Former Mitchell & Ness Exec To Tout Baseball In Inner City
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Former Apparel Exec Wants To Use Players Like
Rollins, Howard To Tout Baseball In Inner City |
Former Mitchell & Hess Marketing Dir Reuben Harley, who helped popularize throwback jerseys, “wants to use big-leaguers and rappers and recreation directors with vision to get inner-city kids” interested in baseball, according to Stan Hochman of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Harley: “Nike and the NBA do a terrific job of marketing their players. Everybody knows Kobe. Everybody knows LeBron. Basketball, that’s the game kids turn to. Baseball? They don’t know about minor leagues, about riding buses. Some kids tell me it just ain’t cool. That it’s boring.” With a program tagged “Bus to the Ballpark” that will begin in Philadelphia, Harley said, “I’ll get sponsors to provide the buses in every major league city. The Phillies will give me tickets. I’ll feed the kids when they get there. I’ll see that they get to meet [Phillies SS Jimmy] Rollins and [1B Ryan] Howard.” Harley said his five-year plan includes the ’08 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. Harley: “We’re gonna turn it into a hip-hop celebration, lots of music, lots of celebrities, a terrific party. We want the kids to know that [MLB] is alive and well. I wanna make it happen” (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 10/10).
MISSED OPPORTUNITY? In Philadelphia, Michael Smerconish writes of MLB, "In the season that marked the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in Brooklyn, the sport needed to do more to cultivate interest in the minority community. ... Young black kids don't see guys who look like them playing professional baseball." MLB "blew an opportunity" by not putting the Phillies-Rockies NLDS, featuring African-American stars like the Phillies' Rollins and Howard, in primetime. Instead, NLDS Games One and Two began at 3:07pm ET (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 10/11).
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