One step at a time

As far as first dates go, Monday night's rendezvous between the Toronto Blue Jays and a handful of prominent bloggers at the team's annual State of the Franchise address was a successful one.

And although both parties are curious to see where their relationship might lead, just don't excpect them to jump into the hot tub together any time soon.

Still, the decision by the team to not only invite 10 of them to Monday's event -- but grant them access to club executives as well -- suggests that after years of playing hard-to-get, the Blue Jays have perhaps now become the pursuer.

Late last week the club sent out the invitations via e-mail. They included instructions to avoid the media scrums and, with one possible large exception, they respectfully obliged.

"The world has changed and so too has the way people consume information," said Blue Jays vice-president of business operations, Stephen Brooks, the man behind the initiative. "It's important for us to be respectful of that and these people write about the Blue Jays, so we felt they should be there to help tell the story, good or bad."

In the eyes of one of the bloggers invited to attend, Monday represented a welcome shift in attitude after years of feeling perceived as nothing more than web-based muckrakers.

"It sounds like to me they don't think we're the enemy anymore, which is nice," said Tom Dakers (@bluebirdbanter), a writer for Bluebird Banter. "I sometimes had the feeling that they hoped we'd go away. They weren't really responsive to requests."

Dakers, an Edmonton native now residing in Calgary, was unable to attend on Monday but now excited by the prospect that perhaps more opportunities to speak directly with the team are forthcoming.

"I'd just like a little more access, that'd be nice," he explained, adding he'd like the opportunity to participate in conference calls for the media. "I know they've got to balance what they give me with what the mainstream media wants, so I understand that. But I'd like a little more."

UNCHARTERED TERRITORY

The Blue Jays say better communication with the blogosphere is the goal, they're just not sure yet what that will involve.

"It's unchartered territory in a lot of ways," said Brooks. "It's just something that we have to manage as we go. I'm sure there will be some events when it's not appropriate (to invite bloggers) and credentialed media are really the ones that should be there.

"But as we go forward on a case-by-case basis and the nature of the event, we'll make those invites as we think they're warranted."

The Blue Jays say they haven't contemplated fully accrediting bloggers for the 2012 season, but they are also not ruling out doing so in the future.

And while greater access to players and staff might be the goal of some bloggers, others believe maintaining a healthy distance between themselves and the ballclub is essential to their work.

"If the prospect comes up of being down at the Dome, it's not something that I personally am going to jump at the chance to do," said Andrew Stoeten (@andrewstoeten), author of Drunk Jays Fans.

As one of the few who have managed to successfully parlay their Blue Jays blog into a paying gig -- Stoeten is now a full-time employee at The Score -- he could probably get credentials through his network, but as he articulated in a recent post, access might actually work against bloggers in some cases:

"It's an old blogger's saw that part of the reason our medium was able to take hold as it did is because we offered an unvarnished opinion on the clubs we followed, without being clouded by the privilege of access or the necessity of maintaining professional relationships with players and club officials."

But to each his own, he told sportsnet.ca earlier this week.

"Some are looking at (their blog) as a means to a career, or to be part of the club that does that. To me it's more of a symbiotic relationship: we're doing things that the mainstream guys can't do sometimes and they're doing things that we can't do.

"It's an interesting relationship, but we're not one and the same, the bloggers and the mainstream guys. So I don't know about trying to break down that barrier and trying to be the same as them."

However, if there's one thing the Blue Jays, the bloggers and the mainstream media appear to be in agreement on, it's the role the blogosphere played this past summer and fall in creating hype around the Blue Jays's new uniforms.

"Quite frankly, we did some things as a club that were geared towards creating some buzz," admitted Brooks. "We did a teaser video around the logo that was very purposefully done to a take on a life of its own around social media."

And then there was the new logo leak this past summer.

In a Sept. 22 post, Stoeten revealed a high-resolution image a "little bird" had told him was a leaked version of the Blue Jays new logo. The image -- which was later proven to be in fact the new logo -- spread like wildfire on Blue Jays blogs and social media.

At the time, the Blue Jays would not confirm or deny the legitimacy of the image, but make no mistake they were paying close attention to what people were saying.

"The change in logo was a great example of how influential and how important the digital world, or the social media world, is to a sports team," said Brooks, who repeated team president Paul Beeston's belief that it may have been a mistake not to invite bloggers to the official unveiling given the prominent role they played leading up to it.

Ian Hunter (@bluejayhunter), author of the popular blog, The Blue Jay Hunter, said the uniform unveiling was an opportunity lost but there are a few other bones the Blue Jays should consider tossing the bloggers' way.

"What about a bloggers' day where we get credentials to talk to the players," he suggested. "I wouldn't necessarily expect them to give us credentials to every game, but for just maybe one or two days a season to talk to the players, talk to the coaches and maybe watch the game from the press box. That would be pretty cool."

DO AS THE METS DO

As Hunter pointed out, the New York Mets have been very proactive in establishing relationships with bloggers, pointing to a blogger-exclusive conference call held this past December with GM Sandy Alderson.

"We're all fans at heart," said Hunter. "There's all the beat writers with a lot of facts and reports, but the bloggers have more opinions and can speculate a little more. I'm interested to see where this is going."

While the likes of Hunter are ready to take things to the next step, the Blue Jays appear open, yet undecided on what form this relationship may eventually take.

"We're trying to be inclusive," said Brooks, adding the team is currently exploring the possibility of expanding WiFi to more areas of the Rogers Centre. "We're just kind of wading our toe into it here and seeing where it goes from there."

For bloggers who have grown accustomed to not having their phone calls and e-mails returned, it's a welcome start.