Dontrelle Willis, the herky-jerky Florida Marlins rookie who has captured the imagination of baseball fans nationally, also has caught the attention of the famously fickle sports viewers of South Florida.
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| Marketers, take note: Willis has a distinctive motion and a welder for a mother. |
Heading into his most recent start last Thursday night, Willis, who last week shared National League Player of the Week honors, already had attracted the two largest TV audiences to watch the Marlins since 1998.
Fox Sports Net Florida's telecast of Willis' June 11 outing against the Milwaukee Brewers drew a 4.4 Nielsen rating in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, the best posting by the club since an Aug. 31, 1998, game that featured record-chasing slugger Mark McGwire.
Willis followed that up with a one-hitter against the New York Mets that drew a 4.2. A rain-shortened outing that aired on the local Pax affiliate, WPXM, pulled a 3.2.
Marlins games on Fox Sports Net averaged a 2.3 in April and a 2.5 in May. In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, one rating point represents about 15,000 households.
"Dontrelle is obviously hot right now, both on the field and in this market," said Sean Flynn, vice president of marketing for the Marlins. "Stars and hipness and coolness drive a lot of what happens down here. Dontrelle has become a name. He has charisma and energy. He gets people excited."
Rising above the din is difficult in Miami, a four-sport city in which even the deeply entrenched Dolphins have failed to sell out first-round playoff games.
"This is a tough sports market, and he's come in here and rocked the world," said Jeff Genthner, general manager of Fox Sports Net Florida. "There's truly a wow factor at work here. People have caught on that this is something special."
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| "He has charisma and energy.He gets people excited." |
| Sean Flynn, Marlins marketing VP, on Dontrelle Willis |
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Along with a distinctive twirling, high-kick delivery and a slightly off-kilter cap, Willis brings a captivating story to baseball. He was raised in a single-parent household by his mother, Joyce Harris, who works as a welder. When her son began to play baseball in high school, Harris shifted her hours so she could make it to his games.
"People say they can't relate to the players in our game because they make so much money and they're perceived as aloof," said David Samson, president of the Marlins. "Dontrelle is the opposite of that. His mother still gets up at 4 in the morning to go to work welding bridges. That's something our fans can relate to."
Unfortunately for the Marlins, that excitement has not yet translated to the crashing of the Pro Player Stadium gates.
Willis started at home three times in June. The Marlins drew 10,140 for a Thursday night game against Oakland and 10,624 on the Monday night he one-hit the Mets. Those were in line with the 10,525 that the club has averaged for Mondays through Thursdays since he was called up on May 9.
Coming off the one-hitter, the Marlins decided to tweak their advertising for Willis' next start, replacing their planned newspaper creative with an imposing photo of him in mid-delivery, his high leg kick dominating the frame. The Marlins also took Willis on a radio run the day before the game, making stops on the top morning shows.
Bad weather made it tough to tell whether the blitz worked. The Marlins drew only 15,397 for a Saturday night game that was shortened by rain. That's slightly better than the club's weekend average of 14,119.
"I don't think we've seen a fair test yet of what sort of draw he can be," Flynn said.
Nationally, the early returns are in. Willis is featured in this week's Sports Illustrated. His highlights have gotten big rides on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" and Fox Sports Net's "Best Damn Sports Show Period."
Willis' agents, Matt Sosnick and Paul Cobbe, said they fielded about 25 calls a day last week, most of them from collectibles dealers but some from agencies feeling out endorsement opportunities. They said they closed about $50,000 in autograph and appearance deals in a 10-day span. Willis had gotten about $5,000 in the two years before that.
Willis is the first of the small, Walnut Creek, Calif.-based agency's players to break through as a star.
"It's pretty incredible that he's the one, since he lives with me in the off-season," Sosnick said. "We've taken a lot of enjoyment out of this."
Willis is so close to his agents, he had their firm's logo tattooed on his pitching arm. At a Halloween party last year, Willis and Sosnick dressed as caricatures of each other.
"He dressed like a bar mitzvah student," Sosnick said, "and I dressed like Randy Moss."
