The best teams find a way to pivot on an opportunity.
Case in point, The Arizona Diamondbacks. This week, as the banter back and forth got louder over whether Madison Bumgarner’s seven inning no-hitter should “count” as a no-no on Sunday against the Atlanta Braves, the Dbacks joined the conversation.
First they pivoted to a quick promotion using the FOURTEEN code for their home games this weekend in honor of the 14 innings of one hit ball Bumgarner and Zac Gallen threw in the 7 inning twinbill Sunday against the Braves. However what made the PR push even better was the press release, tabbed “Unofficial” by the team (in honor of the non recognition of a 7 inning no hitter, with a fun call to action for fans to #makeitcount. Even better, catcher Carson Kelly got in on the action starting a change.org page to get the no-hitter recognized by MLB and The Elias Sports Bureau.
In a year of rule changes and experiments, the DBacks found a way to seize a moment many teams would have publicly backed off on by supporting their star pitcher, doing a shoutout to one of the more inconsistent “rules” of baseball, and turning the whole thing into a fan celebre with a discount payoff and a solid social play. Oh and by the away the folks at Strat-o-matic used the data to play out what could have been the eighth and ninth innings of the game, and Bumgarner got the no-hitter anyway, so even the stats don’t lie.
Whether or not the little stunt works to get the asterisk removed doesn’t really matter. What matters is Arizona had some fun with a quick pivot that is worthy of detailing. The Dbacks always seem to find a way to tell a story, and this one scores on several counts.
