play ball!
All-star second baseman C.J. Beatty is part of Dick’s catchy marketing campaign.
Matt Phillips is helping Dick’s Sporting Goods pitch its baseball training equipment.
C.J. Beatty knew it was coming, knew he’d be a corporate presence.Yet, it still was a grand-slam moment.
Beatty, the Washington Wild Things’ all-star second baseman, recently strolled into Hanes Mall in his hometown, Winston-Salem, N.C., and continued into Dick’s Sporting Goods. That’s where he encountered, on box after box, C.J. Beatty.
“This blew off the top of my head. I couldn’t believe it,” Beatty said Thursday. “It’s every player’s dream to be part of something this big. Dick’s Sporting Goods is national.”
Actually, it’s 42 states, but why quibble? The experience is one wild thing.
Last season, Beatty and teammates Matt Phillips and Mike August were selected to be part of a Dick’s marketing campaign. Photos were taken of them at a workout in June, fielding, hitting and throwing at Consol Energy Park. The players were in blue practice jerseys with last names and numbers in white on the back and ‘W’ on the chest.
You could say the players were primed for this. The images that were chosen are now displayed on packaging of Primed products, baseball training equipment targeted for younger players. These shots of Beatty, Phillips and August also are on signage in stores, though not all of them, Beatty said.
The line of products debuted Nov. 11. Dick’s, a Fortune 500 company that is a perennial sponsor and partner of the Wild Things, is headquartered at Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay Township. It has more than 500 stores – and lots of photos of Beatty and two guys who are now former teammates: Phillips, a left-handed reliever, and August, an infielder.
“It’s really cool that they’re coming out with a product using Wild Things players and not just major-league teams,” said Deb Hilton, public relations and social media representative for the team from North Franklin Township.
“It gets people to think about the Wild Things every time they come into stores,” Hilton added. “They can go on the computer and find out about us if they don’t live in the area, and if they do, that might make them want to come to games.”
Shoppers weren’t the only people to see Beatty at Hanes Mall on that exhilarating day. Hilton said the standout second sacker tweeted out a photo of himself standing inside the local Dick’s.
Beatty said he spoke with a former teammate, living in Florida, who spotted his visage in a Sunshine State Dick’s. “He said he saw me on packages and a standing poster.”
A quality athlete in high school, Beatty got his share of local attention as a teen, but said “it was not on a large scale like this.
“I feel blessed to have an opportunity to be part of this marketing campaign. I don’t think anyone would say no to this.”