10.5

Legends 19 26 10.5

Crawdads 16 26 12.0

Sal Southern

GreenJackets 32 13 -

Catfish 30 15 2.0

Tourists 29 15 2.5

RiverDogs 23 22 9.0

Intimidators 23 22 9.0

Drive 19 25 12.5

Braves 14 30 17.5

Sand Gnats 12 32 19.5

Nicely done! I'd still prefer to see the standings on the front page without having to click on something to get them to expand though, but nice to see this none-the-less.

Can't wait for the next home stand! We're starting to get on a bit of a roll and winning a few now.

[gs3]

We've got the two trolleys for the Drive that run up and down Main, but thought this could also be a cool idea. A "Fan Van". This is one the Portland Beavers use. It drives through neighborhoods all over the city before season, before games, etc.....bullhorn blaring. Shows up at special events. Chances to win tickets if you spot the Fan Van. Etc. Etc. Could be a cool add on for marketing with the Drive, IMO.

[RestedTraveler]

We've got the two trolleys for the Drive that run up and down Main, but thought this could also be a cool idea. A "Fan Van". This is one the Portland Beavers use. It drives through neighborhoods all over the city before season, before games, etc.....bullhorn blaring. Shows up at special events. Chances to win tickets if you spot the Fan Van. Etc. Etc. Could be a cool add on for marketing with the Drive, IMO.

Not only all of that which you mentioned, but also imagine the possibilities...mobile ticket sales. You no longer have to go online or go to the ballpark to buy tickets...you can just purchase them from the fan van, sorta like an ice cream truck, only better!

Edit: I just noticed that the van is registered in Washington, not Oregon.. LOL!

Edited May 25, 2007 by RestedTraveler