A few years ago on Sunday morning as I was going to get bagels I heard New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan on “Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball” show on WFAN in New York talking about how the simplest of actions with his father, playing catch after work, were some of his brightest memories. Often times in big time sports and promotions it is the simple ideas that get lost as not glitzy or glammery enough, but with the right platform, can be the most effecting. Dolan’s thoughts this morning spurred one of those ideas.
I was once approached by a colleague, Lance Laifer, to see if there was a way to create awareness for an anti-Malaria campaign he had organized, and do it through sport. The idea was simple, take a nerf basketball hoop and pass it around with a ball through Madison Square Garden, letting each person in the arena dunk the ball, and with each dunk a dollar would be donated to charity. At some point it was going to become a logistical nightmare, setting the world’s largest dunk record, but the event worked. It got exposure for the charity, and as the ball and hoop were passed around the lower seats, several NBA officials and even some players took notice. One was Dikembe Mutombo, who used the idea and the platform to continue to grow his own initiative to eradicate malaria in his native Congo by purchasing bedding nets. The link between the basketball net and the mosquito net was simple, and eventually led Laifer’s group to an association with the NBA, national exposure and fundraising, and a leadership position which has helped eradicate the problem of mosquito-born malaria in Congo and other parts of Africa. All from a simple, cost efficient plan to dunk a nerf basketball. But timing, part passion, part simplicity helped a small idea contribute in a big way.
So now back to playing catch. For years the Northern League St. Paul Saints held the “World’s Largest Game of Catch” to kick off their promotional season. Major League Baseball and some other MiLB teams have also gone the route of games of catch as a way to connect generations, and the actual record for the largest game of catch (baseball/softball) consists of 972 pairs, and was achieved by Willow Creek Community Church (USA) in South Barrington, Illinois, USA, on June 18, 2017. That day 1,944 individuals successfully took part in an enormous game of catch at the Dadfest event celebrating Fathers’ Day in a suburb of Chicago.
A simple act connects fans of all ages in a communal and promotable activity that links young and old, boy and girl, dad and son, mom and daughter. Timeless, simple, easy. This past week in Venice, California I saw some kids just shooting some layups with their parents, another simple act of connecting, while some other families were just kicking a soccer ball back and forth to share time. We always see football being passed around parking lots during tailgating, so why not being kids down on a field for a short pregame toss with college football or the NFL, like MLB has started to do with playing catch? Problems with liability if Johnny or Mary get hit in the head? Use a soft ball. Problems in moving it along? Like Laifer’s idea make it a nerf promotion that goes around the stands and finishes on the field. If the simple act of dunking a nerf hoop literally helped to change lives, then a simple game of catch or a pass in either version of football could as well. Just an idea. It certainly can tie to a sponsor, just like baseball has done.
And with that, Happy Mother’s Day Weekend to all.
