Yankees Turn Derek Jeter’s Team Record Into Marketing Gold
Congratulations to Derek Jeter. He’s now 52nd all-time on Major League Baseball’s hit list. He hit number 2,722 on a rainy Friday night against Baltimore.
But this is why the New York Yankees are marketing geniuses, and its fans are, well, suckers.
The Yankees reminded the world that Derek Jeter - definitely one of the good-guys in baseball history - was about to break Lou Gehrig’s team record for most hits ever. And Yankee fans (many of which, let’s face it, didn’t even know what a baseball was until Derek Jeter was called up from Columbus, or New York again became a baseball dynasty) ate it up as the World’s Greatest Accomplishment.
So now, for MLB’s 52nd-greatest hits leader, there’s a commemorative t-shirt, commemorative baseballs, a bunch of hits to Yankees.com, and a bunch of tickets sold to some otherwise 
meaningless September games because fans hoped to see the latest Jetercomplishment in person.
Soon Derek Jeter will pass Roberto Alomar… Then Al Oliver… then Vada Pinson… And some day Jeter will reach a real baseball milestone: 3,000 hits.
There’s a sucker born every minute. And maybe he/she will but this shirt I put up for sale on Zazzle.com.
Email This Post
Related Topics: E-commerce, Multichannel Surfing, Etc. - Opinion, Etc. - Multichannel Marketing, Etc.
September 15th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I had a friend coming up from Virginia so got tickets for last Friday’s game — and it was exciting to be there for #2,722. While it means nothing in the world of sports, it is big in NYC — and another chance to cheer the captain.
Within 60 seconds of the hit, though, they are running ads on the center field jumbo-tron for 2722 shirts, sweatshirts, plaques, you name it. Out in the corridor a little later, some fans were not happy because the vendor near us was sold out of everything 2722. Yes, Yankees figure out a way to make an extra buck on just about everything.