Working on baseball book was rewarding for Sport Management professor

Assistant Professor of Sport Management Dr. Joseph Elledge joined the Erskine College faculty in 2023. Recently, he contributed to Dodger Stadium: Blue Heaven on Earth, published in April this year by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and available as an e-book or paperback.

“I am a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, and I volunteered to work on this project,” says Elledge. “I am not a Dodger fan, but I am a baseball fan. However, I’m a bigger fan of the business of baseball.”

The young professor worked on two chapters of the book. “I had to do my own research, which was a great thing,” he says.

“The first chapter I wrote was on the sport marketing and promotions of the Dodgers since they moved into Dodger Stadium,” Elledge explains. “The chapter covered the fan engagement strategies, innovations, and some controversies as well.”

In his second chapter, he covered an occasion when Dodger rookies “hit walk-off home runs in three straight games.” He notes, “It’s the first time this ever happened in Major League Baseball.”

As Elledge researched the chapters for the book, he discovered innovations the Dodgers carried out in areas like concessions and merchandising and knew he could implement some of that knowledge as he teaches Sport Management classes at Erskine.

“Working with the SABR editors was a rewarding experience, encouraging me to dive deeper and become a better writer in the process,” Elledge says. “I’m currently working on three projects with SABR due to be released in 2025.”

One of the projects he just completed concerned “baseball players who hit a home run in their first at bat,” he says. “I did an in-depth bio on Carlos Lee, and also did an in-depth write-up for the game in which he hit the home run.”

He is also working on a project “to review the managers of the 2001 Seattle Mariners, as well as write about their marketing and ticket sales from the 2001 season.”

Elledge earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Sport Management at North Greenville University, a Master of Science degree in Sport Management from Liberty University, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Columbia International University.

He has served in the athletic department at Francis Marion University and at the University of South Carolina; with the Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission; and at Lander University, where he taught for four years. He works with the Lexington County Blowfish Baseball Team and helped launch a sports ministry campaign at a church in Lexington, South Carolina.

Elledge describes himself as “an avid sports enthusiast” and enjoys camping with his wife Katie and their three dogs.