The latest brain freeze had both leagues playing shill for the new Spider-Man flick, with a Web logo plastered on each base, the pitching rubber and the on-deck circle.
On Thursday, baseball reversed course and nixed the idea.
Bud Selig said, “It isn’t worth, frankly, having a debate about. I’m a traditionalist. The problem in sports marketing, particularly in baseball, is you’re always walking a very sensitive line.”
Okey-dokey, Bud.
The same traditionalist that allows Opening Day to take place at 4 a.m. in Japan, let the Yankees wear advertisements on their uniforms, still has no comprehensive steroid-testing policy and allows the television networks to ignore future fans by starting World Series games at 9 p.m.
The problem isn’t baseball marketing. It’s the spineless cipher who sits on the throne as the lunatics write the rules and the kingdom crumbles around him.
But baseball survives and, in spite of Selig’s implausible incompetence, is actually thriving this year with attendance up 17 percent.
That may all change, however, if your Texas Rangers become your Levitra Rangers.
------------------------
Another bad idea continues tonight, with game two of the Detroit-New Jersey series in the NBA conference semifinals.
You remember them? Understandable if you don’t, considering they played game one on Monday.
The Stanley Cup playoffs -- the most arduous and brutal postseason in sports -- is already in the conference final series.
Meanwhile, the Miami Heat just closed out their first-round series Wednesday.
The opening round is a nightmare for the league. The Pacers started their semifinal series Thursday night after being off since April 25.
Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs look unbeatable. The Lakers may get the ink and the ascendancy of Kevin Garnett may be a compelling story, but the quiet brilliance of Tim Duncan and the emergence of Tony Parker is more interesting and more relevant than any sidebar story coming from the playoffs.
They are, simply, the best team in the league playing the best basketball when it counts the most.