Category Archives: Red Sox

One Down, Ten to Go

I had a ton of fun watching the Red Sox win 4-0 over the Angel’s tonight. I watched at Flat Top Johnny’s in Cambridge, where I watched much of 2004.

I could write pages about Beckett – he was just great, going after batters, first-pitch strikes, etc. I wouldn’t have brought him out in the 9th, I think he was tiring, but all’s well that ends well.

The only complaint I have is about TBS. They ran their ads long and missed the first third of the top of third. I was pissed. Then they missed the first third of the bottom of the inning! As a minimum, you have to show the plays of the game, and TBS failed at that. Sitting in the bar, I couldn’t hear the announcers, and I’m sure that’s a good thing. They missed more pitches in the eigth, and appeared to be totally unaware of Ramirez being lifted for Ellsbury in left. Can’t we have Remy and Orsillo, please?

I’ll be watching Friday from inside Fenway. Sunday will be from a book in Las Vegas. Here’s hoping that’s the end of it.

The Perilous Product Launch (Or, How Your Employees Might Sabotage the Launch)

Fenway Park’s concession stands were sporting a new technological gadget when they opened this year. Every cash register was fitted with a MasterCard PayPass reader. It’s like the Mobil Speedpass. Just wave your credit card (or key chain fob) near the reader, and the transaction is done. For transactions under $25 (like buying a pretzel and a couple beers) there is no signature required. It looked like a great idea to me; I don’t want to wait in line at Fenway, I want to watch the game. A faster transaction should mean a shorter line.
paypass.JPG

A couple weeks ago I was at a game and I noticed that the readers were hidden behind the cash register, face down. I asked the guy pouring the beers if the system was down.

“No, we just hate the things. We get screwed on tips when people use them.”

MasterCard presumably spent a lot of money studying the market and deciding where to launch it. If you look at the list of participating banks, it’s very focused on ballparks. MasterCard is going to look at the data from Fenway Park, and they’re going to be disappointed. There will be fewer users. They may even decide to kill the product because people didn’t use it.

The unresolved question, though, will be whether the problem is apathetic consumers or poor design. MasterCard has to know that it needs the vendors on its side, or at least not as an active enemy. By failing to make tips easy, MasterCard earned the enmity of the vendors while simultaneously shrinking the average transaction size. But do they even know it? Do they see the sales data, kill the project, and call it a day? Or do they have the savvy to survey vendors anonymously?

As a part of my job I collect and analyze data about what new products are working and which ones aren’t. Things like this make me break out in hives.

Opening Day at Fenway

Opening Day at Fenway today. It was a great game – not in the baseball purist sense, but great for the home team. Lots of runs made it almost academic early. Beckett pitched pretty well, too, thought it was overshadowed by the offense. … See my Tabblo

Matsuzaka says: Just Do It

After months of hype and excitement, tomorrow Dice-K takes the mound. I’m really looking forward to it. Of course, I’m not the only one. Lots of people in Japan are going to be awake at 2AM their time to see his first pitch. Me, I’ll just be at work, trying not to be too distracted.

I got a kick out of this new Nike ad that’s running in Japan. It has all the hype and hope condensed into 30 seconds.