Good Sports Launches 10,000 Swings with Ryan Braun & SAM Bat

Back in February of 2009, Good Sports briefed charitable sports marketers at Charity Hop about their 10,000 Swings campaign, an initiative designed to reenergize youth baseball by putting 10,000 new baseball bats into the hands of disadvantaged youth who need it most. Charity Hop leveraged their connections to introduce Good Sports to Milwaukee Brewers slugger, Ryan Braun. Four short months later, Braun helped kick off the 10,000 Swings program while simultaneously launching his partnership with SAM Bat and his new RB8 model bat. Right off the bat, SAM Bat committed 150 bats to 10,000 Swings, plus an additional 10 bats for every Ryan Braun home run over the course of the 2009 season.

“Playing sports has helped me my entire life and every child should have the same opportunity to play the sport they love,” says Braun. “I am thrilled to launch this product, the RB8 bat and in turn help children all across the country.”

Good Sports promotes sports and fitness participation among disadvantaged youth because it believes that access to physical activity is critical to the healthy social, physical and emotional development of children. After reaching an all-time high of just under 2.7 million baseball players in 1997, participation in Little League Baseball — the nation's oldest and largest youth sports organization — has dropped by an average of 36,000 players per year. With participation among many teams sports down significantly, including youth baseball, there is an opportunity at the grass roots level to change these trends. By bringing together athletes like Ryan Braun and sporting goods companies like SAM Bat, Good Sports intends to do just that—create opportunity.

“Baseball is the great American game and we want to give back and to help those who are helping kids play the game,” says Sam Holman of Sam Bat.

Charity Hop is thrilled to have made the introduction that contributed to the success of the 10,000 Swings campaign for Good Sports.

About Good Sports

Good Sports is a non-profit organization that strives to increase the physical activity of disadvantaged youth helping to lay the foundation for healthy active lifestyles. Due to generous partners in the sporting goods industry, Good Sports has impacted over 180,000 kids and distributed more than $3.8 million worth of equipment to youth sports and fitness programs since 2003. Learn more at www.goodsports.org.

About SAM BAT

The Original Maple Bat Corporation. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, founder, Sam Holman, was the first to use maple to create a major league sanctioned bat in 1997. Their wood bats are treated with care and undergo heavy scrutiny for any flaws at each and every stage of production, from the cutting of the logs to the drying in their kilns. The result is a superb instrument that transfers more of your power to the ball. SAM BATs also boast a larger sweet-spot for hitting. Major League Sanctioned and Little League approved. Learn more at SAM Bat.

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