Opening Day No Way: Let Baseball Know How You Feel About Their Miracle Gro Deal

Ever since the news broke at the end of January that Major League Baseball had sold out to Scotts Miracle Gro on a deal to “re-ignite the contest for the best lawn in the neighborhood,” environmental and health groups across America have been up in arms.

This is, plainly, the wrong message for Major League Baseball to be selling. The Scotts Miracle Gro products, branded with the logos of iconic Major League teams, create the illusion that you can have Fenway Park’s outfield in your own front lawn. The partnership encourages the unnecessary applications of chemicals and water at a time when when should be promoting conservation. This promotion imperils children, whose parents don’t know any better than to douse lawns with toxic chemicals.

And while we were recently successful in getting Earth Day to drop TruGreen/ChemLawn as a sponsor, we haven’t been anywhere near as impactful in the Major League Baseball deal. A letter to Major League Baseball, signed by 28 environmental and health groups across the U.S., was completely ignored by MLB vice president Tim Brosnan.

We are now calling on our followers to let Major League Baseball and Tim Brosnan know how you feel about the league partnering with Scotts Miracle Gro on their toxic chemical lawn program. Beginning next Monday, we are helping to organize a national call-in week titled: “Opening Day No Way” and we ask that you call 212-931-7800, ext. 7501, or email tim.brosnan@mlb.com. It’s imperative that we let Major League Baseball know that folks across the U.S. and Canada see this deal as a serious environmental and health infringement.

We also ask that you sign the on-line petition that calls on Major League Baseball to denounce the deal: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/MLB-Scotts.

Will we be successful getting Major League Baseball to say no to Scotts’ money? My guess is not likely. The deal is just too lucrative. And unlike Earth Day, which has preserving the environment in its mission statement, Major League Baseball really doesn’t have to care about anything other than its bottom line.

In the meantime, though, we can make Tim Brosnan’s first week of the baseball season one that he’ll never forget. On Monday, when you hear the call for your favorite team to Play Ball!, be sure to give Tim a call.