draft under "High Skim Value Assignment."

Louisville Slugger:

A Corporate Social Responsibility Proposal

Louisville Slugger is a company that is home to Louisville and holds rich tradition. They just recently got bought out by Wilson, who will give them the opportunity to grow their business globally. By taking on a new business model, Louisville Slugger has the chance to take on new ideas. We are proposing that Louisville Slugger should show corporate social responsibility by reaching out to the community.

The Louisville Slugger has been around for 121 years, where Bud Hillerich was the founder of the company in 1894. The Louisville Slugger has sold more than 100,000,000 bats and is one of the most popular bat brands in baseball history. Not only do they make bats, but they also make baseball accessories such as batting gloves, equipment bags, protective gear, and clothing apparel. Currently, 60% of all major league players use a Louisville Slugger bat and 7 national college baseball champions have used one of these bats as well.

Louisville Slugger is known for giving back to the community. For starters, the name "Louisville" is very important to the company, where they feel like the city has lead them to success and they are willing to work on anything they can to help in the community. Louisville Slugger is involved in various amount of charity. One example is the tree festival that they sponsor for Kosiar Children's Hospital. Charity is very important to the Hillerich family, where they created the Hillerich Family Charitable Foundation through some family estate that they wanted to use to give back to the community they love.

Specific charitable activities that Louisville Slugger is involved in relating to baseball are: the MLB RBI Program, which works within cities that have a Major League Baseball team and try to reach out to the youth living in the inner city and teach them about the game of baseball. The idea is that giving the kids something productive to do can help keep them out of trouble and also increase the popularity of baseball as a sport; the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, which reaches out to anyone that is in need, not just the inner city or cities that have a Major League team. They have been known to do work in rural areas; and Mother's Day Breast Cancer Awareness- provides the MLB players with pink bats to use on Mother's Day for breast cancer awareness. They not only donate the bats, but they are also auctioned off, often times signed by the players, and the money goes directly toward breast cancer research.

Louisville Slugger decided that they need a new business model; therefore, they decided to sell the company to Wilson in order to grow their company for the future. They will keep the company based in Louisville as well as keeping the traditions of the company. The purpose of selling the company is so that they can allow the company to grow and expand globally. This is considered to be a mutual benefit for both Louisville Slugger and Wilson because Louisville Slugger is getting the opportunity to expand globally through the financial means of Wilson, while Wilson is able to help their company make profit through the brand name and quality of Louisville Slugger. Hillerich stated, "Wilson has the financial resources, research and development staff and structure, and the experience with big brands to create great synergy and grow the Louisville Slugger business, ensuring that it will remain synonymous with baseball for decades to come." A new change in ownership comes with new opportunities and ideas for things both inside and outside of the organization.

After researching how the Louisville Slugger currently operates with the community, our team has devised three areas in which the company can reach out to the public and benefit the sport and the children of Louisville through sponsorship and volunteering.

With three particular age groups that play baseball in the Louisville metropolitan area, we looked into the benefits that the support from Louisville Slugger can have on the little league, middle school, and high school teams.

After researching the little league teams around the Louisville area, we noted that a large amount have limited facilities and equipment that is necessary for children to participate and compete. We propose that Louisville Slugger devise collaboration with little league teams to provide them with equipment, such as the bats and gloves that are on show in the museum, instead of ridding these resources to waste. Also, volunteer work from professional players that are sponsored by Slugger will help grow interest to the sport. An example of volunteer work could be something such as "play day with the pros" at the stadium downtown. This would help inspire children and give Slugger an opportunity to grow community relationship.

For middle school players, who are slightly more advanced and have played the game longer, we propose establishing a mini-inter school tournament that positions players from the Bats as coaches. This would make great atmosphere for further sponsorship, volunteer work, and opportunities for the community to come together.

Another good idea is donating bats to these middle school teams. There are many bats, gloves, and baseballs that are demos in the Louisville Slugger factory batting cages that get thrown out. Instead of just throwing them out, they could be donated to local middle school teams.

As for high school players, they have grown up in the city of Louisville and know that Louisville Slugger is a very respectable and well- known equipment provider. An idea for the high school level players is for Louisville Slugger to sponsor the upcoming KHSAA 2015 baseball tournament. Louisville Slugger could attend the game and advertise their brand by having raffles, free giveaways, and possibly a table set up with merchandise. Louisville Slugger could also come and have a short presentation for each of the 16 High School baseball teams at the Kentucky State Baseball Tournament. They could speak about their products, community involvement, company background, and private factory tours. Not only does Louisville Slugger need to reach out to younger kids, but they also need to reach out to older kids in case they someday make it to the major leagues.

Our underlying thought process is that further community outreach will benefit both Louisville Slugger and the children of Louisville. The extra financial and personal support will help the growth of the sport and spark extra interest from children who may not have had prior exposure or desire to exercise or be part of a team. Under new management, such actions allow Louisville Slugger to be a dominant part of the city and live up to the long tradition it holds in Louisville.