here's the pitch
Reviewed by Richard C. Crepeau
1 may 2019 archive
Roberta Newman begins this complex examination of baseball and advertising with the assumption that both are reflections of American culture. Certainly those of us who have written about baseball over the years have taken the baseball side of this equation for granted. Anyone who has watched television commercials knows that the other side of the equation is equally true.
The trick, of course, is to tie these two elements of American popular culture together. Newman's approach is to examine a series of examples of the two in tandem. The result, as she hopes it would, demonstrates that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The first two chapters of the book look at the beginning of this commercial and cultural marriage, moving from the late 19th century up through the 1920s. During this period the new consumer economy was driven by consumption rather than production, with the goal of advertising being to maximize consumption. One of the means to that end was celebrity endorsement, and in this Golden Age of Sport, the high profile athlete was a natural choice to sell any and all forms of consumer products. Newman lays all of this out with an examination of the market place and the central role baseball stars played as product pitchmen.
Chapter Three analyzes the creation of Wheaties as the "Breakfast of Champions." This was a brilliant piece of marketing and Newman's analysis matches that brilliance. The role of radio, print, ball park signage, and star endorsement was aimed at the basic target audience of children, and through them, to their mothers, and it was a major success for "Wheaties: The Breakfast of Champions." That it was accomplished in the midst of the Great Depression, writes Newman, added to the degree of difficulty of this accomplishment.
The limits of endorsement opportunities for African American athletes prior and during the Second World War receive a detailed examination, as does the increased, but still quite limited, opportunities after the war, during the first decades of the desegregation of baseball. Change came very slowly. Newman returns to examine those changes in later chapters dealing with Latino players and concludes with a wonderful chapter on Derek Jeter and the concept of a personal "brand."
The game changer in the postwar world came with the arrival of television. Newman subjects this revolutionary device to thorough analysis. How television is received within baseball, the ways in which it changes perception, and the new opportunities for driving the marketplace, all get a full treatment. American life was altered fundamentally as television impacted the society in multiple ways.
Advertisers were much quicker to see the opportunities in television, while the baseball industry reluctantly adapts when pushed to do so by market realities and the emergence of a gaggle of new electronic devices. Within this discussion, Newman examines the theories of Marshall McLuhan and his views on the suitability of baseball in the new world of electronic media.
One of the many interesting subjects explored by Newman is the changing nature of product endorsement. In addition to breakfast food, baseball pitchmen sold cars, trucks, and, increasingly over time, pharmaceutical products. Perhaps the best known of the latter was Rafael Palmeiro's Viagra commercial, although there have been many others. Newman examines both their obvious content, as well as, their relationship to masculinity.
Chapter Seven deals with the emergence of the Latino pitchman and the persistence of Latin stereotypes. The focus here is on Mariano Rivera and David Ortiz. This is followed in Chapter Eight by a full dissection of advertising and the image of Derek Jeter. In this section Newman pays close attention to "branding," and offers a detailed examination of Jeter's projected masculinity and the significance of his multi-racial, religious, and ethnic identity. Jeter emerges, claims Newman, as the new all-American boy.
This is a book rich in content and analysis that at times will challenge your views on the commercialization of sport. There are any number of "ah-ha moments" as attention is called to the blatantly obvious that is too often overlooked.
One point that could have been given a bit more attention is the coming of endorsement in the 1920s. Both Warren Susman's and Gilman Ostrander's work would be worth a look. What is now called branding was clearly part of that world and needs to be given more attention. Also, the athlete as both consumer pitchman and product might be explored with some positive results.
These are small points and do not detract from what is an excellent piece of historical research and sophisticated analysis.
Newman, Roberta J. Here's The Pitch: The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball Advertising. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. 352 pp., illus. $34.95.
Copyright © 2019 by Richard C. Crepeau