October is coming. Signs of fall can be found everywhere — the NFL kicks off this weekend, Halloween candy has been on the shelves for weeks, and pumpkin beers line the beverage aisle at local grocery stores. Major League Baseball wants fans to prepare for this year’s postseason and Fall Classic with a series of new ads with the tagline, “We Play For October.” The first spot (seen above) launches today on MLB.com and MLBFanCave.com and will be broadcast on ESPN, TBS and MLBN.
“We Play for October” continues the theme of the season-long “I Play” campaign which featured stars including Robinson Cano, Andrew McCutchen, Justin Verlander, David Price, Mike Trout, Adam Jones, Bryce Harper, David Wright, and Giants’ Buster Posey — not all of whom will be playing in October. All spots in the new campaign will feature the hit song, “My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark” (Light Em Up) by Fall Out Boy.
Let’s take a closer look at the new ad to see how MLB thinks the postseason positioning might shake out. The following teams and players are represented in the featured highlights: Boston Red Sox (David Ortiz), Los Angeles Dodgers (Clayton Kershaw, Yasiel Puig), Pittsburgh Pirates (Andrew McCutchen), Texas Rangers (Yu Darvish), St. Louis Cardinals (Yadier Molina, Carlos Beltran), Oakland A’s (Josh Donaldson), Tampa Bay Rays (Evan Longoria), Braves (Justin Upton), Cincinnati Reds (Brandon Phillips), and Detroit Tigers (Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera). It’s not a coincidence that these would be the playoff teams if the MLB season were to end today.
Notably, the Yankees (2.5 games behind the Rays for the second wild card with a 15% chance of making the playoffs per CoolStandings.com), Indians (3 games, 19% playoff chances) and Orioles (3 games, 14.4% playoff chances) are not featured in the ad. There are 20 regular season games left. It could all change. Perhaps newer versions of the ad will be released to reflect any changes in postseason positioning as the season comes to a close.
The 2013 MLB Postseason starts on Tuesday, October 1 with the National League Wild Card Game on TBS. The World Series will start on Wednesday, October 23.
