Neither are we talking about letting off steam the way the overpaid Boston Red Soxs and New York Yankees infamously did in their latest rather comic punch-up last week. On the other side of the world, baseball is apparently thriving in Korea, where the game was introduced a century ago.
Korean corporations are getting staff to bond over a friendly play-off instead of rounds of the deadly makkoli.After all, better an exec with an aching muscle than a foggy brain the next day. Korean agency afficionados of the game swear baseball has done such an incredible job of uniting staff at various companies, not just ad agencies, that it has become one of the most popular company past-times.
Take TBWA Korea for instance. Every Saturday, it rounds up 27 members of staff for a four-hour - you read that right - training session as part of efforts to not only keep its execs in tip-top shape but also encourage team bonding. Once a week, staff dust off their mits and slide into action, led by their star pitcher, Minky Jeon.
Sadly, the team hasn't yet hit a winning streak. Out of eight matches this season, it's only won three, losing its last game which it played against White Communications, another local agency. We hear prospects against Lee&DDB Korea aren't looking too good either. "The idea is for the team to play as many other agencies and other general teams as possible," says a TBWA executive. Which brings us back to that old favourite that it's about playing not winning that counts. As much as that does warm the cockles of our hearts to see agency executives get all warm and cuddly, we hope those sentiments don't carry into a pitch - otherwise the industry would be bereft of the usual pitch drama.