Baseball and Using Slight Fame to Sell Art and Books

This is World Series week in baseball. My St. Louis Cardinals are not there this year which is disappointing because a couple of missed opportunities, wrong choices, and an injured star player made the difference in the Championship series with the San Francisco Giants. As a dedicated fan, I hang on every pitch of every game. Now I have four months off before Spring Training starts in February. Yesterday as I read the art marketing newsletter by
Barney Davey about fame, I started to wonder how I might combine my baseball interests with marketing efforts.

Marketing newsletters can be helpful and often provide ideas I haven't considered before. I certainly never thought about the fame rub off effect that a video by Derek Halpern of Social Triggers describes (included in Davey's newsletter). The video suggests that photographs taken of you with a famous person can heighten your fame in the eyes of the viewer. Halpern even suggests, in the video, that just having a photograph of a famous person in a sidebar of your blog can raise the level of your fame.

I started thinking about photographs I have with well-known people and realized that most all of them are baseball players. A photo taken with Cardinals ace pitcher Adam Wainwright is my favorite. I also have photos with pitcher Shelby Miller, coach Jose Oquendo, former Cardinals batting coach and star Mark McGwire, 2011 World Series star David Freese, Hall of Famers Red Schoendienst and Tony LaRussa, and more. I even have a photograph taken on the lap of former pitching star and current broadcaster Al Hrabosky. (The "Mad Hungarian" pulled me onto his lap after a man shoved in front of me in a spring training autograph line.)

Artist Mary Alice Braukman (left) and Joe Miller (Cheap Joe) with me

 There are photos in my files taken with artists and a few writers. They are nothing like the ones I have with baseball stars.

According to Barney Davey, artists need to be only slightly famous to sell their work. He believes in building a following of 100 or more collectors for artists to be successful in their careers and finances.
Writers must develop a following of many more readers than that to gather fame and fortune.

After reading Davey's post, I believe fame and reputation will help sell your work. Now I need to develop a plan to create "rubbed off" fame from baseball players. Perhaps a series of paintings about A Field of Dreams. Isn't that how most artists and writers work? We are always inside our own "field of dreams". We need only "slight fame".

Games and More at St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training

"In the Dugout at Roger Dean" photo by Mary Montague Sikes

"This is the place to be," I was told by a small group of friendly fans standing at the side of the St. Louis Cardinals' dugout in Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, Florida.

In the past, I've gone down to the front railing by the Cardinals bullpen. That's where players sometimes stop to autograph balls and other items. I'd never thought about going to the bullpen until that day when we had seats right behind it. But, the fans were right. During the time waiting there, I got five autographs on my baseball, including Matt Adams, Kolten Wong, and Mark Ellis.

"Al and Dan at Roger Dean Stadium" photo by MM Sikes

Dan McLaughlin and Al Hrabosky went through the gate next to the bullpen to tape their pre-game remarks. I feel like Dan and Al are old friends because we watch their MLB broadcasts on Fox Sports Midwest by satellite TV throughout the season. The next day, when I stood at the same location, I got to momentarily chat with both of them.

My second day by the bullpen was interesting, but I failed to get any autographs. The uncle of Matt Carpenter edged his way to the front, next to the railing, promising to summon his nephew. Carpenter did come over, hugged his uncle and signed his ball and two others. Yadier Molina stopped to sign but left just as he reached me to go stand with teammates for the singing of the National Anthem. Peter Bourjos proved wrong the fan who claimed he never signed by stopping and autographing baseballs and other items for several minutes.

Although it's fun to get autographs, I really enjoy watching closeup the reactions of fans and players alike. It's interesting to see how players handle themselves in this situation. Most are extremely polite. I loved watching Adam Wainwright who accepted a couple of balls tossed to him in the dugout along with pens, signed them, and tossed them back.

Wainwright's smile says it all. He loves playing baseball, and he loves being a St. Louis Cardinal.

And I love being next to the bullpen where story ideas might evolve for the writer in me and paintings might be inspired by the photographs I take.