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America's Pastime

From T-ball, to Little League, to Major League, over the years baseball has come to be known as America’s pastime. It has opportunities for people of all walks of life and not only does it strive to be all-inclusive, baseball also has many different forms of advertising.

Starting with the adolescents—baseball thrives on the family aspect, as parents are the ones that provide transportation and equipment to their children. Advertisers are sure to keep this in mind as they try to promote recreational associations like the Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth Leagues. Promotions are often posted in local schools, daycares, and gyms where families are likely to see them. The Babe Ruth League even has their own magazine called “The Bullpen.” It’s available online or with a subscription, and promotes the League along with various baseball equipment and personal stories (Online, 2015).

Although the Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Leagues are quite popular in select communities, Little League especially does a really good job at attracting both participators and spectators. It is more widespread as the Little League World Series is televised on ESPN and ABC in the late summer season. They gained a lot of publicity last year when 13-year-old Mo’ne Davis from the Mid-Atlantic Region became the first girl to throw a shutout in World Series history (Mo’ne, 2014). She was even on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, and that helped bring in a lot of extra viewers for the Little League organization (shown right). This one story was available in four different mediums: real-time, print, TV, and mobile, and was a totally unplanned media success.

The next step up is Major League Baseball. Known for many different platforms including the MLB TV network, the MLB Fan Cave online, mobile apps, and of course, live games, (MLB, 2014), Major League Baseball is able to tune in almost 500 million viewers (Mughal, 2013). Aside from that, MLB also creates great publicity by recognizing well-known baseball players. Some include the infamous Jackie Robinson, and more recently, Derek Jeter who retired last year in 2014.

On April 15th of every year, all MLB teams wear the number 42 on their backs to honor Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the Major Leagues. They do this to reinforce the monumental integration of baseball and it helps bring in extra viewers who may or may not be huge baseball fans (Cassavell, 2013). Then last year for Derek Jeter, many people displayed appreciation by showing “RE2PECT” for the famous Yankee who wore the number 2. This movement (shown below) brought a lot of publicity as athletic brands created various articles of clothing to allow supporters to rep their “RE2PECT” for Jeter and his 20-season career (Re2pect, 2015). These are just a couple of the most famous players and their advertising tactics; there are still countless other people and events that are celebrated among the baseball community.

Young, old, boys, girls, this sport is able to attract almost anyone. Whether it is word of mouth, print, traditional, or digital advertising, baseball seems to have all of its bases covered.

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