Public History and America's Pastime: The Use of History and Sports Heritage in Marketing and Community Relations in Minor League Baseball in Tennessee

Abstract

Since it first emerged in the urban cityscapes in the early nineteenth century, baseball has become a defining feature of American culture. Many of these organizations founded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries still exist today, and as such hold a place in the history of their communities. History and sports heritage are currently utilized by the minor league baseball organizations to market teams in the communities of Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Nashville, Tennessee. Each case study represents three distinct organizations with a strong historical presence in the communities in which they reside, demonstrating the various ways in which their historical presence is marketed. In each of these case studies, successful elements of these marketing programs are examined, as well as ways in which they can be improved in order to demonstrate the practical applications of these models.