FanFest 2010 is coming up on Saturday from noon - 5 pm. A bunch of different things will be going on, we hope you can join us, and here’s the rundown:

• First day individual game tickets will go on sale; they will all be $1 off, except:
• Dollar Weekend tickets, which will be on sale for the first time (April 17th and April 18th).
• First 1,500 kids get a FREE mini bat courtesy of the US Census.
• Scavenger hunt for Kids Club members.
• VIP Tours of the ballpark.
• Pictures with the championship trophies.
• Call-your-own-home-run in the press box.
• Story of Clawd readings (with me).
• Clawd’s Kids Zone tickets will be 2-for-1.
• FREE food.

Basically, it’s a full day of a lot of fun here at the ballpark, and serves as our official kickoff to Opening Day, which will be 27 days later. Hope to see you there.

 - Just a quick mention. Wednesday is e-newsletter day. You can sign up in the box on the left side, near the top of the page and right below Pinchy. We’ve got some good stuff in this week’s edition, new stuff you’ve never seen before. So sign up today.

 - The BlueClaws announced their flea market dates and other flea market information today. Here’s the release.

 - Finally, thanks to everyone for donating food and cell phones at FanFest on Saturday. The items went to Ocean County Hunger Relief and Cell Phones for Soldiers. The donation rate was outstanding. Thanks!

Welcome to FanFest 2009! We’ll keep you updated on the big day throughout here at BlueClaws Blog. It will be a fun and exciting day, as usual, so come on over and say hello (we’re in the press box), or just follow us live here at BlueClaws Blog. Questions and comments appreciated, but mostly just sit back, have fun, and enjoy FanFest 2009.

10:51: The line is beginning to form outside the ticket windows below us here at FirstEnergy Park. Remember, all individual game tickets are $1 off the regular price, except Dollar Night.

11:02: First podcast of the day…We spoke with Jeanne and Michael of Toms River, the first fans in line. Click here to take a listen.

11:52: Always a sign of spring when the WRAT brings out their enormous Rocky inflatable. It’s about 30 feet tall and today sits on the plaza at FirstEnergy Park.

12:00: The ticket windows are open and we’re officially underway at FanFest.

12:25: It’s packed. Great turnout today. A couple of great youngsters have tried out the You Make the Call here with us in the press box.

12:26: First pictures uploaded.

2:30: Sorry for the lack of blogging. We’ve got a full house here today. The US trails 1-0 in the WBC game against Canada, 2nd inning.

2:44: Stunner in San Juan as the Nedtherlands, behind the great Sidney Ponson, beat the Dominican Republic 3-2. All three in the first inning, all three unearned. The DR now needs to win two in a row to advance. That’s the equivilent probably of a 15 seed beating a 2 seed in the NCAA basketball tournament.

4:06: Josh Ellis here…the weather has been great, temperatures in the mid-60s have our fans out and about in all areas of the park. Asst. Stadium Operations Brad Ziegler is taking about 20 people around on a private tour of the entire park. They just passed me here in the press box where I am doing “You Make the Call.”

So far we have had a great response to this portion of FanFest and we may feature a few of the best home run and world series call from the day later on BlueClaws Blog.

The food situation…I just spoke with Exec. Chef Sandy Cohen, and he said “I’m scared.”

4:16: Just back from throwing some BP in the cages. US leads Canada 6-4 in the 7th in the WBC.

6:20: Sorry for the lack of updates. Let’s wrap this thing up.

We have posted some photos, and you can see them here.

The US did indeed hold on to beat Canada, by a score of 6-5. Brian McCann of the Braves and Adam Dunn of the Reds hit two-run shots and Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox hit a solo shot. On the Phillies side, Jimmy Rollins went 1-2 in relief of Derek Jeter and Shane Victorino started and went 2-4.

With FanFest tomorrow, I thought I’d share our blogging plan for the big day. We are going to try to live blog the event like we did the Winter Tour. You can read that here. We are going to do some interviews, share commentary and pictures, and put it all together for you.

If you want to be interviewed, just mention this posting when you come on up to the press box and we’ll make you into a podcast star.  

As we’ve noted, the we’ll host our annual FanFest tomorrow beginning at noon. It’s the first day individual game tickets go on sale (all $1 off, except “Dollar Night”) and we have a full slate of activities (detailed here) all day long.

See you at noon!

Here’s a preview of Saturday’s FanFest at FirstEnergy Park. We sat down with Mike Van Hise, BlueClaws Director of New Client Development to look ahead to the big day on Saturday.

Here’s the link, enjoy.

Couple of things as we build up to the World Baseball Classic opening up its second edition on Thursday morning (4:30 am EST, Japan v China).

 - Great job by the decision makers switching from pool play (three-game round-robin) to a straight double elimination in 2009. It makes the early games far more exciting and important, especially if one of the favorites is down early in their first game.

 - Here is the full schedule.

 - The US takes on Canada on Saturday at 2 pm. You can watch the game on our big board here at FirstEnergy Park as part of our 2009 FanFest.

 - Up to nine former BlueClaws:

• USA: Shane Victorino (rehab assignment)
• Australia: Joel Naughton, Drew Naylor, Brad Harman 
• Italy: Jack Santora
• Panama: Carlos Ruiz, Avellino Asprilla
• Venezuela: Victor Moreno, Francisco Butto

 - Thought this was interesting, though not entirely surprising…From Peter Abraham of the Journal News: “It’s popular in Asia, which is probably good enough for the MLB marketing people. A Japanese reporter I know said his paper has nine staffers covering the semifinals. Nine.”

 - Finally, here is Team USA’s starting lineup for their game today against the Yankees:

Dustin Pedroia 2B, Red Sox
Derek Jeter SS, Yankees
Chipper Jones DH, Braves
David Wright 3B, Mets
Adam Dunn RF, Reds
Kevin Youkilis 1B, Red Sox
Ryan Braun LF, Brewers
Brian McCann C, Braves
Curtis Granderson CF, Tigers

70 in 70 rolls on and we’re down to #37, March 7th, FanFest. Take a look at the story on the front page, we’ll catch you up on everything you need to know right here on BlueClaws Blog. For those that don’t know, FanFest is the first day that individual game tickets go on sale, and this year, each individual game ticket purchased will be $1 off the regular price. The rest of the day includes the following:

• Win a spot in an on-field promotion in a 2009 BlueClaws home game…Includes dizzy bat race, crab toss, and more!
• Win Phillies luxury suite tickets for you and three friends…Applies to Phillies On-Deck Series vs Tampa Bay in early April.
• You Make the Call: play broadcaster and call a Ryan Howard home run or the last out of the Phillies World Series victory. We’ll email the call back to you.
• Enjoy the US vs Canada in the World Baseball Classic on our 19 x 23 foot video board and on the televisions all around the ballpark.
• Take some swings in the BlueClaws batting cages.
• Face off against your friends and others in a Rock Band competition.

One more important note. The BlueClaws will be collecting non-perishable food items and any used and unwanted cell phones. Donations benefit the Ocean County Hunger Relief and Cell Phones for Soldiers. So please help out if you can.

See you then!

Here are some items of note for you… 

Those of you who are our friends on Facebook have received an e-invitation to next Saturday’s FanFest at FirstEnergy Park. Those of you who are not our friends on Facebook are of course also welcome to the event, at which individual game tickets will go on sale and each will be $1 off. Fans can win a spot in an on-field promo during the season, play broadcaster in the press box, and much more.

All the details can be found here. This week, we’ll have a preview, including an interview with the event’s coordinators.

On BlueClaws.com we’ve put up a couple of new pages that are worth bookmarking. One is a calendar of upcoming events, both involving the BlueClaws and the Phillies (such as the reporting dates for minor leaguers). Another is a “What’s New” page, where we link to the new stuff that comes up on BlueClaws.com.

Anybody interested in a FlexiBushel (details here), where you can get seven undated tickets at value pricing, should know that through March 7th, the package comes with a $25 gift certificate to one of six Jack Baker’s area restaurants. So you have a week. Here’s the order form. Or you can get them online here. 

There is a poll up on MiLB.com (right side of the page) asking fans for their favorite new promotion in 2009, and Kids Eat Free in Jersey, as I type, leads with 46% of the vote.

That’s it for now. Back in a few.

What do you think about the World Baseball Classic? Personally I think it’s a unique concept that is largely harmless. Every three years is not overkill. It’s just not that easy to work into the calendar, which leads to problems, especially with pitchers. But once you get into the knockout round, it’s fun. Only thing I might do is go from 16 countries down to eight. Highlight the best teams and don’t waste time with 16-1 games early on.

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Chan-Ho Park will skip the World Baseball Classic in order to focus on winning a rotation spot with the Phillies. Many assumed he would be a bullpen arm but Park is driving towards being their 5th starter behind Cole Hamels (BlueClaws 2003), Brett Myers, Joe Blanton, and Jamie Moyer. Park will compete with Kyle Kendrick (04-06), JA Happ (2005), and Carlos Carrasco (2006).

The most interesting part about this is Park breaking down into tears when making the announcement in his native South Korea. I don’t think one US player has broken down into tears when he announced his intentions to play or skip the WBC.

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We briefly mentioned this in our Winter Tour live blog, that we’ll be doing another live blog during FanFest, which we also mentioned is Saturday, March 7th, beginning at noon. So much more to come on this, but keep that day clear on your calendars.

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Part of FanFest will be a viewing of that day’s USA/Canada World Baseball Classic game on our video board. Canada’s 2006 WBC roster included former BlueClaw Scott Mathieson (2004), as well as Justin Morneau, Jason Bay, and Erik Bedard.