{"id":4896,"date":"2010-03-05T11:16:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T11:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yurasko.net\/wfy\/2010\/03\/nats-partnering-with-cherry-blossom-festival-a-positive-step.html"},"modified":"2010-03-05T11:16:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T11:16:00","slug":"nats-partnering-with-cherry-blossom-festival-a-positive-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yurasko.net\/wfy\/2010\/03\/nats-partnering-with-cherry-blossom-festival-a-positive-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Nats partnering with Cherry Blossom festival a positive step"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">PRESS RELEASE &#8211; <\/span><a class=\"post-article-link\" href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/news\/press_releases\/press_release.jsp?ymd=20100304&#038;content_id=8676530&#038;vkey=pr_was&#038;fext=.jsp&#038;c_id=was\"><b>Washington Nationals partner with National Cherry Blossom Festival<\/b><\/a> &#8211; <i>nationals.com<\/i><br \/>I have been critical about the Nats nearly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yurasko.net\/wfy\/2008\/10\/fixing-nats-marketing.html\"><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">non-existent marketing<\/span><\/a> from about day one. Back then it was because MLB did not want to spend money or do anything to offend cowardly, coddled <span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Peter Angelos<\/span>. The Lerner\/Kasten regime did not improve matters much after the first weekend of ownership. To say they have had a learning curve would be understating it &#8212; they have a <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">learning sphere<\/span> (about the size of the baseball that was proposed for behind centerfield). So, when the press release linked above came into my Inbox, I was pleased. I can&#8217;t say if partnering with the long-running <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org\/\">National Cherry Blossom Festival<\/a> will sell them many tickets in 2010, but it is a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The blooming of the cherry blossoms and the crack of the bat have come to signify the start of Spring in Washington,&#8221; said Nationals President Stan Kasten. &#8220;The Nationals are excited to take part in the National Cherry Blossom Festival, a long-standing tradition in the District celebrating the beginning of new seasons &#8211; Spring and baseball.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Kasten is exaggerating  about the baseball part, but hopefully it won&#8217;t be an exaggeration much longer. The exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox on April 3 and the second and third games of the season vs. the Philadelphia Phillies are also officially part of the festival.<\/p>\n<p>Good work Nats PR, you are showing signs of improvement.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/04\/AR2010030401018.html\"><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">cherry blossoms peak bloom is predicted to be April 3 &#8211; 8<\/span><\/a> (<span style=\"font-style:italic;\">The Post<\/span>)<br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" width=\"480px\" height=\"270px\" src=\"http:\/\/specials.washingtonpost.com\/mv\/embed\/?title=Cherry%20Blossom%20prediction&#038;stillURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Fphoto%2F2010%2F03%2F04%2FPH2010030403317.jpg&#038;flvURL=%2Fmedia%2F2010%2F03042010-19v&#038;width=480&#038;height=270&#038;autoStart=false&#038;clickThru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Fvideo%2F2010%2F03%2F04%2FVI2010030403284.html\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In other news: I can&#8217;t get worked up one way or another about spring training games. The Nats <a href=\"http:\/\/voices.washingtonpost.com\/nationalsjournal\/2010\/03\/day_1_of_the_nationals_spring.html?wprss=nationalsjournal\"><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">went with split squads yesterday and got crushed<\/span><\/a> (Nationals Journal, <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">The Post<\/span>) by the Houston Astros and Florida Marlins. Maybe I&#8217;ll listen on Monday when <span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Charlie Slowes<\/span> and <span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">Dave Jageler<\/span> are doing the game.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/website_3c1e0e40\/graphics\/technorati.gif\" border=\"0\">  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/WashingtonNationals\" rel=\"tag\">Washington Nationals<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/nats\" rel=\"tag\">Nats<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/CherryBlossoms\" rel=\"tag\">Cherry Blossoms<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/dc\" rel=\"tag\">dc<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\">&copy;MMX William F. Yurasko<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PRESS RELEASE &#8211; Washington Nationals partner with National Cherry Blossom Festival &#8211; nationals.comI have been critical about the Nats nearly non-existent marketing from about day one. Back then it was because MLB did not want to spend money or do anything to offend cowardly, coddled Peter Angelos. The Lerner\/Kasten regime did not improve matters much [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,106],"tags":[414,539,1222,1224,1695],"class_list":["post-4896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsmlb-2010","category-washington-nationals","tag-cherry-blossoms","tag-dc","tag-nats","tag-nats-front-office","tag-stan-kasten"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nats partnering with Cherry Blossom festival a positive step - William F. 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The Lerner\/Kasten regime did not improve matters much [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/yurasko.net\/wfy\/2010\/03\/nats-partnering-with-cherry-blossom-festival-a-positive-step\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"William F. 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