imPRint

Baseball, BALCO, Bonds and Booming Publicity

Baseball is America's favorite pastime. We've come to love our heroes of the diamond - sometimes even more than we love our own family members (that is a joke.) In any case, Baseball is also NO stranger to creative and effective PR. Good and Bad.

In the late 90s after the lockout, after markets were hurting to fill seats, along came the record chasing homerun derby between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. Great publicity.

Attendance, admiration and love grew again earlier this decade when Barry Bonds broke the record and starting chasing legends like Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth - which later resulted in the BALCO scandal with fingers pointing to some of the greatest players of our time - McGwire, Sosa, Conseco, Giambi and of course, Barry Bonds.

Steroids became the center of baseball (which previously was the only professional sport NOT to have a strict policy on the banning of these substances.) Congress became involved and rather than the 2 month leadup to World Series predictions and upsets, news reports instead focused on illegal substances, cheaters, backstabbing and false records. - No so great publicity, right? HMMM.

Earlier this week, Alex Sanchez (a career .292 hitter with just 4 homeruns in almost 1400 at bats) of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (the worst team in the American League several years straight) was the first professional player outed and suspended for testing positive for steroids. Coincidence? NO

In my opinion, its MLB's creative way of picking a victim, making their policy "KNOWN" and proving a point that its not just the "stars" that will be prosecuted. This is, in some ways, was the best thing to happen to Alex Sanchez. From a publicity standpoint, this once overlooked player is now the center of attention. Oh, and Tampa Bay that NEVER comes close to a sell out crowd, now has some publicity for the team. Creative PR Tactics, folks.

However - what damage has this done to the game? The answer: none. Here's how this scandal has worked in the favor of professional baseball:

- The game has cleaned up ,
- BALCO who once was an unknown now has the highest brand recognition in the industry;
- Giambi is a hero for coming clean;
- Bonds is still one of San Francisco's most beloved players (standing O on opening day);
- Baseball stadiums are drawing more sell out crowds;
- Alex Sanchez went from a career .292 hitter to a mini celebrity - along with his less than impressive Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

So, you tell me? Is bad publicity, REALLY always bad publicity? Doesn't look like it here.

- Signing off,
AP

posted by The Ardell Group @ 2:07 PM