"Tired of being fed the relentless puffery typical of
team programs, entrepreneurial sports enthusiasts are
publishing their own guides," according to Leslie Kaufman of
NEWSWEEK. Now available for more than half a dozen MLB
teams, "these bleacher-born game sheets are an insurgent
business, stealing readers and revenue away from the home-
office glossies." Boston Baseball Founder Michael Rutstein:
"When the Red Sox stink, we say the Red Sox stink." Jay
Roper, who publishes alternatives for the Cubs and Indians,
"estimates that between ballpark circulation and advertising
his revenue will top" $500,000 this year. Dave Simone, who's
been selling "Outside Pitch" to Orioles fans since '91,
"takes in revenue of about $125,000 a year." Team
organizations "insist they don't mind having the new
rivals." Orioles Dir of PR John Maroon, on "Outside Pitch":
"They are a definite competitor, but we coexist." Still,
Kaufman writes, "some teams must be feeling at least a
little miffed because they have tried everything from
lowering their own prices to -- allegedly -- physical
harassment to stifle the alternatives' growth." Publishers
received "some legal relief" when the CO Supreme Court
declared the sidewalks around Coors Field public property
and said that distributing the Rockies' alternative fan mag
was a free-speech issue. But the publications "have their
problems. For one, big ticket baseball advertisers prefer
to go with the official game programs, even though ad rates
with the alternatives are much cheaper. Then there is the
question of journalistic access." Rutstein "can't get press
credentials" and is in "very preliminary negotiations" to
merge with the Red Sox's official program (NEWSWEEK, 7/20).
