MLB & Women...

[JeepingBaseball]

Maybe far too early to speculate... but it's a sign of the times. MLB now sponsors a women's team... the womens USA National Team. According to their website, a press release dated July 11, 2006 it states that "MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, USA BASEBALL FORM 10-YEAR BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP Relationship Designed to Support Sport's Growth at Amateur Level"

I'll leave the link for you to click on and read:

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/usa_baseball/content.jsp?article=launch_071106

And if you click "ABOUT USA BASEBALL", go towards the bottom, you'll see a small section mentioning the women's team.

Could be a great start and push we needed!!

[NotAboutEgo]

Maybe far too early to speculate... but it's a sign of the times. MLB now sponsors a women's team... the womens USA National Team. According to their website, a press release dated July 11, 2006 it states that "MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, USA BASEBALL FORM 10-YEAR BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP Relationship Designed to Support Sport's Growth at Amateur Level"

I'll leave the link for you to click on and read:

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/usa_baseball/content.jsp?article=launch_071106

And if you click "ABOUT USA BASEBALL", go towards the bottom, you'll see a small section mentioning the women's team.

Could be a great start and push we needed!!

Hmmmmm... extremely interesting since MLB refused to sponsor women's baseball in the past. Maybe they are feeling the heat from USA Baseball or are at least seeing that USA Baseball FINALLY jumped on board and now MLB wants to be a part of it. I'm sure they see all kinds of marketing opportunities there. It would be TERRIFIC to get its support. :clapping

[JeepingBaseball]

like i said... way to early to celebrate this.

But fingers cross, this is the new wave of recognition.

[NotAboutEgo]

Yep, you're right. But, just the fact that MLB is FINALLY paying attention is something. No matter how good ole' boys it is, I guess we have to give them SOME credit. LOL :laugh

[JeepingBaseball]

we just gotta pick up the ante now and take advantage of this in the smartest way possible...

suggestions?

[NotAboutEgo]

Will have to get back to you later after thinking about it for a while. I agree with you.

[NotAboutEgo]

Let's brainstorm and post ideas and go from there.

[5LilPlayers]

Ya know, I was going to post last night about this but I was too tired. I found the link by accident when looking at www.womensbaseball.com and www.aagpbl.org...can't remember which site it was on. But I did see a little thing about it on one of them.

As for ideas...not really sure other than, for the moment, getting the word out.

I am the outgoing type...and make a point of talking about interesting things....loudly....when in public. LOL I've referred people to sites and such before as others have come up to me, "I couldn't help but hear you talking about...." It's a start...a small start.

Maybe if we email them...get all the females (and open-minded males) we know who love the game to email them about it.

Maybe we could even email to ask for support for forming leagues in every state, every "big" city...little girls through adult women...to work as kind of farm teams themselves for the Women's USA National Team?

Wonder how much news coverage is out there about it right now? Don't know how else to get coverage like that...other than maybe from women who do play themselves (in men's leagues or their own) to get television crews and reporters to their games to talk about it on camera?

All would be good, except...what about those in other states and cities who aren't registered here? That's the only problem...how do we get the word out on a national level?

Then again, I always have big ideas that usually don't pan out to much when it comes down to it. LOL

I just hope we can think of a way to get the news out on that national level.

[JeepingBaseball]

I think it comes down to advertising.

There's articles and such, but those articles are specifically placed in the papers and the magazines that doesnt obstruct the main article or subject. While it will still be good exposure to those who truly read the newspaper or magazine as a whole, it's still aimed at a small specfic audience.

There's one goal in advertising, depite the product. And that is to get the reader to know what the product is at a blink of an eye. Americans have the attention span of a nat when it comes to advertising because it's all around us. What attracts our attention is something totally different, and for the most part... has to be a smart witty memory installer in less than 15 seconds.

I think MLB should show two 15 second spot commercials during televised games through out the country with the final third 30 second commercial at the break of the 9th inning of the game. My idea is that the first 15 second spot is a bit of a mystery or what you would say "did you see that? what was that about".. like a part 1 of 2. The 2nd spot is the last half of it showing women in baseball. The 3rd spot at the end of the game should the combination of both spots in a more memorable bigger fashion.

Why i think this works: it's more than people at home who watch the game. There's sport bars more than there sports teams. People talk during the commerical, true fans or not, when a subject never spoken before in that forum is presented. Nothing is a faster word of mouth.

However... it's an invitation to alot of blacklash. But that's going to happen no matter what we do. We'll hear arguements that it should be advertised on it's own time and not using professional baseball as a springboard. I dont agree with that because it's still MLB who just formed a partnership. That gives an equal opportunity right to use all of it's advantages. But we'll hear arguements netherless.

At the same time, I do think some advertisements should be spotted at all ballparks... regardless if there's a women's team organized there or not. Remember, it's the Women's USA National Team they willing to support... not individual amatuer teams. If you form a 10 year partnership, best get the money you can get out of it. And it's a MLB park.

Just advertising the national team will rise some eyebrows about women playing baseball... and when that happens, the critics and journalists and reporters and so forth, will look around to see how others feel about it. Thats when they will find the indivdual teams and discover the passion we have for it.

And thats where our jobs start. But why wait till then? Start now and be at full throttle by the time they notice us. Do some fundraisers for your team, get the small local press news to do an article, have a radio station mention your team on the air, make t shirts or towels to hand out. Millions of ideas. Find the biggest thing about your town or city and try to organize a friendly baseball game against them for publicy for both parties. Send bulk rate postcards out announcing your team. Display signs of your team everywhere. I could go on forever on this.

My biggest fear of the commerical is being cheesy and stupid like the WNBA was... at least in the NYMetro area. Their 1st try was horrible. Did much better later. But this isnt about multiple women's team... it's about 18 women. One team. One goal. Be ready.

[NotAboutEgo]

Maybe far too early to speculate... but it's a sign of the times. MLB now sponsors a women's team... the womens USA National Team. According to their website, a press release dated July 11, 2006 it states that "MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, USA BASEBALL FORM 10-YEAR BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP Relationship Designed to Support Sport's Growth at Amateur Level"

I'll leave the link for you to click on and read:

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/usa_baseball/content.jsp?article=launch_071106

And if you click "ABOUT USA BASEBALL", go towards the bottom, you'll see a small section mentioning the women's team.

Could be a great start and push we needed!!

Since the article did mention the US Women's National Team, it seems that MLB is becoming more open to supporting it. We'll see how much and at what level that support comes in. It's interesting to see that the article mentions the US national and Olympics teams and then it later mentions the women's national team, still giving more clout to the male teams... stating them as the US national teams instead of stating them as the men's national teams. Hopefully that will change soon as the women's team becomes more known and supported and when USA Baseball starts developing other divisions for women's national teams, whenever that happens... hopefully not too long from now.

I know it took a while for people like Jim Glennie, Tom Giffen and others (not sure of who else specifically) to convince USA Baseball to jump on board and organize and support a women's national team.