Baseball merchandise is flying off the shelves:
Gross retail sales of licensed products are up by almost 100 percent in the first part of the year compared to the same period last season, according to Tim Brosnan, executive vice president of business for Major League Baseball.
“It’s in part due to the fact that we had fans with a lot of pent up desire, supporting a team that hadn’t won the World Series in 86 years,” said Bob DuPuy, baseball’s president and chief operating officer, referring to the Boston Red Sox.
According to SportsScanINFO, a retail tracking firm, licensed headwear is up 79 percent, with the New York Yankees and Red Sox making up 53 percent of total licensed merchandise sales.
At this time last year, Red Sox gear made up 12 percent of all merchandise sold. This year, that number has jumped to 21 percent, said Neil Schwartz, SportsScanINFO’s director of marketing.
This is another example that the steroid scandal isn’t really resonating with fans. It’s a good story to sell newspapers and garner votes, but your average baseball fan just wants to see his or her team win.
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It comes as no surprise that Boston and New York are the top two team is merchandise. Out here in dusty ol’ Pullman, Washington, my Red Sox hat used to get comments from professors and students originally from New England. Now it’s so overplayed it just makes me look like a frat boy jackass. My Milwaukee Brewers lid, I hope, can avoid the same fate.
I wouldn’t say it’s not resonating – hard to find baseball fans who haven’t been talking about it. But it certainly isn’t making people stop loving the game.
I’m so sick of hearing about steroids….I wish people would stop talking about it. Especially on ESPN Radio.
I think David’s right — the steroid scandal is more important to the media than it is to the fans, on the whole.
Crank sez it best.
Sunday will be here soon (opening day) and all will be forgiven, Thank GOD for baseball season!!!
I’ve been to many parks and have been to Cooperstown twice. Baseball means a lot to me and so do the records. What makes me sick is to hear jerks like Bonds say it doesn’t help your eye-hand coordination. Maybe. But it sure helps bat speed! Can you imagine Ruth on steroids instead booze and hot dogs? Or a Ruth that kept himself in shape year after year. How about a healthy Mantle for twenty years. Bonds would have to play until he was 50 to catch either of them. The best thing for Baseball would be if Bonds just quit the game all together, as he said he might. I would at least give him some respect for that.