{"id":3897,"date":"2010-02-17T10:08:40","date_gmt":"2010-02-17T17:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3897"},"modified":"2010-02-17T11:17:31","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T18:17:31","slug":"ottoinfocus-kyle-beane-gets-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3897","title":{"rendered":"OttoinFocus: ” Kyle Beane gets it”"},"content":{"rendered":"

From “OttoinFocus”<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n(click banner for original news story)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

By BOB OTTO
\nbotto3 (at) verizon (dot) net<\/em><\/p>\n

YUCAIPA, CA \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Kyle Beane does for a living. But I suspect it has something to do with sales or marketing.<\/p>\n

Beane along with Dave Lach are the Co-chairmen of the 2010 International Softball Congress World Tournament to be held in Midland, Michigan, Aug. 14-21. And I am learning fast that it would be hard to find two finer promoters for the tournament \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the sport of men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fastpitch softball.<\/p>\n

Recently Beane sent an email to several people including myself. He asked for help in promoting the world tournament by writing a serious of stories about the 48 teams playing in the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Throughout the course of the ISC, and leading up to it, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re hoping to do some things that other hosts haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bean said in his email. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One thing is to provide a unique team profile, article, and feature on our website of all 48 teams\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. probably starting around May 1st, and adding three to four per week leading up to the beginning of the tournament.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nWhat a great idea. And one long overdue.<\/p>\n

Telling fastpitch fans across the world about the teams, players, managers, and sponsors who are the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153guts of the game\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is one of the promotional things this sport needs to do if it is to survive.<\/p>\n

PROMOTING THE SPORT
\nBeane understands that to create interest and entice fastpitch fans to come to the tournament, he has to get the word out. Call it marketing, call it advertising, call it promoting\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Beane gets it.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suppose I know very little about men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fastpitch softball. And let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suppose I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got this firebrand trying to sell me on the sport and this event he calls a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153world tournament.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m probably going to have a few questions I want answered before I buy a plane ticket and fly halfway across the country to a softball tournament I know very little about:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so special about men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fastpitch softball?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who plays this sport that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard so very little about?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so special about the ISC World Tournament?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

And the most basic question fans of any sport want answered before they shell out (vacation days) and entertainment dollars is:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in it for me?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Beane plays infield for the Midland Explorers, a team long recognized as a top-flight team in men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fastpitch. And a team that is a household word in the sport.<\/p>\n

BOOSTER CLUB EXTRAORDINAIRE
\nWhy? Because of promotion \u00e2\u20ac\u201c getting the word out. The Explorers have this wonderful support group called the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Midland Explorers Booster Club.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They do everything from raising money to keep the team afloat to promotion. Without them the Explorers may not even exist.<\/p>\n

Do you remember the Decatur Pride of Decatur, Illinois? When they were in operation, I dare say that there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a fastpitch fan in the world that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about this team. And again it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because of promotion.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know who was behind the effort, but the name \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Decatur Pride\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was always in the news. Always in publications like the Fastpitch Chronicle run first by Ray Anderson and then later by Bob Tomlinson.<\/p>\n

And Executive Sports Editor, Mark Tupper, of the Decatur Herald & Review, wrote story upon story about the team. About the players. About the tournaments they hosted or played in.<\/p>\n

So someone within the Decatur Pride organization \u00e2\u20ac\u0153got it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and embraced marketing. Embraced promotion.<\/p>\n

In his email, Beane also said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think each team has a unique story, and things that are of interest to fans and within the sport. I also see these (stories) potentially being used by local media\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Finally, someone who \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gets it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nEditor’s note: <\/strong>To visit the Official Midland 2010 ISC World Tournament website, click the banner below:
\n
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From “OttoinFocus” (click banner for original news story) By BOB OTTO botto3 (at) verizon (dot) net YUCAIPA, CA \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Kyle Beane does for a living. But I suspect it has something to do with sales or marketing. Beane along with Dave Lach are the Co-chairmen of the 2010 International Softball Congress […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3897"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}