12 Reasons to Vote for Me

As I type these words, the clock is less than a minute away from striking 9 a.m. here on the West Coast. For many people, that simply means no more fiddling with the coffee pot to kill time, or time to get up and move to the couch to watch TV. For me and 49 other amazing finalists in the MLB Fan Cave competition, it means there are exactly 12 hours left in online voting to determine which 30 of us move on to the next round of this contest.

I know I’m not the only finalist who is nervous as hell for what a phone call tomorrow might bring after the votes are tallied and decisions are made. It’s now 9:01 a.m. here. So in exactly 12 hours, all of this hard work is over and fate is completely out of my hands. All I can ask for the next 11 hours and 59 58 minutes is for you to go to this website and follow the standard Vote-Refresh-Repeat rule. Three minutes of V-R-R equals 30 votes for me. If only like, a million people follow V-R-R on that link, I’m a shoo-in!

Why me, you ask? While I run the risk of stepping on birthday boy Kurt Peter’s toes with this, I’ve created a list of 12 reasons to vote for me today. It’s like the 12 days of Christmas, only it’s a lot easier to shop for me and if I get a lump of coal it’s going to hurt a lot more than usual. Without further adieu:

1. Because I want it so bad. I was absolutely floored to hear I had made the top 50 a couple weeks ago. In disbelief, almost. Throwing together a 2-minute video and shooting it off to the MLB Fan Cave was my way of recognizing that there was a dream job out there and patting myself on the back for taking a shot at it. A very long shot. But now that I’ve made it this far and sacrificed my job, friends and health endlessly campaigning for the past 14 days, I can’t imagine not moving on to Spring Training next week. My job would be to watch baseball all season. Yeah. You heard me. That’s the definition of “Jeremy’s dream job.”

2. I love baseball. We all do. All 50 finalists, at least. That much is obvious. But because I put it in writing, I deserve your vote! Ask my friends and family if I like baseball. You’ll have to take a nap and a bathroom break before they finish laughing at you for asking such a silly question. It’s the truth: I was born with Dodger blue running through my veins and I’ve spent the last 23 years, 3 weeks and 3 days breathing, eating, watching, talking, writing and playing ball.

3. I made some awesome videos. Some are weird. Some are just clever, in my humble opinion. And some are just the most awesome, collaborative beautiful works of film I’ve ever seen produced. Please watch them. And if you think they sucked, don’t vote for me. But that won’t happen. These babies are cinematic gold!

4. I need a vacation. Just kidding, but I hear Arizona is nice this time of year. I’ve been to Spring Training once before, and it was incredible. I can only imagine that visiting again with so much on the line would just kick start the baseball season for me perfectly.

5. Because I’m in the lion’s den. Not literally, guys. I certainly wouldn’t be writing a blog if I was literally in a lion’s den. I’d probably be sobbing for my Mommy and wishing I had a new pair of drawers to put on. Anyway, I mean that I’m a Dodger fan living in the Bay Area. Or for the rivalry-impaired, home of the San Francisco Giants. I’ve lived here my whole life and loved the Dodgers my whole life. It’s tough enough dealing with the hate from my friends from March-November, but when the local media starts snubbing a kid who has lived here forever because he likes the wrong team, campaigning becomes incredibly difficult.

6. But, I also root for the A’s! If you almost just stopped reading after number five, I understand. I’m used to it. But I’m also an A’s fan. I mean don’t get me wrong – if it was A’s vs. Dodgers in the World Series, I’m sporting all blue. But I can’t live eight hours away from the team I root for. Luckily there was an alternative to the Giants growing up here, and so I’ve come to love the A’s like an awkward cousin who comes to live with you every summer.

7. I’m a 49ers fan! I know, I almost reeled you back in with number six. But local fans will still be skeptical of voting for a guy who has a big “LA” next to his video on MLB Fan Cave. So, let’s bond over the gloriousness of the 49ers. They are my football equivalent of the Dodgers. And unless my name is Kyle Williams, you have no reason to hate on that. Let’s just grab a drink and reminisce about the amazing season they had in 2011-2012. See? Now everyone’s happy and you can cast your vote still!

8. I really want to meet my fellow finalists. Like, really bad. ALMOST as bad as I want to win this competition. Over the last two weeks, we’ve been an impromptu support group for each other via Twitter Tiny Chat. We watch videos together, listen to music, have dance parties, talk baseball (naturally). Tiny Chat has come to rule my life from 6pm to midnight since this all started. It’s like AIM all over again, just a million times better. I think I’ve disproved the notion that you can’t form relationships purely online – because I definitely consider the main crew of finalists my friends and family even though I’ve only seen pixelated versions of their pretty faces. The only way you can help me meet my long-lost Cave friends is by voting and sending me to Arizona.

9. I’ll make you proud. Not just by getting to the next round. But by working my ass off again to make it to the final six. I have a vast baseball knowledge, I’m quick to learn and am comfortable and outgoing around other people. If that’s not the ingredients for a perfect Fan Cave host, I don’t know what is. Oh, did I mention my dashingly-good looks? (Stop laughing. Seriously…You’re a jerk.)

10. I can write about baseball. Look no further than previous posts on this blog. Or my BleacherReport.com MLB Featured Columnist profile. Or my other blog, simply titled Jamblin’ Man. I’ve always had a passion for the game and for the art of the written word. I married the two (yes, that’s legal in California) and found my true calling. A big part of the job in the Fan Cave is to document our journey as the season progresses. Well, I’m definitely a professional blogger by now, and I’ve been published numerous times. I have the cred for sure, you just have to let me show the world that I can do it on the big stage. Much like going from the minor leagues to the Majors. Hmm…

11. I’ve campaigned my butt off. As mentioned earlier, I didn’t receive the media exposure I would have liked. No newspaper articles. No time on TV. But I got in some time on the radio, plus a few blog mentions and an article from my alma mater’s school paper, The Daily Evergreen. Although I did get some awesome re-tweets and the full and complete support for my campaign from Lasorda’s Lair, a Dodgers blog on FanSided.com. After agreeing to endorse me throughout the process, they even offered me a position as a contributing writer on that site. The work I’ve put in is already paying off – it’s opening doors for me. But it could be a big, long waste of time if I don’t advance. That remains to be seen.

Also, I’m now a Twitter master. I endlessly blew up Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn with my plea for votes. Seeing as another requirement of the final six is to communicate via social media, I think I’m in the realm of “professional” when it comes to that aspect of the job as well. My fingers hurt. Over 1,100 tweets in the last two weeks. And I still can’t get that damn Corbin Bernsen (played Roger Dorn in Major League! Clearly we are related) to re-tweet me.

12. And last but not least…I bleed Dodger Blue. I want to represent my favorite team and its amazing fan base in the Fan Cave this summer. Matt Kemp has already committed to visiting the Fan Cave this summer. Don’t you want to see one of your own interviewing the franchise’s pride and joy on MLB Network? Talk about dreams come true. So, Dodger fans…vote for your boy Jeremy Dorn to go through to the next round. Time is running out. There is now 11 hours and 13 minutes to go HERE and vote-refresh-repeat until your fingers bleed.

Thanks for reading, thanks for voting. Follow me on Twitter @Jamblinman and Like my Facebook page: facebook.com/JamCave

Tags: #JamCave, Arizona, BleacherReport.com, California, Corbin Bernsen, Dodger Blue, Dodgers, Facebook, Featured Columnist, Jam Shots, jamblin man, Jamblinman, Jeremy Dorn, Major League, Majors, Matt Kemp, MLB, MLB Fan Cave, New York City, Roger Dorn, Spring Training, Tiny Chat, Twitter