{image1} Major League Baseball announced Friday that its will retract its idea to sell advertising for the movie premier of Spider Man 2 over the course of the weekend inter-league series on June 11th-13th. The advertisements weren't going to be where they are traditionally located in ballparks. In an unprecedented move, the advertisements would have been on the on-deck circles, as well as the bases, themselves.
We all know that MLB is desperate to attract a generation of fans that don't exactly fit into the baseball demographic. It was still inconceivable that they were desperate enough to actually tarnish part of the game, itself.
Without careening completely into the baseball purist world of Bob Costas and Keith Olbermann, this idea doesn't fit with the type of game that should MLB should be promoting. This alone proves once again that baseball is much further behind the times thann the other two major sports.
You don't see advertisements on the fields of a NFL football game or on the courts of an NBA basketball game, because those sports were smart enough to create a new generation of fans with the quality of their respective games. They did not have to consider whoring themselves out to the highest bidder in the hope of bringing in the type of fan that would have ultimately found the game to be too slow.
MLB's president, Bob DuPuy, said the critics of this idea were the same people that didn't want inter-league play or the wild card. That sounds like Mr. DuPuy trying to group a money hungry advertising idea with ideas that improved the quality of the game - finding ways to produce better matchups and in turn draw more people to the game itself.
MLB basically was about to stoop lower than possibly could be imagined. The 15 home teams were to receive any where from $100,000 to $50,000 in exchange for their cooperation. The large market teams like Boston and New York would have received the larger sums while the already have-nots were to garner the smaller sums.
The Yankees lead the charge against this idea and by stating that they would only participate for one game instead of the entire series. Putting advertisements on bases in Yankee Stadium would have poked at the eyes of the baseball gods.
Yes, the idea of baseball as some sort of "religion" does at times get carried away, but this sport unlike any other relies on its history and traditions. It respects the players that have built the legacy of the sport. This is what makes the game special in a way that football or basketball can't compare.
It is only a logo on a base to most - what is the big deal? The big deal is the hypocrisy of MLB to lean on its tradition for success and then turn its back on it at the same time in the name of cash. Maybe this idea will bring new fans to the ballpark, but most likely it won't.
Amazingly enough MLB heard the outcry from its fans and squashed the idea. Being in tune with its fans is something that MLB has never been very successful.
If MLB wants to bring new fans to the ballpark, then clean up the steroid problem and continue to work toward creating more of a competitive balance. Well played, winning baseball brings fathers to the ballpark, in turn, fathers bring their children to learn about the game. That is how generations of baseball fans are created.
Creation by gimmicks only opens a Pandora's box of how to bring attention to the game. All the while the beauty of the game gets lost. Kudos to MLB and Bud Selig for hearing the fans' voice, because without the fans there isn't a game.
