Two good articles today from Tony Graham on the BlueClaws getting ready for tonight’s opener, but from two different perspectives.

First, this article looks at the opener from the front office perspective, reflecting back on the first nine years in team history.

“The first day we put season tickets on sale at 9 or 10 on a Saturday morning, the first guy got there at noon on Friday,” BlueClaws General Manager Geoff Brown said.

“By the time we opened up, the line had to be two, three hundred, four hundred people deep.

“The line was all day long. That office at Airport Road was off the beaten path. I don’t think 10 years ago anyone had a GPS in their car. They were all pulling out maps to find out where this office was.

And this article talks about BlueClaws hitting coach Greg Legg, now in his fourth season with the BlueClaws, first as the original manager and his third straight as hitting coach.

Legg said each season presents a different set of challenges. “We try to keep them (hitters) on a good plan,” he said.

“Most of the time we have the young hitters on a two-strike approach. The breaking ball is one of the things you have to address a lot.

“You don’t see too many 3-2 sliders in high school.”

As you know we’ll be raising the 2009 South Atlantic League Championship banner on Friday, April 16th, at Opening Day. But we’ve added a little wrinkle. We’ve put this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on eBay (bid here).

All proceeds will go directly to BlueClaws Charities.

“This is going to be a tremendous opportunity for someone,” said BlueClaws Assistant General Manager Brandon Marano, who raised the 2006 championship banner on Opening Day 2007. “From personal experience, it’s a little nerve-wracking and exciting, but it’s truly one of my favorite memories from my nine years here.”

Remember, Charlie Manuel raised the Phillies banner last year. You can raise the BlueClaws banner in a few weeks.

We put up today on eBay an exclusive party deck outing for Sunday, April 18th. You can bid here. The outing includes the following:

• 30 tickets
• 90-minute buffet
• Welcome message
• Covered Seating
• $1,100 value (bidding opens at $350)

Also, if you search BlueClaws (click here), you’ll see a series of great items put up there by someone else. These include:

• Team Card set from last year
• A Bob Milacki (2009 BlueClaws pitching coach) Triple-A All-Star card from 1988
• Carlos Ruiz, Cole Hamels, Gavin Floys, and Robinson Tejeda bobblehead dolls

And this:

One of the great eBay items of all time: A 2010 BlueClaws pocket schedule holder.

Hint: if you call me, there is a decent chance I will send this to you for free.

I love eBay.

If you missed it yesterday…

The BlueClaws and the Asbury Park Press will host Dollar Weekend again in 2010, featuring $1 tickets for the weekend of April 17th and April 18th.

Read the full story here.

Obviously, we have a bit of a new look here on BlueClaws Blog. As you may have seen, we have a new-look BlueClaws.com (click here). So we are in a graphic transition here at BlueClaws Blog.

But stay with us, and pretty soon we’ll have a new look up for you.

We’ll keep rolling along with the blog and the content, so assume nothing has changed.

Enjoy.

Today is a special day in BlueClaws history. It’s the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of the name BlueClaws to the general public.

It happened in the Lakewood Town Square 10 years ago today, the unveiling of the name. The first BlueClaws logo (changed after the 2009 season) was unveiled in August.

A total of 49 BlueClaws entries were received. The name was first sent in by nine year old Matt Koscielski of West Belmar and Jan Gualtier of Ocean County.

If you’re wondering, ground was broken on the ballpark April 13th, 2000.

Just over a week left on a couple of  special offers. These are good through February 28th, so time is running out to act…

• Book a Bushel package for the 2010 season and receive a free party deck ticket (a $34.95 value). Here is an order form for the package, which comes with free Monmouth basketball and Surflight Theatre tickets, plus your choice of Phillies tickets and AMC movie passes. Bushel options include: Yankees, Fireworks, Pick-Your-Own, Entertainers, etc…
• This one is for our Little League teams…Book a Future BlueClaws or ClawStars outing before March 1st and get two free hours in the batting cage (a $160 value). What better place to get ready for the season than right here at FirstEnergy Park?

So there you go. Just wanted to pass along a bit of a heads up.

BlueClaws Rock (click here). Enjoy.

Big night for us (Tuesday night). Our free Kids Club (click here) went over 1,000 members after just 20 days.

Number 1,000: Alexa of Shrewsbury, age seven. Michael, presumably a brother, was number 999.

The gist of the Kids Club is as follows: Membership is free and there are six special Sundays throughout the season. Those days include Kids Club only perks (like picnics, an autograph signing, first pitch on the field, kids club happy hour [free rides in Clawd's Kids Zone], etc). And every member gets a free ticket to every Sunday home game.

You can follow Buster on Twitter here.

In the accompanying picture to this post, you see two lucky Little Leaguers with Ryan Howard, during his rehab in Lakewood in May of 2007. These Little Leaguers took advantage of the Future BlueClaws program, and others have taken advantage of the ClawStars program, through which teams can play catch on the field before the game. Along those lines,

Any Little League team that books a Future BlueClaws or ClawStars outing through the end of February will receive two free hours in the batting cage.

For more information on these outings, please click here, or call 732-901-7000, option three.

948 members. You can sign up here.

And while we’re at it, you can follow Buster on Twitter here.

In a day and a half the BlueClaws Kids Club has 580 members. 1000 by Valentine’s Day? The Super Bowl? Wednesday?

Big news today folks…the BlueClaws Kids Club is now FREE! For the first time in our team history, the Kids Club, now presented by United Teletech Financial, is free to all children ages 15 and under. You can sign up children by clicking here.

The perks:

• FREE general admission ticket to every Sunday home game
• Kids Club ID card good for 10% off at the ClawsCove
• Kids Club e-newsletter
• Six Kids Club Days throughout the season:

The six Kids Club Days (all Sundays), where we selected a lucky child to throw out a first pitch, one will say “Play Ball,” are as follows:

• (more…)
  

Just confirmed from our concessions arm, we’ll be unveiling a (Hot) Dog House in 2010. A hot dog stand featuring dogs named after Hall of Famers. As follows…

• Ernie Banks Dog…Chicago style…mustard, sweet relish, chopped onion, dill pickle spear, sliced tomato, sport peppers, celery salt
• Joe DiMaggio Dog…Italian style…sauteed peppers and onions along with sliced potatoes
• Ryan Express Dog…Big Tex…topped with beef chili, diced onion, cheddar cheese sauce
• Yogi Berra Dog…Jersey style…mustard and bbq onion
• The Babe Dog…Coney Island style…mustard and kraut
• Mike Schmidt Dog…Western style…hickory-smoked bacon and cheddar cheese
• Ty Cobb Dog…Detroit style…beef chili, diced onion, yellow mustard

1/4 lb. all beef Angus dogs grilled and served with chips and a pickle.

Looking forward to it.