the shrewdness of apes

This Spider-Man thing is an absolute embarrassment - another in a series, of course. It seems like every time something good happens on the field (a great postseason, an underdog champion, etc.), the league office finds a way to create horrible PR blunders to nullify them.

From Laura Vecsey - Baltimore Sun:

One time, during the 2001 playoffs, San Francisco Giants pitcher Jason Christiansen wanted to wear his cap with the initials "DK" etched on the side. This was to honor Darryl Kile, a former teammate who had died of a heart attack.

Sorry, said baseball's discipline czar, Bob Watson, who told Christiansen he could not wear the hat. There are strict baseball rules about altering the uniform.

This even though Christiansen wasn't on the active roster and was merely going to be sitting on the bench in the dugout.

Can't honor a dead teammate. But now there will be spider web cartoons on the bases.

but it is all for the children!!!

Some

i was at the CVS on 6th avenue by the west 4th station and there were ants crawling all over the candy section. it was soooo gross. luckily i only bought a nite-light and nothing edible.

Somewhere there's a picture of me as a skinny, longish-haired bespectacled 10-year-old, wearing a yellow T-shirt that had "California" emblazoned on it in glittery iron-on letters, sitting atop the shoulder of person dressed as Spiderman at a Dodger game. What he was doing there, I have no idea.

Do you (Mitch, anyone else) think they're being honest about the kid aspect of the marketing angle, or is this solely about the cash? I honestly don't think I can figure that out--either motivation is just as cynical, just in different ways.

I don't understand how it's going to bring in kids. Is the whole thing just having Spiderman on the bases? Or are they also giving away Spiderman paraphernalia, like free bobbleheads of him or something? It seems to me that a baseball game itself should be enough of a draw for kids. If they're not into baseball in the first place, Spiderman Day probably isn't going to turn them into fans of it.

An addendum to my brilliantly succinct "Some" post: I don't like baseball's decision, and I don't understand how it will draw people to either the game or the movies, but I also don't understand this reaction: "How Could They?!?" There are ads on the walls and on the backstop. There are ads on football fields, hockey rinks, basketball courts. Ads on jockeys, golfers, soccer players, boxers, and anything touched by a race car driver. Bob Costas, George Will, Thomas Boswell and others would surely disagree, but a base is no more sacrosanct. This fight was lost a long, long time ago.

Dave, apparently the fight has not been completely lost. Just saw the news that baseball diamonds will not be sporting Spidey bases after all.

The Advance of Shameless Marketing 20 Jazillion, Righteous Indignation 1.

You're right though, it's silly that anyone still believes baseball to be more sacred or untainted by commercialism than other sports.

Hurray for small victories! Let's move on to working out a distribution deal for "Farenheit 911," shall we?

yes, i'm happy that deal was quashed as well, but what bothered me wasn't so much the fact of the ads themselves (as Dave points out, they're already everywhere), but the pointlessness of putting them on the bases which simply shows how much about the $$$ this was. Spiderman2 would make $200M without a single commercial airing, and no kid is going to get hyped for the movie because he saw it at a baseball game. also, MLB saying they were giving more to NY and Boston than to other teams only reinforces their rich man/poor man dichotomy that they've been crying about for years. what was that about?