Prostitution and Marketing
Dr. Uetz
The thing that really pisses me off about this whole Damon thing is the market reports. When he left Boston to play for the bastards in pinstripes known as the Yankees, the overwhelming number of articles I read discussed what a good move it was because, "He'll be more marketable in New York." It then turned into a discussion on jersey sales, bobbleheads, jockstraps, television revenue and autographed drug tests. There was very little discussion of what his arrival in New York would mean for the Yankees' chances of winning the Series or how his departure would impact the Red Sox in their efforts to avoid another 80 year drought (no matter what they try, it WILL be another 80 years. They're still the Red Sox.). We didn't receive sports coverage; we got lessons on supply and demand, the point of diminishing returns, and market saturation. It pissed me off.
In the glory days we would not have had to put up with this garbage. For one thing, no self respecting sports writer would have known about market saturation, let alone write an entire article about it as it related to how the jersey sales of a particular team would be impacted based upon a new player's arrival.
But these are not the glory days. These are not the diamond drunks we grew up with. These are not the bruisers who could pound beers until 4 am and show up for a double header at noon. The Red Sox who finally broke "the curse" in 2004 liked to refer to themselves as "idiots," portraying themselves as a bunch of dirty bums just out there playin' ball. Go to hell. It was all marketing. I dare anyone on that team to spend a weekend with Lenny Dykstra and Keith Hernandez. "Idiots." That's cute. The 1986 Mets were not cute. They were rowdy, filthy, and subhuman. And we loved them - or at least I did.
A fried of mine was recently lamenting the "loss of baseball's innocence," blaming its decline in popularity on steroids and overpaid players. Nice try, sweet tits. But baseball has never been such an innocent game. What baseball has lost is players with bad habits that we can all share. Babe Ruth was one hell of a player. He was also a drunk and a womanizer. These are things we can relate to, and things we can identify with. When a player gets busted for steroids, we have no way of relating - it seperates us even more from someone we already suspect isn't human. But a drinking problem and a night on the town with a call girl are things we all know and appreciate. Or at least I can. But I'm a Mets fan.
The thing that really pisses me off about this whole Damon thing is the market reports. When he left Boston to play for the bastards in pinstripes known as the Yankees, the overwhelming number of articles I read discussed what a good move it was because, "He'll be more marketable in New York." It then turned into a discussion on jersey sales, bobbleheads, jockstraps, television revenue and autographed drug tests. There was very little discussion of what his arrival in New York would mean for the Yankees' chances of winning the Series or how his departure would impact the Red Sox in their efforts to avoid another 80 year drought (no matter what they try, it WILL be another 80 years. They're still the Red Sox.). We didn't receive sports coverage; we got lessons on supply and demand, the point of diminishing returns, and market saturation. It pissed me off.
In the glory days we would not have had to put up with this garbage. For one thing, no self respecting sports writer would have known about market saturation, let alone write an entire article about it as it related to how the jersey sales of a particular team would be impacted based upon a new player's arrival.
But these are not the glory days. These are not the diamond drunks we grew up with. These are not the bruisers who could pound beers until 4 am and show up for a double header at noon. The Red Sox who finally broke "the curse" in 2004 liked to refer to themselves as "idiots," portraying themselves as a bunch of dirty bums just out there playin' ball. Go to hell. It was all marketing. I dare anyone on that team to spend a weekend with Lenny Dykstra and Keith Hernandez. "Idiots." That's cute. The 1986 Mets were not cute. They were rowdy, filthy, and subhuman. And we loved them - or at least I did.
A fried of mine was recently lamenting the "loss of baseball's innocence," blaming its decline in popularity on steroids and overpaid players. Nice try, sweet tits. But baseball has never been such an innocent game. What baseball has lost is players with bad habits that we can all share. Babe Ruth was one hell of a player. He was also a drunk and a womanizer. These are things we can relate to, and things we can identify with. When a player gets busted for steroids, we have no way of relating - it seperates us even more from someone we already suspect isn't human. But a drinking problem and a night on the town with a call girl are things we all know and appreciate. Or at least I can. But I'm a Mets fan.
posted by Exiled Doctor at 2:42 PM
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