Match & MLB.com Are Teaming Up To Find Love For Single Baseball Fans

Single baseball fans are about to hit a home run.

If you’ve checked out the homepage of pretty much any Major League Baseball team recently, you probably saw a few ads advertising other single sports fans. On Athletics.com, for instance, ads on each side of the page featured an attractive group of potential matches and text that read "Meet other single Athletics fans.” A banner ad across the top said “Take them out to the Athletics game.”

What’s going on?

With baseball's regular season here, Match and MLB.com are coming together to give singles another reason to cheer this season. Baseball fanatics on Match.com will have the opportunity to connect online through 29 different fan pages (one for every U.S. team) for the duration of the 2014 MLB season – meaning they have way more to look forward to this year than their team making it to the World Series.

To get started, Match members can announce their allegiance to their favorite team (or teams, if they’re the indecisive type) by adding its logo to their profile. Match members can also search for other fans using a new community search tool that allows them to easily connect with members who have also added their favorite team to their profiles.

On the other side of things, MLB.com will be promoting 29 different MLB Club portals where singles can search for and connect with other fans of their favorite teams. When you find a fellow fan who tickles your fancy, you can take them out to the ballgame for the perfect first date.

Noah Garden, Major League Baseball Advanced Media's executive vice president of revenue, said "the Match.com conversation is one we've had on and off over the years to see if there's something we could do together." MLB hopes the promotion will give ticket sales a boost. "The idea is put like people together with similar interest and passion," he said. "There's still always room for more butts in the seats."

It sounds a little blunt, but I guess you've gotta appreciate the guy's honesty. And I'm sure there are plenty of die-hard baseball fans who will be pleased about having an easy way to weed out rivals. In fact, Match.com President Amarnath Thombre said the first question self-identified Yankees fans often ask of singles on the site is: "Who hates the Red Sox?"

Better have your answer ready before you log on to Match.com, baseball fans, or you just might strike out. For more on this service you can read our Match.com review.