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Image courtesy of shgmom56 (flickr); permission being requested.

Last week, in the midst of the swine flu outbreak, I blogged that the virus was not a branding problem for the pork producing industry, but rather, that it was a public relations nightmare. I've since been gently reminded by one of the many erudite minds in the world of branding at our company that inasmuch as the flu had a name—swine—which touched on the industry, it was indeed an image problem, which is certainly a branding issue. Upon further reflection, I do agree. But I still maintain that rebranding—i.e., like slapping a new logo and tagline onto your business—in reaction to one adverse situation is not really the right approach.

Today, just to show you that I can wield the stick from both sides of the plate...

I want to propose that there is an American, albeit increasingly international, entity that is sorely in need of rebranding: Major League Baseball.

Rebrand thyself, please. Because you're losing touch with your customers.

Thursday's news of Los Angeles Dodger Manny Ramirez testing positive for banned substances, and Friday's news about the return of New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez ("A-Rod"), puts a corrosive spotlight on the league. Ramirez is arguably the most feared right-handed offensive player in the league. A-Rod was the one guy who was supposed to be baseball's last great hope, but now he'll be remembered as the poster child for the so-called Steroid Era.

While growing up, some of us aspired to become heroes like our favorite baseball stars. We didn't know their lives off the field, but on the field, they performed magic. But today's magic apparently comes with the assist of a syringe, and from substances with names like boli, the clear, and the cream.

Perhaps the purity of the game is irreparably damaged already because of what some players did. But as stewards of the brand, the league has taken some shaky steps down the base path too—it tries to present the game as the national pastime, even when those days are long gone. Kids in America today aren't playing baseball as much as they're playing basketball and football. There are very few baseball players who have the same name and face recognition as NFL stars like Tom Brady, or NBA heroes like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. And when they do have household name recognition—like A-Rod, or Manny Ramirez, or Barry Bonds—those names are inextricably linked to cheating and steroids.

If you watch the sports news on TV these days, whenever the show gets to the baseball highlights, you see oceans of empty seats at ballparks across the league. In the crummy economy, ticket prices aren't just too high for average working people (if they're lucky enough to be working)—they're obscene. This is supposed to be the people's game. The Yankees, my team, who just moved into a brand new, billion-dollar stadium which has problems keeping opposing teams' fly balls from leaving the park, cut the prices on some prime seats by 50 percent. So now for the dirt cheap price of about $1200, you can enjoy a game in the sweet seats. This isn't America's pastime anymore—it may be America's past.

Baseball has all the signs of an industry sorely in need of a rebranding:

• Reputation tarnished, check
• Image problems abound, check (my learning from the "swine flu" rebranding thing)
• Undergoing major changes, check (the Steroid Era literally rewrote MLB record books, erasing the accomplishments of past players who did it the "right" way)
• Facing declining sales, check (look at all the empty seats in MLB ballparks)
• Getting outpaced by competitors, check (baseball trails the NFL and NBA in popularity, and if keeps things up NHL may surpass it, too)
• Brand doesn't really stand for anything, check (I say Major League Baseball! You say...what?)
• Failing to adapt to fit the times, check (kids aren't playing baseball because the game isn't as cool as football or basketball, and without young fans, what's the future hold?)

In a word: baseball is becoming less relevant.

I love baseball. I love the strategic parts of it. I love the entertainment aspects of it. If it were up to me, as part of this mythic rebranding, I'd insist that since the league can't seem to effectively police this steroid problem, that it simply embrace the blemish. When I go to the ballpark and see some of these sluggers hit monster home runs, I really don't care if they were puffed on steroids when they did it. But I would like to know which players are clean and which players are juiced.

So I propose a "Scarlet Letter" for baseball players as part of the rebranding.

If a player tests positive for steroids, don't kick him out of baseball, and don't suspend him. Brand him as a steroid user. Make him wear a garish, prominent mark on his uniform or hat that identifies him as having been caught cheating. That way fans will be able to tell, at a glance, what and who they're really watching. And parents can tell their children: Don't be like that guy. And we can still play ball. And don't worry about the players, Manny Ramirez cheated, allegedly, and he's going to lose $7 million in salary...but he's guaranteed another $38 million in his contract: who said cheating doesn't pay off?

Now, while this proposal may seem silly—well, actually, it is silly—consider what's going on in Major League Baseball right now. It's presenting us with a fair sporting contest, where every day it seems that some of the biggest names in the game are being exposed as cheaters, and it's asking us to believe that its product isn't tainted. Dare I say, the integrity of the sport is in question.

At least if you rebrand this game as costumed, physical entertainment and not as pure competitive sport, customers will know what they're getting—like the fans of pro wrestling do.

I still think that an "A-bomb for A-Rod" (that's what the Yankee broadcaster John Stirling says when Rodriguez hits a big home run) is a spectacular thing to behold. I just don't believe that Major League Baseball's brand promise lives up to what it's delivering.

Rebrand the game to reflect reality.