Saturday, November 28, 2009

Best Sponsorship Comments: Honorable Mentions

After months of toiling in blog obscurity I finally broke through with a hit last week. My Best of Baseball Reference's Sponsorship Comments post got linked all over the internet, with Rob Neyer's ESPN blog generating the most traffic. How cool is that? To go from one hit on November 15 to 2,607 hits on November 18 was quite exciting, to say the least.

Since it proved so popular, I thought I'd share some of the sponsor comments I found that didn't quite make the cut. These people deserve some of the love too.


1966 Chicago Cubs
Andere Richtingen sponsor(s) this page.

Three Hall of Famers, one guy who without a doubt should be...and 103 losses.

Mr. Richtingen, if you read the comments to the last post, was actually responsible for two items on the list: the 1987 Cubs and Todd Hollandsworth. Perhaps he deserves some sort of lifetime achievement award for his commenting. I enjoyed this little riff on the Cubs' inability to win even with great players.


Shane Andrews
A Fan sponsor(s) this page.

September 26, 1998, Section 284, Busch Stadium, St. Louis. Three home runs were hit into the second deck in left field that Saturday: Mark McGwire's 67th and 68th, and Shane's career-high #25. Guess which one I've got.

There's a bit of self-deprecation in this one, a device I've always enjoyed. A forgotten homer by a Dave Kingman-esque third baseman won't fetch a ton of money from collectors, it'll only give you a good story and an excuse to sponsor said player's page.


Joe Borowski
Joe Meginnes sponsor(s) this page.

Here's to coming out of nowhere and providing a very effective arm out of the pen for the 2002-03 Cubs. It was rarely pretty, but you got the job done, foreshadowing your career turn as Indians junkballer Eddie Harris.

Nice. A reference to Major League. Lucky thing Borowski played for the Indians or Mr. Meginnes here couldn't have made such a great joke.


Deivi Cruz
An Anonymous Supporter sponsor(s) this page.

Someone gave him MVP consideration in 1997. Seriously.

Two homers, 40 RBI, three stolen bases, six times caught stealing, a .241/.263/.314 batting line, a 51 OPS+, -3 on TotalZone and he finished 25th in AL MVP voting. Come to think of it, that is pretty messed up.


Joe Walsh
Dan Lee sponsor(s) this page.

Got any gum?

You just know that with three different Joe Walshes in baseball history some wiseacre out there would have to sponsor one just so he could make a reference to the musician of the same name and his poorly-received 1987 album.


Eric Chavez
Death, Taxes, and Chavy flailing at high cheese sponsor(s) this page.

Some things never change. Chavy in the 2001 playoffs: whiffing on face-high fastballs. Chavy in the 2006 playoffs: whiffing on face-high fastballs. Chavy, when are you gonna learn that you're not supposed to swing at that??? For cryin out loud.

I like the sponsor's name best here: "Death, Taxes, and Chavy flailing at high cheese." We all have those players on our teams that we love despite the fact that we can always count on them to screw up in certain situations.


Doug Mientkiewicz
Catherine sponsor(s) this page.

For the glove, for the hustle, and most of all, for alienating all of Red Sox Nation by keeping that ball. . .Doug, I salute you!

With the increased obnoxiousness of Red Sox Nation since 2004, I think Catherine speaks for a large portion of baseball fandom here.


Doc Amole
More effective than his brother, Guac. sponsor(s) this page.

On three, ready? One...two...three...GROAN!


It's great to have a blog post get national recognition, but the credit should really go to these sponsors, without whose witty comments my post wouldn't have been worth reading.

Happy post-Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!

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