BBAlogosmI have to admit it, I am not what you would call a big baseball fan. Sure I rooted for the Mets in 1969 when they were the underdog in the World Series. I enjoy a few innings in the outfield at Victory Field on a warm summer night, but I never got really excited about America’s past time…until now.

About a month ago, we started working with Thanasi Foods, parent company for both Duke’s Meats and BIGS Sunflower Seeds. We are developing websites for their two main brands and have really enjoyed getting to know the company and their yummy products. We even had official beef jerky and sunflower seed tasting sessions.

The BIGS Sunflower crew is filled with big baseball fans and their enthusiasm for the game is contagious. So when they came to us with a request for a quick turnaround on a blog for Zack Hample’s BIGS Baseball Adventure, I took to the Internet to learn a little about ball ball collector and author, Zack Hample. What I discovered was the story of a man who has snagged 6,459 baseballs at 50 different major league stadiums since 1990. He has caught pop flys, foul balls,and even one ball dropped from a helicopter. Along the way he raises money for Pitch in for Baseball.

This year, BIGS Sunflower Seeds will sponsor his travels and donate $500 to Pitch in for Baseball for every ball he catches. Our job? To build a blog which would chronicle his adventures and success. With baseball season right around the corner, we only had a week to build the shell. We chose the Delicate News Theme from Elegant Themes as the foundation because the home page is designed to showcase many images. We expect that every day of his road trip will be filled with photos of players, fans, stadiums and of course, balls.

But the site is about more than just photos and videos. We added several plugins and special features to increase visitor engagement.

  • Bigs_ScoreboardLBAll-in-One Event Calendar by TimelyKeeping up with Zack this summer will be easy because we used Timely to  share his schedule. The simple tool allows him to update the schedule, change dates and share details for each event as the  the season progresses. One of the really cool features of this plug is the ability to display the schedule in a sidebar and a larger calendar in a post.
  • Rotating Tweets: This plugin cycles through your most recent tweets, giving a bit of motion to the tweet stream.
  • The Scoreboard: Jenna came up with a cool design for the score board which will need to be updated throughout the season. Eventually there will be a series of blog posts featuring the updated scoreboards, so you will be able to track Zack’s progress toward his goal. 

If you’re at a major league baseball game this season, look for Zack. He will be the one catching the fly balls and snacking on BIGS Sunflower Seeds. and if you can’t get to a baseball game, you can track his adventures at www.BIGSBaseballAdventure.com

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