Four years after Mike O'Hara and Ryan Wagner sailed the maiden voyage of something that evolved into something cooler and cooler every year, the MLB Fan Cave is dead. Well, at least the Cave Dweller Portion.Â
"Wait, the Fan Cave isn't dead?" WAKE UP YA DINGUS! The MLB Fan Cave lives on, for how long who the fuck knows, but the Cave Dwellers are finished. Kind of a bummer but the Fan Cave just won't be the same and here's why.
With the whole restructuring of the Commish Office, those in charge decided that the Cave Dweller portion just wasn't worth the time and effort. On top of that, the main person who was in charge of social has moved on to new projects. Quite honestly, his voice to the Fan Cave is going to be the biggest thing missing and that will probably start a domino effect on everything else. Just like the dodgers losing Josh Tucker, the Fan Cave losing Tyler Hissey is going to be huge for that brand. If I’m an MLB team and need a social media manager, I’m swooping him up. So why didn’t the Cave Dweller stuff work out? Were people not that interested in it? Should people even care about it? Depends on who you ask.Â
For me personally, I think they did everything possible to give my year (2012) a once in a lifetime opportunity. Others are probably gonna have a different opinion on their stay as a dweller, but I think for the most part, people had a generally positive experience. I mean, we got paid to literally watch baseball and just be a dork. Not much complaining there. Could they have done things differently? Yea of course. Just like any job you have things could be done differently but the thing is, Major League Baseball is a massive corporation and things need to get approved through various channels. A lot of us, no matter what year, had big ideas for a funny sketch or something we wanted to do but unfortunately got nixed. For instance, I wanted to do a sketch where Mr. Met went through a paternity test to see if he was the father of a bag of balls. And yes, Maury would be the special guest. Hilarious sketch but no way MLB would have approved it.Â
 By not utilizing the Dwellers, you lose out on the bridge between fans, players and the sport itself. THE VERY THING YOU’RE TRYING TO DO! It just becomes another space for a business opportunity. I can’t tell you how many friendships were made by Dwellers and players thanks to the Fan Cave which crossed over to social. Average baseball dorks chatting with guys like David Price, Derek Holland, David Ortiz and LaTroy Hawkins on Twitter which other fans saw and lost their shit over. I remember when LaTroy and I were tweeting each other I got like 65 texts from people who were like “HOLY SHIT YOU’RE FRIENDS WITH HAWK!?”. It lets fans know that players are just like us and were easily approachable.Â
My time in the Fan Cave will always be positive mainly because of what I did in that place and the people I interacted with on a daily basis. I didn’t finish college so I used the Fan Cave as my opportunity to learn everything from photoshop, film editing, PR, marketing and social media. I was surrounded by the smartest people in sports and I did everything I could to show them that I wasn’t just a fan but someone who they could see working in baseball. Thankfully, a running joke (but probably my work ethic) of being under the wings of Jeff Heckelman (MLB PR) landed me a PR internship the following year. I’m literally the only person who went from fan to Dweller to working behind the scenes, which is neat and gives me a better perspective then most.Â
So how can they make the Fan Cave better? I don't know. Put Michael Clair in charge who writes for Cut4. That guy is hands down one of the funniest baseball writers in the world and if you gave him the keys, I'd be confident that the Fan Cave would live on. If you decide to bring the Dwellers back, use em! Practically every Dweller who was in there had some sort of special talent and was entertaining if given the chance. As far as MTV being the ones who killed it or last years Dwellers, stop it. MTV didn't kill the Cave. Last years Dwellers didn't kill the Cave. I wish I actually got to know them a little bit more because the ones I have tweeted to have been pretty cool. Plus, I'm sure their interpretation of their experience in the Cave is a WHOLE LOT DIFFERENT then the previous three years.Â
If you came here expecting some tell all or explaining how shitty we had it, I hate to break it to you but that isn't happening. WE GOT PAID TO WATCH BASEBALL AND HAVE FUN. If you weren't an asshole to everyone then you probably had a good time. If you want that stuff, you can probably find it from the most famous Cave Dweller. As for me, I couldn't have been happier to be in it and would 1000% do it again.Â
To everyone at MLB who is probably reading this, I'm sorry I drank all the beer and I can't thank each and every one of you enough for giving me the opportunity for being in something pretty special. You guys not only give me a chance to live every baseball fans dream but helped kickstart my career and actually provided a future for me. I miss all of you tremendously and will be seeing you all when I visit New York this Spring.Â
- One time Ashley and I decided to celebrate Cinco De Mayo on a Saturday. I got drunk and J.J. Putz woke me up when he came by on a late night visit.Â
- If you want more weird stories let me know and I'll post a blog of stupid shit we did.Â
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