The Sporting Life:
The Public Professor’s Sports Column
The plug is a ubiquitous part of our culture. Nary a form of media is immune to it. Whether it’s an actor appearing on a late night talk show to plug a new movie, a musician plugging a new album in a magazine interview, or any of the other countless ways in which people subtly pitch their products, the plug is everywhere.
Many plugs, such as the examples I just mentioned, are obvious to us. Ostensibly, that actor is there to chit chat with the host, tell an amusing story, shoot the glamorous shit. But of course there’s the obligatory mention of the new movie, probably a clip to show as well. And we know. We know that while it’s called a talk show, really it’s plug show. Most of the guests don’t come on for the pittance of money or because they want to. They do it because they need to promote their new product.
But sometimes plugs are a little slier. We’re all pretty savvy, pretty jaded. So often the most effective plugs are the ones that fly under the radar, the ones that don’t reveal themselves as plugs.
Perhaps a newspaper columnist, in the middle of an article about something or another, relates it to a wonderful new book he or she has just read. The reference
seems germane, the article has a higher purpose, and the writer has credibility. Maybe you don’t think twice about why the book is being referenced.
But the next time you’re in a bookstore or perusing the ebook offerings, maybe you do think twice about that book the columnist mentioned. Maybe you buy it. And that was no accident. The publisher gave the columnist the book for free, hoping that he or she would plug it, subtly.
I don’t have a TV show or a newspaper column. I just have this little website, where most of the traffic comes from wayward Google images searches. For example, if you search the phrase “20 dollar bill,” an image of Andrew Jackson that I used a couple of weeks ago is a few rows down. Clicking it brings you to this site. That kinda of stuff constitutes most of my traffic. And while, for some reason, I do seem to have built a reasonably steady and loyal readership, it’s not big enough to attract any movie stars or best selling authors. In other words, no one’s looking to plug their products with The Public Professor.
Until now.
A couple of months ago, an editor from Potomac Books sent me a free copy of Curt Smith’s new book, A Talk in the Park: Nine Decades of Baseball Tales from the Broadcast Booth. Had the American media machine finally found me? Not exactly. That editor also happens to be a friend, and one of those people who reads this site.
“I think you’ll like this book,” she said. “If you do and you’d like to plug it, that’d be great. If not, just consider it a gift.”
I’ve never taken any advertising at the site. A few companies have approached me, but I won’t do it, at least not for now, because that’s not what this site is about. A plug? Yeah, of course that’s another form of advertising. Potentially a more insidious one that sometimes disguises itself as something other than it is.
But of course my friend who reads this site wasn’t asking me to do anything insidious. Far from it. Here’s a new book we did, you might like it, maybe mention it to a few people? It’s not like I’m Johnny Carson.
I read most of the book on a plane ride home from wherever the hell I was coming from. And you know what? It was a goddamn page-turner. Smith has collected hundreds of reminiscences from major and minor league baseball announcers, young and old alike. They are men who genuinely love the game and know how to spin an entertaining yarn about the things they have seen on and off the diamond. I enjoyed it immensely and am passing my copy onto a friend.
So there you have it. The Public Professor’s first-ever, and perhaps last ever, kinda commercial plug. I got an unsolicited free book (NOTE: I am not soliciting free materials from anyone), you got an honest opinio
n about it, and my friend the editor maybe picks up a sale or two. But more importantly, everyone got full disclosure.
And if the book had been lousy? Well, I guess I woulda written about something else today.
After all, it is Opening Day.