I have a quick favor to ask. If you see this message, please leave me a comment. I want to test out some functionality of the new site and I need some other people besides myself to do it. Thank you.

Well, I’ve finally gone and gotten rid of the old Rangers site.  I’ve been doing the site since December 1998, and over that time I’ve had a few looks.  The 2012 season will be the 14th season since I started this site, and perhaps one of the more radical changes.  I’m going to cover some of the changes that have occurred on the site since the last iteration and this one.

Overall, most of the content is the same as before.  Given all of the site was in Movable Type before, I was able to import the entire site (save for two bits, photo gallery & forums), and then it became a matter of how to massage the data.   So most everything is still here, it’s just a fresh coat of paint, and a new interface.   Most things are still here, only a few are gone (but several have moved around).

Let’s delve into the changes, and also a big look back on the history of the site (which goes back over 13 years now)…

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Tonight I was looking at the Rangers official site, and noticed some Japanese lettering in the far upper left hand corner I don’t recall being there before.  I went to the page, even though I knew I couldn’t read any of it.   The picture on that page shouldn’t have surprised me, I guess.  :)

mlb.com has become the destination for online baseball. I remember years ago when it started, mlb.com was originally owned by someone else, and the “Major League Baseball” site was at majorleaguebaseball.com. It was not very good. But that changed when MLBam came onboard, and they’ve been doing it for a few years now. it’s been refined into a video powerhouse. While the blackout rules still stink like my baby’s diaper genie, it is a great place to watch baseball video.

As the years have gone by, their archive of old video and clips and whatnot is huge. But they had one epic level fail. You couldn’t embed the video on other sites. It was like that for years and years. Today I happened to notice an “embed” option on video clips there. I was quite stunned. I tried it, and it worked great. It’s not just new video either – they’ve apparently allowed you to embed video from the past.

My test is of an old video segment that Gar Ryness, the Batting Stance Guy did at MLB Network HQ back in 2009 when Victor Rojas was still there. His impression of Andre Dawson gets me every time. While I’ve seen Gar do Hawk a few times, the one from this clip is still my favorite version of it. The interaction between Gar and the three MLB guys (Mitch Williams, Victor Rojas, & Harold Reynolds) was brilliant. So I present this clip below. Watch it, it’s funny! To MLB? What took you so long?

Apparently not all video works.  While that video I mentioned has an embed code, you can’t actually embed it.  This one below however, does work, and it’s Bud Selig talking about the game.  Apparently older videos aren’t working.  Whether that’s temporary or permanent, I don’t know.

I’ve finally started working on the new site in earnest. I’m hoping to be ready by spring training. I haven’t been ignoring the team. Far from it. Been reading a ton. My wife and I watched the Yu Darvish stuff tonight. One thought. “Yeah RIGHT, you didn’t know what was on your T-Shirt you were wearing”.

Anyway, most of my spare time was spent on finishing up my other big fan site, the site for the band Black Sabbath. That’s up and running, so I’m turning my attention to this site now.

I’m not going to be posting here much anymore, I’m just going to be transferring over data and building pages on the site site. Will post when there’s something to check out.

One big thing though – I’m likely going to be dropping the forums here in favor of discussions via the comments field. I’m moving to WordPress, and that will allow me to open comments to the world again. Also, the old UBB.Threads in place has become a security risk, and I want to get rid of it. I also personally have so rarely look in on them myself, I think it’s just time to go. I’m looking to streamline the operation, and hope that those of you who do make use of it will find use of the new system I will put in place.

Anyway, hope to have some more going shortly. Thanks for visiting!