A Macon Bacon baseball player got over 1 million views on Instagram. Here’s how
The Macon Bacon are no strangers to social media attention: they’ve battled the Eggs and Bananas, feature unique theme nights and have even received shoutouts from celebrities, including (appropriately) Kevin Bacon.
The Bacon, a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball team that calls Macon’s historic Luther Williams Field home, most recently went viral for a first-person view of an at-bat.
Dalton Reeves, a catcher for the Macon Bacon, swung the bat with a small camera attached to his helmet in a recent game. The video was then posted to social media, garnering over 1 million views on Instagram after being reposted by the account “starting9.”
“Our original thought process wasn’t really to go viral, we just wanted to create content,” said Bacon president Brandon Raphael. “So the fact that it did go viral and got a million views, it’s just something cool. Dalton is a great kid, so it’s a great thing.”
The first-person view of the field featured a caption of “POV: You hit third for the Macon Bacon” and showed Reeves’s full routine before hitting, along with some commentary on the pitcher he faced. The small camera that caught all the action was the source of the idea for the Bacon’s media team.
“Our marketing manager Ty [Van Duyn] came up with the idea when he found the little camera that can latch on the jersey and it’s super small,” Raphael said. “So we thought about the idea of thinking about a lapel first, then for a hitter we put it on the helmet, and it took off from there.”
In his at-bat, Reeves fouled off two pitches before eventually reaching first base on a hit. Raphael said the unique angle of a normal play makes for an interesting video.
“It’s such a new idea, so could it be used from a coaching perspective? Maybe. With all the analytics we have, most things are tracked, so it’s more on the fun side. The viewpoint you get to watch from is something you don’t see a lot of, so that’s the exciting part.”
The video also features Bacon first base coach Kianna Jones, the first female coach in the history of the Coastal Plains League. She can be seen at first base near the end of the video, where she greets Reeves after his base hit in the at-bat.
As for more angles of the game in the future, Raphael said the door is open.
“We’re gonna keep trying to push the envelope, look for some new uses for it and more surprising content, so just look out for that.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.