Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Step 3: If Step Two Does Not Work Sell Them Yourself

Honestly, I began to wonder if there was even a market for the foam Steroid/Asterisk. Do the fans really even want to speak out? Do they even want a foam Steroid/Asterisk. We launched our website. FansLoveBaseball.com

I figured I’d call a few radio stations and see about some good old fashioned radio publicity! That’s worked for other people right?

But living is learning and did you know that most baseball related talk shows are owned or are a part of the ABC/ESPN family? A lot of shows rely on cozy relationships with MLB and as you might expect they were not too eager to have me on the air discussing the topic of the steroid era.

But hard work pays off and I managed to find some radio stations that weren’t beholden to the folks at Major League Baseball. Phone interviews with Seattle, Tampa and Mississippi followed. Generally they were smaller stations but nevertheless I was reaching some baseball fans. They were small radio stations but they were independent and I was reaching some baseball fans.

And sure enough the Foam Steroid/Asterisk began to sell. Orders came in and we packed them in pizza boxes and sent them off. Still it was hardly the movement I had hoped for and while it wasn’t total silence like in the Illinois basement the impact on the national dialogue was minimal at best. And Hank Aaron’s accomplishments were once again on their way to being hammered as voices were muted.

The season was dragging along so my Dodger fan wife and I packed up a hundred asterisks and headed four miles down the road to Dodger Stadium. I should probably tell you that both of us are chickens when it comes to selling stuff but off we went. And we hadn’t sold more than fifty asterisks before the horse backed policemen rode toward us and we ran away. But the fans were into the Foam Steroid/Asterisk! There were kindred souls who felt like we did. There was a demand to be heard.

We rushed home and anxiously watched the game on television as the legendary Vin Scully called the game. Certainly he would mention the fans in the stands with asterisks. Alas no... not a word.

That’s okay we thought. Maybe he didn’t see them. Maybe we got our hopes up a bit too high. But they were there. Foam Steroid/Asterisks in a Major League Stadium. At least fifty fans unified in spirit and foam.

Time passed as we plodded forth with our effort. More phone calls. More emails. We even sent one to every member of congress who was working on the steroid scandal.

The season chugged along, the Cubs were constantly losing, and I began to fret… and the phone rang.

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