MLB Botches Nats Tickets Renewal Letters

My initial inclination was not to post anything about this. Because the Nats FAIL thing obviously outlived its usefulness. Because this wasn't, in any way, the Nationals' fault. And because there's a different local team that's currently soaking up all the negative publicity.

But some rascally part of my soul insisted that there should be a historical record of this incident, just to cap off a season that we'll one day forget, or look back at with humor, or whatever the correct mechanism will turn out to be. It's kind of like in fantasy football, how you want every star on your team to have a terrible week simultaneously, to make sure that all the good moments come at the right time. If all the boo-boos can happen in 2009, and all the good stuff starts in 2010, then we can all be happy in our work.

So with that out of the way, last Friday, I was forwarded a renewal notice that a Nats season ticket holder had received from MLB Advanced Media, which handles all communications from ballclubs to fans.

"Dear Frank," it began. Which was a fine beginning, except for one problem.

"As you can see from my email address, my name isn't Frank," this fan wrote to me. "Should I make the check out to 'Brewers?' he wondered.

Luckily, it turns out that not everyone's renewal e-mail was addressed to Frank. No, not at all.

"Ours was addressed to Lawrence," a female reader wrote to me. "A female friend of mine was Thomas and another was Frances. None of which are their real names, of course."

"Count me as another misaddressed STH - 'Ronald'; correct # of syllables, otherwise not close," someone wrote on Twitter, after I noted this trend.

"Add another to that STH wrong name list. I got 'Ira,' " came another tweet.

"Mine was addressed to 'Rob.'" a third person tweeted. "My name has neither an 'R', 'O,' or 'B' in it."

And someone else named John e-mailed me to say that instead of his expected "Dear John" note, he had received a much less resonant "Dear Donna" letter. Fortunately, within a few hours, MLB Advanced Media realized its mistake, and sent this follow-up.

September 25, 2009

Dear John,

This morning you received an email from nationals.com, which was distributed by MLB.com, about renewing your season tickets for the 2010 season. Unfortunately, the email contained an incorrect first name and I apologize to you and to the entire Nationals organization for our mistake. MLB.com's mistake in no way reflects on your value as a season ticket holder to the Washington Nationals Baseball Club nor should it reflect poorly on the Washington Nationals.

Sincerely,
Bob Bowman, CEO, MLB.com

So let's leave this, along with all the other unfortunate quirks, in the dustbin of 2009, and push bravely on to a better tomorrow.