Block O Student Section Strives to Get OSU Students to Support Baseball Team
By: Boniface Womber
For college sports, no portion of a fan base is more supportive than that particular college’s student section. Whether if it is football, basketball, or some other sport you will always find a college’s student section ready to rock and roll day or night. This fact could not be any truer for the Block O student section at the Ohio State University when it comes to the baseball team. The baseball committee of the Block O student section is always ready to get students out and about and support the baseball team.
According to the current director of the baseball committee of the Block O student section Emma Berlin, who was elected back in March of this year there are about at least 10–11 students who are on the baseball committee for Block O. Berlin also went on to say that not everyone can go to every game, because the season is so condensed, but they have at least 5–6 members of the committee who attend each game or at least try to attend each game.
According to Berlin, there is a difference between the committee and the rest of the student section. “We work to try and get more general students out to the games like you don’t have to be involved in Block O you don’t have to be a part of the committee and you don’t have to even like baseball like we just try to get as many students to come to the games as much as possible so that we can keep the energy up in the section,” Berlin stated. Berlin also noted that the typical average amount of students that attend baseball games in the student section is about 30 students for games that do not have special giveaways.
One member of the baseball committee Madeleine Taylor noted that each sport has its own committee that students can apply for within Block O. Berlin would later go in to further detail about how that process works. “So it’s like you fill out an application you send it to the director of that sport and then the director reads it over they have an interview with the person that applied then we decide if you will do well on a committee or not,” Berlin said. Taylor also added that “it’s a lot harder for people to join some committees VS. others,” because it can be competitive trying to get on to one of the committees depending on the sport.
From giveaways to social media the baseball committee for the Block O student section uses a variety of different tactics to entice students to come to baseball games. Janelle Barker another proud member of the committee says that she helps to manage one of their social media accounts for Block O. “We have a Twitter and an Instagram that we use through Block O to advertise all of the games and we really specifically push the ones that have big student giveaways, but the main way we advertise is through the Block O News Letter and social media to get people out to the games,” Barker said. Barker also went on to say that a few people on the committee run the social media accounts and not just one person.
According to both Berlin and Taylor, Fan experience helps play a big part in getting students out to the games. “Typically Block O has a relationship with Fan experience like all of the student sections has a relationship with them, because they also want to get more people out to the games,” Berlin stated. Berlin also added that the directors for each committee meets with Fan Experience and they come up with ideas for giveaways that they can advertise to students on social media. Taylor also threw in that “it’s really the giveaways that really gets students to come out more.”
As fans, you will always have a favorite player on a particular team that you support even if you route for the whole team. From Barker to Berlin and Taylor it is the same for them. Both Berlin and Taylor expressed that their favorite player would have to be first basemen, Conner Pohl. Taylor added that the reason why she likes Pohl is that he has the “best walk-up song,” which happens to be “I like it,” by Cardi B and Bruno Mars.
However, Barker has a different person in mind for her personal favorite player on the baseball team. “I really like Bayden Root he’s the backup pitcher I think, but every time he’s out there I always cheer for him because he’s not always in the games,” Barker said.
However, all 3 committee members can agree on the fact that this year’s baseball team has a bright future going forward. They each stated that they “hope that the team makes it to the postseason,” but they just all want the team to do well overall. On top of that, they all believe that from their perspective as fans, the team’s chemistry will take this team far going forward into the future.
