Alyssa Kaelehiwa Williams

While we were in Arizona, the Top 30 had several assignments that factored into MLB’s final decision. One of those assignments was to write a blog post about the FanCave process. This is my submission.

If you had told me exactly one month from last Monday that I would be in Arizona today, I would not believe you. If you told me I would walk up to Sergio Romo and ask him about his pink backpack, spend my day at Scottsdale Stadium shooting a (fake?) commercial, or be the news instead of cover it, I probably would be enjoyed your ability to put my dream into your words. Then I would have gone back to my regular unemployed day.

Arizona has been unbelievable but this whole process is one I will never forget. It was such a rush to get that first call when I made the Top 50. Radio, television, newspapers and blogs supported my quest to the cave and I received more retweets than I had in my entire life. I formed bonds with fellow Top 50 semifinalists. We were able to grow close because we were the only ones who understood what the other was going through.

The only ones who could put together a “Stuff the Fan Cave Top 50 Say” too. Note: every single one of those lines is the truth.

TINY CHAT DANCE PARTY!

I cannot believe it has really only been a week since the voting closed. Next came the Top 30. The time between last Thursday and Tuesday morning felt like a month but we finally met in Arizona. No one knew what to expect—one of the FanCave’s evil ploys to keep us all in the dark—but we all knew it was going to be amazing.

That word doesn’t even begin to describe what has happened in the past 36 hours. I’ve been on the news, interviewed one of my favorite Giants, and finally visited Scottsdale Stadium for the first time. I did the Cupid Shuffle in Chase Field. After 29 other elevator pitches, I was able to give mine to the awesome people of MLB.

What I love most about this experience, beside the fact that I essentially lived out some of my dreams, is that I was able to become friends with my competitors. That doesn’t generally happen in most reality shows. Actually, that doesn’t really happen at all.

At least seven of us just cried in the lobby as we said our last official goodbyes. No joke.

What makes the MLB FanCave different from other “reality” type competitions is that the finalists in this all genuinely love baseball above all else. We’ve gotten close because we share the obsession of the Great American Past Time. Everyone may have come to Arizona from all over the nation (and Canada) with different values and beliefs, but one thing we can all agree on is our love for this game. Because of that, this “audition” process has not felt like one at all…except for the elevator pitch. That was intimidating.

This thank you goes out to each person that voted, shared links, tweeted, or in some way affected my campaign. Hint: there were a lot of people. The amount of support that has been given to me is simply overwhelming. I’d hoped my twitter followers would possibly retweet one of my requests, but so many actually took it upon themselves to tell their followers to support me.

The MLB FanCave gets the fans involved in something they want, and I am so grateful that I am a part of that. I will never be able to truly express my appreciation of the love and support I’ve received. Especially to my mom and dad, who have been nearly as addicted to this process I as I have. Thanks to my brother, too, but mainly just because he wants me to leave so he can knock down the walls between our rooms. Love you all.

There is literally no losing at this point. The support, love, anxiety and excitement has been everything to me, and eerily reminiscent of a Giants game. You just never know how this game is going to end. Torture, anyone? Yeah.

I can’t thank the MLB FanCave enough. I can only hope to get a first-hand experience of the MLB FanCave in New York. I’ve done everything I can do and have absolutely no regrets. Regardless of the outcome, I will always remember my first trip to Spring Training, and the first time I met these wonderful people.

#FanCave30

It’s extremely aggravating to be completely out of control. Arizona was where we attempted to prove that we belonged in the MLB FanCave, and it’s now up to MLB to decide which of the talented finalists will be packing up and moving to New York City. I wouldn’t want the task of choosing. Well, I would pick myself, then pass the rest of the job on to someone else.

Hey, just being honest.

One of the things that made me the happiest is that Tiny Chat is still alive and strong. I never want to lose the connections I have to these people. We’ve all been posting our respective blogs, pictures and videos documenting the event and I get sentimental every time.

Remember: we were in each other’s presences for less than 48 hours. Who can grow such a strong bond so quickly? Oh right, we can.

I can’t wait to look back when everyone is successful and doing what they love. It took enough energy, effort and passion to get us to Arizona; I have no doubt in my mind we will keep pushing until all our dreams are reality. I’m looking forward to the days when I’ll look on TV and say “Lindsay Guentzel and I? We asked Ben Christensen to be on our FanCave IQ team.” Or “I did the Cupid Shuffle with Christy McGaugh inside her DBacks’ baseball stadium.” I can’t wait to tell someone “I interviewed Sergio Romo with Dan Sharp,” “I was there when Ricardo Marquez gave the most amazing speech in the hotel lobby,” and “I was able to witness Travis Miller sing a Spice Girls song IN PERSON..before Taylor Swift eventually tweeted him back.” It will happen, Travis.

We all desperately want to make it to New York City, but I hope more than anything that I never lose my new friends. We have the honor to be the first Top 30 of the MLB FanCave that went to AZ Spring Training. There are no previous seasons of the FanCave like this one. We can’t go back to last year to know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into.

But that’s part of the fun. We get to experience the uncertainty together, through Twitter, Facebook, Tiny Chat and any other form of communication. This process is amazing, but it would have been nowhere near as thrilling if I didn’t have all you wonderful people with whom to go through it. I may not have danced every time, but those Tiny Chat dance parties were the best form of stress relief I could have asked for.

So thank you, MLB, but also thank you to the Top 30. I love each and every one of you. Even if we spoke two sentences to each other all trip, you affected me. I cannot wait to see the final collection of characters that will be watching baseball together every day. In the event I am not in that group, you better make room, because my air mattress and I are headed to New York anyway.

The deadline to vote has officially passed and I’m not entirely sure how I feel. In one way it’s a relief, because I am no longer pestering my twitter followers and facebook friends to go vote for me. I didn’t think there were so many quirky ways to say “I was in the top 50 out of 22,000, please vote until the 22^nd.” But…there were. And each of the semifinalists came up with their own way of campaigning.

This was such a fun experience. I cannot say thank you enough to everyone. Literally, everyone. To my family, including my mom, who voted several thousand times over the past two weeks, and the rest who have emailed, facebooked, and tweeted to all of their contacts, and so on and so forth. To my friends, both those I keep up with and those I haven’t spoken to since high school. It may have been a simple click to vote and post on your wall, but the support itself means so much more than that.

Finally, to the amazing people on twitter. Even though I’ve probably averaged 100 tweets a day since February 8, the support has not ceased in the slightest. The numerous retweets, and even tweets you sent out yourself makes me feel so lucky to have made such wonderful friends and acquaintances. I stand by my application video; social media is so important. Without it, I would not have met the amazing people with whom I’ve had the pleasure of conversing.

We should find out the Top 30 tomorrow afternoon. You can be sure I will be posting the results either as soon as I find out or as soon as I’m allowed to share. Regardless of the outcome, I cannot say it enough.

Thank you, family, friends, and new connections. Thank you to KPIX for running my story, to the Lamont and Tonelli Show and to Damon Bruce for putting your full support behind my dream. Thank you to Amy G. and Jessica Quiroli for sending your own tweets out to your thousands of followers.

Thanks to the fantastic semifinalists! This competition would not have been nearly as fun without the tiny chats, tweets and everything else. There are some seriously awesome people in this group.

I can’t believe this stage is over! I don’t know if I will be able to sleep tonight but this has been one of the most fun processes I’ve ever been part of.

Thank you.

It’s basically Game 5 of our Division Series.

The Top 50 semifinalists worked hard for days, weeks, and even months to come up with the right essay answers and video applications that would give a chance to advance to the next level. In baseball the next round may be the postseason but for us, it was a phone call.

Throughout the past two weeks I’ve seen some amazing things. I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in interviews for television, radio, blogs, and print. I’ve seen some entertaining videos documenting the semifinalists’ journeys and been jealous of certain endorsements. Still, I could never quite dislike any of my competition because they’re all so darn amusing.

Discussions via mass chats and twitter conversations are only a couple of the things that I’ve looked forward to each day over the past two weeks. It’s the little things like being able to high five the person in the box next to you during a video chat and the big things like working with 22 other semifinalists to create something that is essentially a replica of our lives since February 8. It’s been ridiculous, and I don’t want it to end!

In a few days thirty of us will be notified that we need to pack for Arizona, and twenty of us will end our adventure with the wonderful memories of the past couple weeks.

The selected thirty will get to Spring Training and the victors from that round will advance to the final – and most coveted – stage, the Fan Cave. Quite similar to the LDS, LCS and World Series, if you ask me.

I enjoy looking at this process like the postseason. Each phase of the competition is extremely important. You don’t want to be the side that goes – or stays, in our case – home. It’s a lovely honor to have been recognized and make it this far…but there is still such a long way to go. It’s also a given that, while you ultimately want to be the last one standing, you can’t help but respect your competition. They’ve also proven that they deserve to be here. The only difference I’ve found is that normally, opposing sides don’t have Tiny Chat dance parties every night. It’s been a fun run; let’s keep it going.

Tomorrow is the final day to cast votes for your favorite FanCave semifinalist. While there are SO many awesome people vying for your love, I hope you can throw a bit of support my way.

I’m so excited to have had the opportunities I’ve received from the MLB FanCave. But like the Division Series, there are plenty of games ahead.

I hope.

Keep up with my Fan Cave shenanigans here:

allywilliams.com/2012-mlb-fan-cave/

Vote for me here:

http://atmlb.com/xCWzRG

The weekend is over, and we’re down to the final three days of voting! AHH! I can’t believe this stage is almost over, but I’m making the most of this!

I had a chance to talk with Lowell Tuckerman on KSFS. Lowell is a friend of mine and is in his own competition at the moment. He’s in the Top 16 of 95.7 The Game’s Lucky Break contest. He’ll go on the air on March 7 and he totally deserves this, so hopefully you’ll be able to throw a bit of support behind him. The interview was great and I was really great to get a chance to talk on my BECA department’s radio station.

Today my story in the San Francisco Examiner was published! You can read it here: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/02/san-francisco-giants-fan-pitching-herself-reality-show

Here’s something fun to look forward to: a bunch of the FanCave semifinalists have decided to work together and come up with a fun video! We each filmed some stuff and Travis Miller is molding it into several minutes of pure YouTube gold. Keep an eye out! There’s a definite possibility it will be mainly funny to the Top 50, but you’ll laugh a few times just because of the awesome personalities in this.

So happy to be in this group of people. So, so happy.

Keep up with my Fan Cave shenanigans here:

allywilliams.com/2012-mlb-fan-cave/

Vote for me here:

http://atmlb.com/xCWzRG

Big day today! My television interview with KPIX aired today and I was so happy with it! Kim Coyle and the editors of CBS did a fantastic job with the story. I couldn’t think of a better situation or station to cover my first television interview ever!

You can watch the story here: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/02/17/san-jose-woman-is-finalist-to-live-in-mlbs-fan-cave/

I also chatted with the guys of Giantspod.net. We talked about the Fan Cave, my Giants fandom and a little bit about the offseason. The guys were great and the podcast should be coming out soon. I’ll keep you updated!

This has been such a fun ride. Only a few days left of voting before the decision comes! I want to get to Arizona so bad. I’ve never been able to get to Spring Training and it would be awesome to get there as a result of this contest!

Today has just been great. My friends and I also released our “Sh*t Giants Fans Say” a few hours ago! So far the response has been positive, especially because we cursed out the Dodgers a couple times. That never hurts.

Check our video out here: http://youtu.be/dS0zUAN3rI0

I love life. Everything is just fantastic.

Keep up with my Fan Cave shenanigans here:

allywilliams.com/2012-mlb-fan-cave/

Vote for me here:

http://atmlb.com/xCWzRG

Can’t get on BaySportsNet…so for now this blog post will go here.

I almost can’t remember what life was like before the MLB Fan Cave. All I can think about is blogging, tweeting and pestering more and more media outlets to share my story.

I spoke with some awesome people from KPIX today. They drove down from San Francisco to my house in San Jose to talk about my Fan Cave adventure and I had a great time talking with them. I even showed Kim and Don a picture from when I was probably around three, just chilling in the Candlestick Park parking lot before a Giants game.

The story will probably air tomorrow in the 6pm hour on channel 5! It was the first television interview I’ve ever done so I’m both excited and anxious to see how it will all turn out.

Anxious is really quite a good way to describe my feelings over the past week or so. I can never tell whether what I’ve done to publicize both the Fan Cave and myself is good enough. The fact that we can’t tell how many votes we’ve accrued in relation to the other semifinalists doesn’t help either. I know there are several things going into the decision process but being so in the dark is quite nervewracking.

Tomorrow I should be talking with the guys of @Giantspod. More FanCave fun! Saturday I’ll be on KSFS, Sunday my story in the San Francisco Examiner should run, and Tuesday I’ll be back on KSFS! It’s been so great to meet so many awesome people. We’re within a week of the voting deadline. I’m sure the second it passes, it will feel like the last two weeks just flew by.

Side question that has nothing to do with baseball: why do the commercials on the CW always have the actors dressed differently than in the show and staring seductively at the camera? Last time I checked, the witches on The Secret Circle don’t dress like editorial models in the middle of the forest. Just wondering.

Back to The Vampire Diaries. I’m getting real good at watching television and writing quick blog posts. This is great practice for the MLB Fan Cave…JUST saying!

Until tomorrow!

Keep up with my Fan Cave shenanigans here:

allywilliams.com/2012-mlb-fan-cave/

Vote for me here:

http://atmlb.com/xCWzRG

We’re halfway through this campaigning adventure! It’s been a whirlwind of stress and excitement. I’ve already had the opportunity to meet many fun people that have been incredibly supportive. There’s still a week of voting left though! I’m continuing my shameless self promoting and have taken it to the radio, numerous social media outlets, and will soon reach the newspaper and television.

Tomorrow my story in the San Francisco Examiner is scheduled to run and I’ll be chatting with KPIX about my Fan Cave journey so far. Really excited to be getting this support!

My twitter campaigning has carried on. I refuse to give up on Danny Glover. It’s only a matter of time before he sees my plea for help. We’re alumni of San Francisco State as well as Gants fans…we’re practically best friends.

I’ve decided on a couple of the celebrities I’m hoping to get to the Fan Cave: James Franco and Zac Efron. Both Giants fans, both awesome. Also, if we get to choose a partner from our favorite team, I want to call Sergio Romo (if he’ll be my partner) right now. He is fantastic on twitter and just a great guy…he’d be such a fun partner!

Romo, if you’re up for it, let’s do this!

Keep up with my FanCave shenanigans:

http://allywilliams.com/2012-mlb-fan-cave/

Vote for me here:

http://atmlb.com/xCWzRG

Happy Valentine’s Day! I spent my “holiday” shooting a couple YouTube videos regarding Giants fans – keep an eye out for that – and meeting Ali MacGraw at the Castro Theater. I absolutely love “Love Story” and my nickname during my internship with the Giants was, yes, Ali MacGraw. She was so sweet but sadly I didn’t see her on twitter. Too bad; I was going to ask her to retweet me and to support my Fan Cave quest. She did say she can’t wait to see what big things I will do, though, so that gives me hope.

Anywho, here is my second half of my application essay. This one answers the second question presented to us. Please note, this was written during mid-January, so nothing is up to date. With that said, here we go.

• What are the three biggest story lines heading into the 2012 MLB season?

The main focus of 2012 will be seeing how the many major changes of the offseason will play out. Broken down:

The NL East has become much more competitive in two months. The Nationals and Marlins both have an actual shot taking a postseason spot away from the Braves and/or Phillies this year. Too bad for the poor Mets. Both Washington and Miami have acquired big names through trades and free agency. Miami has a new coach in Ozzie Guillen, a new location in Little Havana, and new big names as Heath Bell and Jose Reyes join the team. Clubhouse dynamics will be one to watch with this group; I can’t wait to see Hanley Ramirez’s transition to either third base or a new team. The Nationals improved their rotation with the Gio Gonzalez trade and if they end up signing Prince Fielder their lineup could be extremely intimidating by June. Depending on how Matt Morse and Jayson Werth do, plus the addition of Bryce Harper whenever he shows up in the big leagues, the Nationals could be looking really good.

Managers are going to have a good amount of limelight, as well. The moves of Ozzie Guillen and Theo Epstein were heavily documented over the winter. They’ll need to come through for their new teams in a big way. Guillen has the tools needed for a very successful Marlins season and Epstein could potentially begin to turn the Cubs around into somewhat of a competitor. Bobby Valentine will also be scrutinized as he takes over Epstein’s old position and tries to manage the Red Sox to the postseason without a cringe worthy collapse. Tony La Russa’s successor will also have big shoes to fill as the St. Louis Cardinals look to repeat their World Series run in 2012. It’s been a while since a National League team accomplished the feat—see, Cincinnati Reds 1975-76—but every champion has that goal the next year, don’t they?

Another big storyline will be if the Texas Rangers can make yet another run to the World Series. Two heartbreaking losses will obviously take a toll on the team. With the departure of C.J. Wilson, the potential addition of either Yu Darvish or Prince Fielder could certainly be just what the Rangers need to finally take the title. The way the Rangers respond to another close call will show how much heart Texas has.

Keep up with my FanCave shenanigans:

http://allywilliams.com/2012-mlb-fan-cave/

Vote for me here:

http://atmlb.com/xCWzRG

Blog Post 3: I thought I would post my answer to the first essay question, in case you were wondering what I wrote. Enjoy!

• Tell us why you would be the ideal fan to live out your baseball dreams at the MLB Fan Cave in 2012.

You’re looking for a baseball fan that lives baseball. One that wakes up in the morning and checks their “MLB Rumors” twitter list before even getting out of bed. A fan who not only keeps track of his or her own team, but keeps tabs and discusses the entire league with whoever will listen.

A fan who puts baseball above all else – although bathing is a close second.

I am that fan. Baseball is my life. I graduated from San Francisco State University with a major in Broadcast Journalism and WILL end up talking about baseball for a living.

Baseball is, literally, always on my mind. I have been known to discuss trade rumors until four in the morning. True story; hello 21^st birthday.

I have taught history from the good book of Giants baseball to random bystanders on the streets of San Francisco and am one of the biggest Giants fans you will ever meet. I faintly remember games at Candlestick but my first real memory was the opening weekend of AT&T Park when I was 10 years old. I got a new Giants hat with the Opening Day 2000 patch sewn in, and to this day I still wear that hat to every game.

I had the amazing opportunity to intern with the Giants throughout the entire 2010 season as well as be a part of their first World Series championship in this city. I walked down Market Street in the celebration parade, and nothing will ever come close to that…I think.

Being in the MLB Fan Cave could very well make me eat my words. I’ve lived in the Bay Area my entire life but have always planned to experience living in New York. Living in that fantastic city and watching every single 2012 MLB game could very well give my 2010 season a run for its money. Give me the opportunity to compare the two experiences and I will be sure to get back on you as to which was better!

I love baseball, and I love being around other people who enjoy the beautiful sport. Being able to spend my days in the MLB Fan Cave would be a real-life dream.

I live baseball, I breathe media, and I thrive in competition.

I will put my all into everything surrounding this opportunity. I will watch every game—not the toughest request I’ve ever had—and put my all into every challenge that comes my way! I’m pretty easy going and friendly, too, so there’s a real good chance I won’t be annoying everyone by the All-Star break! That’s always a plus, right?

Thank you so much for reading this application and considering me for this unbelievable opportunity. This is exactly what I have been working towards as a career through my education and internships, and I know I would be a great host for the 2012 MLB Fan Cave!

Keep up with my FanCave shenanigans:

http://allywilliams.com/2012-mlb-fan-cave/

Vote for me here:

http://atmlb.com/xCWzRG