Company To Offer Funeral Products for Baseball Fans
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PHILADELPHIA — Many crazed baseball fans have said they would die for a championship. But are they willing to take that devotion to the grave? Major League Baseball and a company that makes funeral products will soon find out just how many fans want to be decked out for all eternity in tribute to their team.
Starting next season, fans of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Dodgers will be able to have their ashes put in an urn or head 6 feet under in a casket emblazoned with their team colors and insignia.
MLB has entered a licensing agreement with Eternal Image, which hopes to eventually make urns and caskets for all 30 teams. The company also hopes to have similar agreements with NASCAR, the NHL, and the NFL, but baseball was the first to sign on.
The $11 billion-a-year funeral industry is adding more personal touches, from Harley Davidson-themed caskets to ones featuring the cartoon character Betty Boop.
A spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association, Kurt Soffe, said the baseball products are part of a trend of trying to capture “the life and the passions of the person that has passed away.”
“More and more families are wanting to have something that respects the personalities,” Mr. Soffe said.
Eternal Image, based in Farmington Hills, Mich., also makes a line of Vatican-themed products. Chief executive Clint Mytych said the company “wanted to break into a sports venue of some kind,” and baseball is “the all-American sport.”
He said he has received at least 1,000 inquiries since June.
An MLB spokeswoman, Susan Goodenow, said the league and clubs have received requests for several years for urns and caskets with team logos.
“Passionate fans express their love of their team in a number of different ways,” Ms. Goodenow said.
The National Funeral Directors Association is meeting in Philadelphia this week and giving its members a sneak peak of what the baseball urns will look like. Eternal Image says urns for the six teams should be available by opening day 2007, and caskets for those teams should be ready later in the year.
