Cards, I began to wonder how difficult it might be to do PR for a professional baseball team. The season is long, the players are sometimes dull and their is little parity between the elite and the bottom feeders. In my head, I conjured up what I thought would be the top 5 toughest teams to represent - not teams I think would be the worse to work for, just the toughest. Below is my latest top-5 that is based, in no way, on my hatred or love of any particular team.No. 5 - Kansas City Royals - For obvious reasons I think the Royals would be
extremely difficult to represent - they have no big bat, strong arm or outstanding glove and they haven't been good since I've been alive. How easy would it be to get media coverage for a team like this? Who would care what the club is doing outside of the ballpark and who even knows what they do inside the ballpark? To me, KC is just a dead end...No. 4 - Tampa Bay Devil Rays - For reasons similar to those outlined above, I can't
imagine the fun I could have spreading the good word about Tampa Bay. The biggest difference here though is that Tampa has NEVER been good, ever! Plus they play in Tampa Bay, a largely retired community that doesn't care at all about their team. Tampa, along with their fellow Floridians from the South, have always struggled with attendance and fan support. The only way to change that is win, something Tampa Bay hasn't been able to do in the club's history.
No 3 - Boston Red Sox - The reasons for putting the Sox at No. 3 are very different
from the reasons mentioned above. This season the Sox have made a $103.1 million investment in Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. How can a PR rep win in this situation? Since Matsuzaka arrived the media has covered him like a blanket. And every interview with any of the Red Sox players is centered around their pitching phenom. I think I would get pretty tired of having to arrange interviews so that players could talk about one thing: Daisuke Matsuzaka. Adding to the challenge is the attention the Japanese media has given the rookie. That makes my job even more difficult trying to accommodate and do business with members of the media from an entirely different culture. Although very rewarding, that task alone would be tough...No 2 - New York Yankess - It seems everyone in New York has a difficult time
performing under the watchful eye of George M. Steinbrenner and I would imagine the PR people are no exception. The New York media is also been known for being some of the toughest in the business. Throw in the always talked about Jeter-A-Rod debate and you set yourself up for quite a large task.No 1 - San Fransisco Giants - This one is real simple: Barry Bonds. Bonds has been
the biggest lightening rod sports has seen in a while. The media is obsessed with him and fans are infatuated with him. Whenever the Giants travel, Bonds is greeted with signs, costumes and sometimes props that demonstrates some people's distaste for him. And the media jump all over it. I think it would be a difficult job to handle Bonds and his assortment of interview requests and death threats (which he has received) along with his quest for the Hammer.
