A friend alerted me to a Reddit post from a Croatian guy who doesn’t know much about baseball but who was trying to figure out a rooting interest. His solution: he wrote to all 30 teams, asking them why he should root for them.
Only seven responded: the Orioles, Indians, Mariners, Marlins, Phillies, Nationals and Dodgers.
The responses were . . . mostly poor. The Marlins’ response was the most detailed and was clearly tailored as a response to the man’s question. The Phillies’ was kind of zen and, I have to say, my favorite of them all:
Mr. ___:
While we appreciate the support of all of our fans, the reason for choosing one team versus another is a strictly personal reason. We do not try to ‘sell’ fans, rather we allow them the opportunity to choose to follow the Phillies for their own myriad of reasons.
Good luck with your choice.
The Dodgers sent the guy swag. Have to say, buying fandom is a bit too on-brand for the Dodgers, but all teams should go with their strengths.
Mostly, though, it seemed like off-the-shelf promotional speak. I feel like teams could do better and have more fun with this kind of thing. Good effort to those who bothered, but the 23 teams that didn’t ought to be ashamed of themselves. I mean, sending a response that says “Root for [Team] because we rule” would probably be the best answer. How hard could that be?
(Thanks to Vince G for the heads up)
