Baseball Is America

In many ways, baseball, much more so than basketball and football, is a sport whose character most closely resembles the American spirit and the Anglo-Saxon Protestant myth of our nation’s beginnings. It is a thinking man’s game, cerebral in every way imaginable. Moreover, out of the Enlightenment came our respect for reason and the idea that the proof of things rests in our ability to observe, measure, count and quantify them. In this regard, baseball satisfies this passion one-hundred times over—all sports pale in comparison to baseball when it comes to statistics. There are runs to count, hitting percentages to compute, steals to total and hits to tally. The game is exceedingly orderly and when combined with its cerebral undertones it satisfies the American appreciation for enlightened reason.

Baseball, like America, has a high regard for the individual and his achievements. Baseball puts each player in the spotlight at a single time. Standing alone in the chalked box, the batter has only himself and all of his instinct and experience in making the decision to swing or not. If he strikes out he is chastised. It he belts one over the fence he is revered. Indeed, the story is the same on defense. Tradition puts fielders where they play and each man has his distinct position or territory. When the ball is hit between second and third base it is the shortstop—not the second basemen or the outfielder—that must play the ball. Each player’s position has its traditional sovereignty. Just like countries, when defenders invade one another’s space trouble is bound to ensue.

Unlike baseball, football requires a supremely close interaction of players. The linemen need to block in order for the quarterback to throw or for the running-back to run. In this sense, basketball and football is corporate—it depends on the fluid and unitary movement of several athletes. Baseball is associational. As Michael Novak asserts, “baseball is a Lockean game, a kind of contract theory in ritual for a set of atomic individuals who assent to patterns of limited cooperation in their mutual interest.” Yes, there is a team baseball. But it is the amalgamation of distinctly individual efforts that achieve the team goal.

Nevertheless, while baseball elevates and accentuates individual achievement, there are elements of justness and equality that likewise show American values of the same elements. Though baseball teams have managers and captains and players are compensated at different levels, the importance of ‘team’ remains high.

The viability of communal strength rests in baseball’s intrinsic balances of power. Here too, we see the innate undercurrents of Americanism running and weaving through the sport of baseball. Baseball is to games what “the Federalist Papers are to books: reasoned, judiciously balanced, incorporating segments of violence and collision in a larger plan of rationality, absolutely dependent on an interiorization of public rules.” Like the balance between a judge and the accused, there is a similar balance of power between a pitcher and a hitter, and between a runner and an umpire. Even the field itself is balanced: the distance between the pitchers slab and home plate, the height of fences, the length and weight of the bat. Slight changes to any of these things could fundamentally shift the balance and outcome of events.

Finally, baseball can be said to resemble a form of checks and balances—much like the design of our federal government. It requires a bit of poetic license but, in a sense, batters step up to the plate one by one and are like unitary executive; the defense, acting together like the legislature, forms a check on the batters, their executive counterparts; the umpires lay down their judgments like the judiciary checking both the batters and the defense. The analogies are far from exact. But they do work to show that the principles of balance at work in our system of government, of which we are so fond, exist in baseball as well.

Quote of the Week: Dicky V

If you could choose another sport for Dick Vitale to call, what would it be? Football? Eh, probably not. Baseball? Definitely not! Though I can't imagine the guy not doing college basketball, perhaps he'd be most suited to call a boxing match. I could see, no wait, hear that in my head.

But it turns out Vitale wants none of that. In another life, he said he'd want to announce tennis. Tennis?

"Tennis. I would change the complexion of tennis broadcasting. It'd be a hoot. They wouldn't know what hit him," Dick said with the requisite enthusiasm that could only emanate from his vocal chords.

Tennis? Haha, are you kidding me?

Fantasy (Reality) Sports-- Test Case in UK Soccer

Branching out, researching and learning about other sports is one of my favorite aspects of writing this blog. Soccer has been particularly interesting to learn about—from league structures, to marketing strategies and from player transactions to fan culture.

This is a great idea out of the UK’s Ebbsfleet United fans. First, imagine a team that needs to raise capital. Now imagine a group of fans frustrated with management and the team’s direction. Seizing these sentiments, Will Brooks, a former advertising executive, set up the website MyFootballClub.co.uk. He created a trust to raise money to buy a team that would allow investors to take part in all of the team’s decisions, from player acquisitions to jersey design.

Successful? Brooks’ fund raised $400,000 dollars on the first day and now has approximately 31,000 members/owners. This past February the members voted to purchase Ebbsflleet for just over $1,000,000. What was once fantasy is now a fabled story as the team that once struggled just won the equivalent of a minor league championship.

The team has a one investor, one vote principle. So as long as you pay the sixty dollar annual fee you too can have a say in the club’s operations. In fact, the members voted on the team’s website to sell striker John Akinde for a quarter million.

Sure there are potential hiccups. Should the coach or the fans/owners/non-experts be making the day to day decisions? But while there are weekly votes, most fans are acquiescing and are ceding most authority to the coach. Nevertheless, this experiment in fan ownership is fascinating. In an age of mass consumerism many fans feel like just another face in the crowd, another guy to be pitched to. But this creates the closest relationship one can have with his team. Fans/owners of Ebbsfleet have expressed a true family feeling. The team has gained serious recognition and is attracting marketers and advertisers enthralled with the concept.

It remains to be seen, however, if this concept could ever be replicated in other sports—let alone work with teams in larger more lucrative leagues. The answer is probably not but I could see this concept making its way to minor league baseball or the Canadian Football League.

Some Good News from Sports Retailers

During down times it’s always nice to get some good news. Before this Black Friday, most signs pointed to weak retail performance which would have left stores in the red. Well, they’re not quite black yet but retail sales experienced a 3% gain over last year continuing the upward trend. Moreover, it turns out that sports retailers performed particularly well.

The online stores for both the NFL and the NBA posted record increases as compared to last year. The NBAStore.com and its New York City outpost had a combined sales increase of 38%. Their best selling item? Chris Paul jersey. Record sales for NFLShop.com made Black Friday their third highest grossing day ever. Jets sales, aided by Brett Favre, had sales up almost 400% and Giants sales were just about half that. Even the out of season MLB brought in 25% more in sales this season.

What contributed to these gains? For one, shoppers who have been sitting on their wallets and cash-stuffed mattresses finally opened them up and came out looking bargains. Secondly, the latter part of the previous sentence probably accounts for most of the gains. Clever and strategic bargain packaging yielded high volume sales. Discounts, two-for-ones, and other bundling were all at work on Friday.

Bottom Line: It’s a simple but important to remember sales strategy—even if your price is lower, so long as you sell a lot of it you can still post robust sales.