Asking Forgiveness Not Permission: The Dallas Braden Teeezsms

As baseball heads into the All-Star break, teams with distressed inventory continue to find innovative ways to rally fans and generate buzz, whether or not they are doing well on the field. Case in point. is this week, where the Oakland A's are looking to create some buzz and fan support around the visiting World Champion New York Yankees making their one trip to the Bay Area. Yes the Yanks are always a draw, but there remain distressed tickets to be had and a team to be supported after the Yanks leave town. The solutio.? Create and sell t-shirts for fans re-addressing pitcher Dallas Braden's dust up with Alex Rodriguez earlier this season, when Rodriguez crossed the mound on his way back to the dugout at Yankee Stadium, and Braden took offense publicly at the move.

Now of all are on the same page…the pitcher, the PR team, the marketing staff…the tee-shirts, which say “Get Off My Mound,” can be a great and lighthearted rallying cry. However, as reported in many sources today, the tee's were a hit with the fans (great), got some buzz (great), generated national media coverage (great). created some nice photo ops with the Yankees wearing them (great), but seemed to really upset the people perhaps most important to the promotion, the A's players themselves, who publicly thought the promotion was in bad taste and could hurt their chances of winning any of the games against New York.. So the promotion begs the question of communication issues. Is it worthwhile to create short term buzz and alienate the people you need the most…your own players and managemen.? Do you consult with those people prior to creating the promotio. Do you make sure all are aware of the pluses and minuse.? Are the teeshirts effective in showing the casual fan that baseball does not take itself too seriousl.. Or does it show more that the A's business side is not effectively connected with the baseball sid.

Granted the incident, which did get national play and was fueled by Braden's comments, was not any apocalyptic event, and would probably have been totally forgotten had the teeshirts not come into play. The teeshirts did help re-address a situation the A's players probably would have liked to forget, but they did generate buzz and coverage for the team..? Whether they angered the Yankees is kind of a non-issue…baseball is a daily sport this time of year, which shortens newscycles and billboard material for players and media. So saying this will “anger” the Yankees or awaken a team having a great year is a non starter. The series will be over quickly. What may not be over quickly is the trust and communication issue between the A's players and the business front office. Those type of issues take a long time to heal, and when one needs players every day to help promotoe the cause, especially in a lean year, the longterm pain can outweigh the short term gain of the buzz.

The need for proper communication and execution by both sides of the business is critical in team sports. The A's may have made a great short term play, hopefully not at the expense of long-term trust for the brand.