By Ian Anderson (President, Smart + Strong)

Anyone see the latest high jinks in baseball? The Boston Red Sox bench came up with a new chant after Mike Napoli hit a ball into the 5th deck during Wednesday’s game. As he was greeted by his teammates they chanted in unison “Hepatitis C You Later.” Get it? Neither do I but it presents an opportunity.

Someone called ’elpresidente’ shared the Vine snippet in his BarStoolSports.com blog with the caption:

“Kind of funny right? Not gonna lie I thought Hepatitis C was an STD though. Turns out it’s a liver disease. Who knew? Not as funny that way, but still made me laugh.”

How about that? He took the time to research hepatitis C and learned it was a liver disease. One person down and 300,000,000 to go!

I think Major League Baseball (MLB) now has an opportunity to help raise awareness for hepatitis C and a huge scale. It is estimated 3.2 million Americans are living with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and according to the CDC, most don’t know it.

I think it is time to take a page from the ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge” and ask MLB to kickoff the “The Hepatitis C You Later Campaign.” Each team has 24 hours to record and post a video “high-fiving” and saying “Hepatitis C You Later” after hitting a home run. Each team can then challenge at least one other person or organization to do the same on their local ball fields.

Raising awareness of this silent killer is an important first step to eliminating the virus. Kudos to the Red Sox for doing their part.