After working as a public relations (PR) assistant for Major League Baseball (MLB) for several years, Bhavna Krishnamurthy has now been appointed as chief communications officer (CCO) by the commissioner of the league, Rob Manfred. After months of investigation, Commissioner Manfred revealed his
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Recovering From the Houston Astros’ Sign-Stealing Scandal: A Case Study on Protecting a Professional Sport Organization’s Reputation Through Crisis Communication
Vinu Selvaratnam
Talking Baseball When There Is No Baseball: Reporters and Fans During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Alexander L. Curry and Tiara Good
On March 12, 2020, one day after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, Major League Baseball (MLB) canceled the remainder of its spring training games and postponed the start of its regular season. Two months later—at the time of this writing—MLB remains suspended
Strategic Operations in Baseball: “Maximizing the Window”
William Cialone and Brianna L. Newland
Jalen Burkes, assistant to the General Manager of the New York Mets, sat on the back porch with his father, Big Joe, debating the use of data in sports and how it has changed the game of baseball. Getting heated Big Joe exclaimed, “the game is changing and it’s causing friction from people all over
An Innovative Approach to Increasing Youth Sport Participation: The Case of Baseball5™
Kerri Bodin, Georgia Teare, Jordan T. Bakhsh, and Marijke Taks
Alex has always been passionate about baseball and sport participation. Growing up, they spent hours on the baseball diamond playing catch with friends and fielding ground balls with their older siblings. When Alex was looking for a job after completing their undergraduate degree in Sport
What Gramsci Can Tell Sport Communication Scholars About How Civic Leaders Sell Sports to Their Communities: A Look at the Braves’ Move to Atlanta
Bill Anderson
Antonio Gramsci argued that ruling classes stayed in power as much through cultural hegemony as through economic hegemony or brute force. Gramsci maintained that the dominant class established and maintained this cultural hegemony through negotiation and persuasion. Gramsci’s theory offers much to sport communication scholars who try to ascertain why certain communities (especially their civic leaders) build stadiums to attract major-league sports teams and events despite mounting economic evidence that these ventures often fail to yield the financial benefits touted by their advocates. This paper uses Gramsci’s theory to examine how the civic leaders of Atlanta enticed the populace and sporting press to use public funds to build a new sports stadium in the mid-1960s. Atlanta’s leaders used the sports stadium not only to lure a Major League Baseball team to the city but also to persuade the city’s populace that this move made the metropolis “big league.”
Public Perceptions of Steroid Use in Sport: Contextualizing Communication Efforts
Amy B. Becker and Dietram A. Scheufele
Recently, the controversy surrounding the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by Olympic and professional athletes has captured the media spotlight, in part as a response to the very public and pervasive steroids scandal plaguing Major League Baseball (MLB). This article examines trends in Americans’ attitudes toward the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in Olympic and professional sport as a way to better understand the messaging challenges that policy makers, players, managers, coaches, and publicists face when trying to influence the media agenda. As the poll data presented suggest, Americans feel that the incidence of performanceenhancing- drug use in professional sport is significant, especially in MLB. Furthermore, Americans suggest that the leadership of various professional sports is not doing enough to combat the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by top competitors.
Baseball and Culture: A Case-Study Examination of the Korean Baseball Organization Documentary Full Count
Kevin Hull and Minhee Choi
networks, had no live events to broadcast. What was once a full daily schedule of sporting events was suddenly bare. In order to fill the void, ESPN turned to a baseball league on the other side of the world. While North America’s Major League Baseball (MLB) was shut down, leaders of South Korea’s Korean
Superstars Really Are Scarce: Shohei Ohtani and Baseball Attendance
Christopher T. Imbrogno and Brian M. Mills
commonly using attendance data at Major League Baseball (MLB) games. Much of this work has identified the role of league design in purportedly creating competitive balance and whether fans attend games based on changes to the uncertainty of outcome ( Rottenberg, 1956 ). Within the context of league design
The African American Community and Professional Baseball: Examining Major League Baseball’s Corporate Social-Responsibility Efforts as a Relationship-Management Strategy
Shaun M. Anderson and Matthew M. Martin
Comedian Chris Rock explained in a 2015 interview on Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel that Major League Baseball (MLB) lacks a relatability factor in the African American community. He stated that “Black people and baseball ain’t a good match anymore” ( Axisa, 2015 ). Furthermore, he explained that
Increasing Baseball Revenue from the Female Market
Mark Dodds, Larry DeGaris, Alan L. Morse, Luisa Velez-Colon, and David Perricone
Claire Monroe was challenged to increase a minor league baseball team’s revenue and was in charge of developing a marketing plan to target female baseball fans. This would be a new target market for the team. The increasing female fan base can create revenue for baseball franchises through ticket, merchandise, and concession sales, as well as connecting with sponsors who specifically target female customers. Although there are many gender similarities in regards to fan avidity, there are important differences between the sexes in terms of motivation, media, and merchandise needs. Claire must research the target audience, analyze marketing research data, and make recommendations to increase female attendance to have those women spend more money on baseball-related items.
