And lest we be condemned for only focusing on the negative, let it be known that Spider-Man will not be appearing on a third base near you.
Though I, as the non-baseball-watching Furdell, find the whole thing silly. It's not as if there's no precedent for commercialization of sports. Would you have been less offended if they'd chosen a more well-worn path -- like, say, Spider-Man Stadium?
Actually that would be pretty awesome. I would go to Spider-Man Stadium every day, I'll tell you that much.
Well, I roll my eyes in disgust every time I hear the announcers say, "Welcome back to Minute Maid Park," or when Skip Caray tries to call my attention to the "Home Depot starting lineup," so I readily admit that baseball and other sports are already over-commercialized. But those things are more easily ignored, and they're not on the field of play.
I think the issue is, where does it all stop? When every player has endorsements on their foreheads and the seats of their pants? (OK, it might actually be funny if Pudge's butt had an advertisement for the Olsen twins' New York Minute on it.) If there's no limit to what we'll endure for the sake of a dollar, soon our society will look like that of Running Man (Marathon Man?), or Rollerball (the original). I guess we should all go ahead and pick sides in the upcoming Corporate Wars. And invest in a lot more orange clothing.
On that note, kfree (and others), I recommend this book. A little sappy in the end, and not extremely well written. OK, why do I recommend it then?? Anyway, the "corporate wars" thing made me think of it:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1400030927/qid=1083958071/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-1325370-9467305?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I actually thought the idea was pretty creative and that it wasn't as bad as people thought. It was for one weekend of interleague games.
I was disappointed when Selig rolled over and said it was the fans disappointment that he cancelled it. Riiiiiight. He's also a traditionalist, too. Riiiiight (expanded playoffs? what?) The studio pulled it, that's why. When has MLB cared about what the fans thought? When they cancelled the WS in 1994? When the All-Star game ended in a tie?