An assessment of baseball's ascension as a global business brand and its
myth-making power Smart Ball follows Major League Baseball's history as
a sport, a domestic monopoly, a neocolonial power, and an international
business. MLB's challenge has been to market its popular mythology as
the national pastime with pastoral, populist roots while addressing the
management challenges of competing with other sports and diversions in a
burgeoning global economy. Baseball researcher Robert F. Lewis II argues
that MLB for years abused its legal insulation and monopoly status
through arrogant treatment of its fans and players and static management
of its business. As its privileged position eroded in the face of
increased competition from other sports and union resistance, it
awakened to its perilous predicament and began aggressively courting
athletes and fans at home and abroad. Using a detailed marketing
analysis and applying the principles of a "smart power" model, the
author assesses MLB's progression as a global business brand that
continues to appeal to a consumer's sense of an idyllic past in the
midst of a fast-paced, and often violent, present. A retired corporate
executive, Robert F. Lewis II has a doctorate from the University of New
Mexico where he teaches part time. He has published in Outside the
Lines, the journal of the Society of American Baseball Research.