The Moment Punk Rock Died

First, the Red Sox shed the lovable loser status and win a freaking World Series (or 2). And now they're advertising on their uniforms.

The Boston Red Sox are putting advertisements on their uniforms for the first time.

The World Series champions said Wednesday they will wear sleeve patches with the logo "EMC" when they open the season with a two-game series against the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome on March 22 and 23. EMC Corp. is a data-storage company based in Hopkinton, Mass.

This is a shame. We Yanks fans enjoy crass commercialism because, after all, we're Yankees fans. Capitalism has done us well. Heck, our beloved Bombers even pioneered this uniform advertising practice a couple of years ago (as the linked article notes). But the Sox?! That's not the franchise's ethos. If the Yanks were Standard Oil, then the Sox were a Mom and Pop operation that sold vintage clothes and used lamps.

This Yanks fan doesn't know what to make of these new Sox. They signed onto a major label and  started singing about things for which the youth did not care. I'm not sure I'm getting their next album.

Next thing you know, their owner will be making overtures in the press  about moving away from good old Fenway.

Comments

[Hudson]

Every time a Red Sox player puts on a uniform with an advertisement on it, a puppy dies.

[Paul SF]

I'm just glad it's a Japan-only thing.

Odd article about Henry's quotes. Not sure what to make of those. I'd be interested in what questions Silverman asked to get those responses. The statements seem to come out of nowhere, and they stop way short of actually talking about leaving (something I believe this ownership group has promised not to do) -- but if they're not talking about leaving, what's the point of whining about the Yankees' and Mets' new stadiums? It's not like either team has been more successful than the Red Sox since Henry bought the club.

[Nick-YF]

They are odd quotes indeed. Because to me, the whining about the new stadia (I learned the plural from reading this site!) strongly implies a call for a new stadium. At the same time, he brings up how great the Fenway renovations have been.

[no sleep til brooklyn SF]

The patch doesn't bother me too much because the Japanese league smothers their uniforms in advertisements. The Red Sox will probably fit right in. As long as they don't wear patches at home, I'm not freaking out too bad.

Kinda like Brad Pitt making commercials for luxury products in Japan only and pretending he's above the fray in the States.

[Paul SF]

the new stadia

Dang it, I hate being out-obscure-grammared. :-P

[sam-YF]

The ads bothered me when the yankees wore them and would do the same if I were a Sox fan now. I think both teams (or is it MLB) are just using the fact that the game is being played in Japan to allow something to happen that would result in much yelling if it happened here. As far as Im concerned, its still an MLB game and the ads are no good. I look at the Soccer jerseys from Europe and would bre greatly distraught if our team's uniforms took on that look...

[John - YF]

I was at a coaches convention last week and saw a few colleges doing this for their baseball teams now. I suppose at the college level it's ok, especially for teams that aren't funded well. I agree with Sam though, it would be a sad day for the game if our teams started wearing ads on a regular basis.

[Paul SF]

I honestly can't see it happening in the States anytime soon. We all remember, I'm sure, the furor raised over the Spider-Man ads placed on first base a couple years back.

[John - YF]

My personal favorite was that ad from this season...The short stubby guy that does all those impersonations, I forget his name. But every ad during this year's playoffs was for his new show.

[no sleep til brooklyn SF]

ugh, Frank TV. vomit.

And then the Dane Cook bludgeoning for the playoff match-ups. "YOU CAN'T SCRIPT OCTOBER!!"

[sf rod]

who knew punk rock would die 27 times in my lifetime, and rockabilly can't die once. oh the irony.

[John - YF]

Yankees are on the verge of locking up Cano for 4 more years/30 Million.

[AndrewYF]

I don't get the 4-year deal. It's all arbitration, no free agency. Why not try to buy out a year of free agency, say 5 years, $40 million?

[Atheose]

Great point about the European soccer leagues, Sam. I have an Arsenal jersey, and it has "Fly Emirates" in huge letters on the front. Over the heart is a small patch with the team name and logo.

[A YF]

Word is the Cano deal will have one or two option years that run into his free agency.

But keep in mind these deal never happen for the Yanks. It's another small sign that times have changed.

[SF]

“We’re always working on increasing revenues, but it’s getting harder and harder to do,” Henry said in an e-mail sent to The Associated Press. “The Yankees and the Mets will be greatly helped by their new ballparks which look to be state-of-the-art. They seem very well designed to maximize revenues and to greatly improve the fan experience. The renovations we have been at work on within Fenway, the new ballparks in New York, Washington, Minneapolis - everywhere - these are great for baseball

How is this WHINING?!?! Honestly, what has Henry said that is remotely untrue? It was an email missive, can anyone hear the tone in his head when he was typing this? I see nothing whiney about what Henry wrote, but rather the truth. I don't understand why this would be termed whining, at all.

[SF]

It is somewhat ironic that a baseball shirt (or any other "official gear") worn by a fan is both a sign of allegiance but also basically a free advertisement itself, considering how important teams manage their images and general worldwide presence nowadays?

[A YF]

I'm impressed that newspapers still pay people to essentially help teams sell tickets. It's quite a nice arrangement for the teams making millions even as newspapers cut staffs left and right.

[FenSheaParkway]

The sports section is definitely a strange land of contradictions. Obviously, the demand is out there because we're all sports fans. But when, as you've pointed out, you really think about what the sports section is, it almost doesn't belong in a newspaper.

Then again, I guess Arts & Leisure is no better when they have fashion spreads that helpfully tell you where to buy that $240 parka.

[Nick-YF]

SF, you're right. That was a mischaracterization. But the interesting thing to me is what, if anything, this means for the future of Fenway. It could be Henry just shooting the shit or maybe the beginning of a campaign to move to another stadium...in Guam.

[Nick-YF]

to clarify: the term "whining" was a mischaracterization.

[SF]

Am I missing something about the "overtures about moving away from Fenway"? Henry doesn't imply that at all. If anything, he could be implying something regarding revenue sharing and revisions to Ownership's policy on this, considering what he mentions is team-specific revenue disparity. We have no way of knowing what he meant, but moving from Fenway doesn't seem like the subtext, at least not to me.

[Nick-YF]

I'm just having fun reading a lot into Henry's statement. It fit with the theme of my post.

[Paul SF]

This is why I said I'd like to know how this e-mail came about. Was the AP (not Silverman, as I assumed) writer asking questions about the Yankee and Met new stadia? In this case, Henry's comments make perfect sense in the context of commenting on the financial ramifications for those clubs and how they relate to the Red Sox.

Was the question about the renovations in Fenway Park or some other tangential Sox-related topic? In that case, the first sentence makes sense, but then the comments veer into unsolicited territory that makes it sound like he's fixated on how much more money the Yanks and Mets stand to make (and could be perceived as whining, and further perceived as making overtures about maybe the Sox needing a new ballpark of their own).

Considering the Sox should have proven conclusively by now that they can compete with the Yanks on the field while remaining $50M+ behind them in payroll (not a small amount, fwiw), this second scenario makes little sense to me, particularly when you look at the substantial investment Henry and the Sox have put into Fenway since taking over.

So logically it must be the first scenario -- but the comments still appear to come out of left field, and it would have been helpful to have some context on how they came about.

[Paul SF]

Also, I'm the one who first called the comments "whining." Probably not the right word, but combined with Theo Epstein's 2006 trade-deadline comments and other Sox FO comments about the wealth of the Yankees, it strikes sour to me. The Red Sox thus far are the most successful team of the 21st century; shouldn't the people who run it stop worrying about how much money the Yankees have? And if they're not worried about it (I doubt they truly are), then at least they could stop talking about it.

Rationally, I know they're just answering questions posed by a rivalry-fixated sports-media industry, and that these comments have come fewer and farther between, particularly since the Matsuzaka posting destroyed forever the notion of the Sox as heavy financial underdogs. But it still adds to the cumulative annoyance that's built up somewhere in the back of my head.

[yf2k]

"The World Series champions said Wednesday they will wear sleeve patches with the logo "EMC" when they open the season with a two-game series against the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome on March 22 and 23. EMC Corp. is a data-storage company based in Hopkinton, Mass.'

What? Sully's Towing Service and Bail Bonds R Us weren't available? ;)

[A YF]

The difference though is that the Sox are winning and still can't see where their huge windfall is going to come from. That's the frustration, I think. By contrast, the Yankees and Mets aren't winning and are looking at payday. The Sox have set a very high bar with little room for their own pockets.

[Dan]

"What? Sully's Towing Service and Bail Bonds R Us weren't available? ;)"

When Sully's towing posts a gross profit of $5.9 billion+ as EMC did in 2006 then they can get a patch on the other arm.

[SF]

What? Sully's Towing Service and Bail Bonds R Us weren't available? ;)

They were going to go with "Chico's Bail Bonds" but only if Roger Clemens had agreed to come back to them and after his appearance in front of congress...