With half of the 30 major league baseball teams hit by lower attendance this year compared with last year, promotions and other inducements are ways to lure more fans into ball parks, cites Grumpy Editor.
Even the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers are seeing a sagging number of fans in the stands.
So when the National League’s Washington Nationals --- one of 15 major league teams socked with more empty seats this season --- decided to honor the Navy SEALs who died Aug. 6 in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan by wearing special tribute caps during an Aug. 16 game against the Cincinnati Reds, Major League Baseball nixed the patriotic idea.
That’s poor public relations and a missed opportunity to put baseball in a favorable light --- at a major league ball park in the nation’s capital.
As the FoxNews.com site reported it: “We reserve hats for national tributes, where every club is wearing them on the same day," league spokesman Pat Courtney told the Washington Post. “But we’re happy to work with clubs on alternatives.”
During batting practice, however, the team was allowed to wear the caps adorned with NAVY SEAL on the left side of the brim.
Major league baseball --- competing for attention on sports pages with football, basketball and soccer --- should pull out all stops in focusing attention on the long-time national pastime, ranking at the top of the Americana list with Mom and apple pie.
Wearing special tribute caps is a small, yet thoughtful, way to honor the deceased Navy SEALs, among the more than 6,000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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