Like baseball? Like Spiderman? You're in luck!

[Kenrick]

SPIDERMAN 2 to appear on bases in all Major League Baseball games
Wed May 05 2004 11:52:49 ET

In a move that has purists howling, Major League Baseball has agreed to decorate its bases -- and pitching-mound rubbers and on-deck circles -- with a spider-web pattern as part of a promotion for the release of Sony Corp.'s "Spider-Man 2" next month.

The superhero sequel is set to open in theaters June 30. "`Spider-Man 2' Weekend" will start Friday, June 11, and all 15 MLB teams playing at home have agreed to participate for one or more games, the WALL STREET HOURNAL reported on Wednesday.

The deal is baseball's latest attempt to develop a splashier national marketing image. "In an ultracompetitive sports-entertainment environment, you have to take risks," says Tim Brosnan, MLB's executive vice president for business.

Developing...

[WayAbvPar]

That sounds more like The Onion than the WSJ. If it is true, it is fucking moronic.

[Kenrick]

It was off Drudge... usually reliable.  I think it's true.  :(

Sports in other countries (and a lot in the US.. nba, nascar anyone?) are commercialized beyond belief.  American baseball has done a fairly good job sticking to its roots, but it was only a matter of time before some bullshit like this happened.  Next thing you know, the outfield grass is going to be splotched with ads for viagra and doritos.

[cevik]

It was off Drudge... usually reliable.  I think it's true.  :(

People that think that Drudge is "usually reliable" scare me.  Please tell me you don't vote.

[DarkDryad]

Druge reports the same drivel that the news outlets do so hes no more reliable than the major news media which is absolutly fucking not very reliable.

[Kenrick]

You guys are missing the point of the thread.  Let's just assume the "article" is true.  Didn't mean for this to be about the reliablity of conservative v. liberal media.

[cevik]

You guys are missing the point of the thread.  Let's just assume the "article" is true.  Didn't mean for this to be about the reliablity of conservative v. liberal media.

Assuming this story is true, I probably still won't like baseball..

[Flashman]

Why does this surprise anyone? Baseball is a business and has to make money just like everyone else.

Baseball isn't some sacrosanct area free of commercial influences. Its been that way since they stuck Honus Wagers face on a card to help sell some chew.

As far as Drudge, I think the "if you read Drudge you are scary/dumb/nutjob" meme has pretty much run its course, don't you think? Its the first thing I check in the morning because he has links to all the breaking news. Very rarely is there any original reporting. It's just a bunch of newslinks.

[Mr_PeaCH]

Kenrick, your point is valid.  And I happen to be pretty passionate in my belief that "our" major sports (MLB, NFL, NBA) *not* go too far from their geographic-not-corporate-centric roots.  I mean, selling TV and stadium ads is one thing... but keep that crap OFF the uniforms and OFF the fields.

I don't follow Hockey but I understand now they have sponsor logos embedded in the ice?

I expect that there will be a backlash to MLB's decision and I can only hope it is not a harbinger.

[HaemishM]

Ummm, I expect the Drudge report to be reliable in only 2 instances:

1) When linking to an existing media outlet's story
2) When describing the contents of a celebrity's garbage cans

Other than that, The Morlocks have more "journalistic credibility."

As for this, all I can do is sigh. Getting better steroid/drug testing in place is not a priority, but dropping spider webs on bases to promote a movie I'll be seeing anyway is tacky.

[Kenrick]

I mean, selling TV and stadium ads is one thing... but keep that crap OFF the uniforms and OFF the fields.

Yeah, stadium ads have been around since practically the dawn of sports.  In the old days it was for cigars or soda pop.  Amazingly, it hasn't changed all that much (except for what they advertise).  But tainting the field or uni's would be 100% unacceptable blasphemy.  So you can definitely expect it to start any year now.

[Alluvian]

The only issue I have with it is that the two subjects don't really have anything at all to do with each other.  Baseball and spiderman just don't go together.

[Kenrick]

I dunno, al... Ichiro would make a damn good spiderman.  Would the mariners dress him up in the skin tight costume for a game?  I think with the record they've managed so far this season, it might not be such a bad idea. =P

[Alluvian]

Spiderman would be a kickass outfielder.  He could whip up this web to cover like half the stadium.

[cevik]

Spiderman would be a kickass outfielder.  He could whip up this web to cover like half the stadium.

You got your Spiderman in my baseball.  And you got your baseball on my Spiderman..

Spiderball, two great tastes that taste great together..

[Fargull]

You got your Spiderman in my baseball.  And you got your baseball on my Spiderman..

Spiderball, two great tastes that taste great together..

I don't know whether to laugh or hit you with a bat.

Will let Haemish decide.

[Alluvian]

Don't get the bat out until someone actually makes some kind of Spiderman (the movie) 2 the game (fuck that title) mod that involves spiderball.

[HaemishM]

Why would I ever want to stop some good mindless violence?

SWING, BATTA BATTA BATTA, SWING!

[Dark Vengeance]

Advertising on the outfield wall is one thing, advertsing on the field of play is another.

Under the ice in hockey doesn't bug me as much, because it is dulled and obscured a bit as play carries on, and the game moves fast enough that you aren't exposed to a big Labatt's ad for half the game.

Do the same thing in football or baseball, with a big logo painted on the field, and you could be staring at that thing on damn near every play. It's bad enough that the NBA has to line the fucking courts with ads....I'd prefer they kept them off the floor.

But it'll happen sooner or later....it's a business, and money will talk eventually. Though I'll stop watching the NFL long before the day that the New Mexico Tostitos beat the LA Coca Colas in the Nike Bowl for the Toyota Trophy.

Bring the noise.
Cheers..............

[cevik]

Do the same thing in football or baseball, with a big logo painted on the field, and you could be staring at that thing on damn near every play. It's bad enough that the NBA has to line the fucking courts with ads....I'd prefer they kept them off the floor.

They've been superimposing ads over the field between plays in football for the last few seasons.  Last season it was always a big AOL ad where the guy would like run across the field or something, can't remember it 100%.  It was only between plays, however, during play the graphics would go away.

[HaemishM]

I love the little greenscreen ads they play in some of the parks now. Like in Wrigley Field, they'll occasionally hang a green screen behind and to the right of home plate, just in the picture from the center field camera. They only do it on days when the networks are broadcasting the game. From the center field camera, you see an ad, but from any other camera, you only see the green screen. Subtle, yet not. It's so deviously ingenious, I have to give them props for squeezing every cent of profitability out of the broadcasts.

[Kyper]

          All your base are belong to Sony Pictures

It's minor league stuff.  I expect it from the Portland Sea Dogs, the Durham Bulls, the Toledo Mudhens.  I don't expect it from the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox or my Detroit Tigers.  

Next thing you know, Steinbrenner will be firing off the hot dog cannon during the 7th inning stretch.

[pants]

I don't understand the big brouhaha



This is a not-particularly-good photo of one of our major cricket grounds here in Australia.  The thin browny strip is cricket's equivalent of the space between the pitcher and the batter, ie the centre of all the action.  The little white dots are the fielders (photo was apparently from miles away).  The enormous white blob is a big painted ad for an airline, which happens to be right in line for the TV cameras viewing the browny-centre-of-action bit (known as the pitch).

We've had this stuff for years, and civilisation hasn't collapsed here yet.  So baseball wants to make some more money with advertising, why is that so bad?

[daveNYC]

Something about having $95 non-nosebleed tickets plus $7 beers and $4.50 hotdogs.

It's annoying when a sport that's rolling in money decides that it needs more.

[UD_Delt]

Just to add a little more stupid to this deal:

Baseball will receive about $3.6 million in a deal negotiated by Major League Baseball Properties with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Inc., a high-ranking baseball executive said on condition of anonymity.

The Yankees and Boston Red Sox will get more than $100,000 each, the team executive said, also on condition of anonymity. Most of the other 13 teams playing at home that weekend will get about $50,000 apiece, the team executive said.

Makes perfect sense to me to give most of the money to the 2 teams that need it the least. Of course the Yankees opposed the idea and will only use the adds for one game and batting practice but I'm guessing they'll still get their larger cut.

[daveNYC]

That'll cover A-Rod's tab for about six innings.

[Nebu]

I think this is just proof that the NBA and NFL are driving the popularity of baseball down more than MLB wants to admit.

As a purist, this is a stupid fucking idea.  It's bad enough that MLB has started building parks to cater to short attention span offensive baseball, but now they are going to hype movies and shit with the bases.  I hope to god this is a bad joke.

[ClydeJr]

Here's a picture of the base that's on Yahoo (hopefully I got the link right):

Only way anyone is going to be able to see that is by having cameras focus on it. All anyone in the stands will see will be a big red splotch on the base. I wonder if it will be much of a distraction to the players.

[HaemishM]

I think I'd be happier if Steinbrenner was fired FROM the hot cannon.

[Kenrick]

Here's a picture of the base that's on Yahoo.

Dear lord that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen.  How in the hell is that good advertising?  Nobody in the stadium or watching on TV is gonna be able to see the damn base closeup like that.

[Fargull]

Hello,

It is already doing what they expected it to do, generate word of mouth and arguments that bring attention to the movie.  I mean, hell it was on CNN.  Not that I needed any additional information on the movie to peek my interest, the fact the movie has Dr. Ock with in its glossy glory is enough for me to go, YEAH.

[Kenrick]

[daveNYC]

Hello,

It is already doing what they expected it to do, generate word of mouth and arguments that bring attention to the movie.  I mean, hell it was on CNN.  Not that I needed any additional information on the movie to peek my interest, the fact the movie has Dr. Ock with in its glossy glory is enough for me to go, YEAH.

That might be why Sony is doing it, but what was MLB thinking?  $3.6M isn't really worth the hate that this will generate.

[Paelos]

Tip of the iceberg to put crap on bases. They've already commercialized everything else in sports and even announcing.

-The Dodge Intermission Report
-The Pepsi Halftime show
-The Bud Light extra point
-The Gatorade pre-game roundup

Hockey has ads under the ice and on the boards. Football has ads on the field, on the chairs, on the speakers, and elsewhere. Tennis actually recently put Mercedes logos on the nets. NASCAR has always been about ads. Basketball put ads on the top of the goals so you could see them from the sky shots. And now baseball wants to put something on bases? Color me surprised. It's pro sports, made entirely for a business purpose, and if SONY paid $100M to plaster a huge running logos across the warning tracks of every field, you damn well better believe the MLB will take that deal. The tradition of baseball is a nostolgic time that will never return, most likely because Lucas bought the rights and won't release it again in its original form.

[Kenrick]

You forgot the all-important AFLAC trivia question.