After your favorite team loses a big game or series, you can find yourself wishing that it could start over, or that you could find yourself in an alternate version of reality, where things went differently. In the next few weeks, Phillies fans (and fans of Poly alum Chase Utley) will be able to find that alternate version of reality: in developing countries in Africa and Eastern Europe.
Confused? Major League Baseball is partnering with World Vision for the third year, to send the gear losing teams would have gotten if they’d won, to needy children across the Atlantic. Somewhere in the world, children will think the Dodgers and Angels met in the World Series this year, and that Poly’s Chase Utley and the rest of his Phillies defended their title.
According to the press release we received:
The Phillies’ World Series merchandise will be packaged immediately and shipped to World Vision. World Vision will ship and distribute the World Series goods to impoverished people in the developing world, many of whom have never owned a new article of clothing in their lives.
As is the case each year, as teams have been eliminated during the 2009 postseason, an excess amount of inventory has become available but is not salable. MLB has continued its work with many of its licensees to ship the losing teams’ apparel to World Vision’s Gifts-in-Kind Distribution Center in Pittsburgh, PA. This is the third year of this exclusive partnership.
World Series apparel donated by MLB from the final game and from retailers will be sorted in Pittsburgh and then added to a variety of shipments being prepared for multiple countries. In the past, donations of postseason apparel have gone to Ghana, Zambia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Romania.
The goods will be sent to developing countries where World Vision has experienced staff and established product distribution networks. World Vision will carefully monitor and track the unsalable postseason merchandise as it makes its way to the intended beneficiaries. World Vision’s network and resources offer a secure, turnkey process to effectively utilize excess inventory that might otherwise have been destroyed.
“Baseball is a social institution with important social responsibilities and this is a tremendous opportunity for Major League Baseball to make an impact on the lives of those in need around the world,” said Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig. “We are pleased to work with World Vision, which brings 60 years of experience successfully assisting millions of people around the world.”
“The children and families we serve will take great joy in these goods,” said Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, ” World Vision thanks Major League Baseball and its partners for recognizing that even though these items are unsalable, they are valued and appreciated by many people in need around the world.”
In recent weeks, World Vision has received 1,300 pieces of Angels’ and Dodgers’ apparel donated to World Vision after the American League and National League Championship Series. Unsalable postseason apparel from the American League and National League Championship Series is on its way to Indonesia, which was devastated by a 7.3 earthquake in September. As part of its emergency response in Indonesia, World Vision is operating three mobile libraries, distributing tool kits to build shelters, and has provided two months worth of water purification tablets for 12,000 families. The organization has also distributed hygiene kits, 4,000 water containers, and 10,000 family kits consisting of blankets, sleeping mats, tarps, sanitation items and soap.