Smart Ball: Marketing the Myth and Managing the Reality of Major League Baseball

by Robert F. Lewis II

Overview

An assessment of baseball's ascension as a global business brand and its myth-making power Smart Ball follows Major League Baseball's history as a sport, a domestic monopoly, a neocolonial power, and an international business. MLB's challenge has been to market its popular mythology as the national pastime with pastoral, populist roots while addressing the management challenges of competing with other sports and diversions in a burgeoning global economy. Baseball researcher Robert F. Lewis II argues that MLB for years abused its legal insulation and monopoly status through arrogant treatment of its fans and players and static management of its business. As its privileged position eroded in the face of increased competition from other sports and union resistance, it awakened to its perilous predicament and began aggressively courting athletes and fans at home and abroad. Using a detailed marketing analysis and applying the principles of a "smart power" model, the author assesses MLB's progression as a global business brand that continues to appeal to a consumer's sense of an idyllic past in the midst of a fast-paced, and often violent, present. A retired corporate executive, Robert F. Lewis II has a doctorate from the University of New Mexico where he teaches part time. He has published in Outside the Lines, the journal of the Society of American Baseball Research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604732078
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	12/08/2009
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

A retired corporate executive, Robert F. Lewis II has a doctorate from the University of New Mexico where he teaches part time. He has published in Outside the Lines, the journal of the Society of American Baseball Research.