Where have all the (MLB) superstars gone?

Yeah I never see Trout or Harper. They should be in a commercial or something.

 

Manky, get on the Gleyber bandwagon while there are still good seats available.

 

Trout had a national Subway spot at one time. Harper's done some baseball equipment ads, but that's about it.

As Stark noted, pitchers are the way to go given they're on camera all the time. How does Madison Bumgarner or Clayton Keyshawn not have a national commercial? Verlander could do an ad with Kate Upton.

 

Baseball players don't have national ads because baseball demographics skew old. Not that they're aren't young fans, but most aren't. Also, the sports equipment industry doesn't sell much baseball stuff, so NBA and (a trend I've noted lately) soccer stars get more play from them and they're big advertisers. It's kind of a false premise. No sport is bigger than the NFL, but aside from Brady and Watt, not many national ad stars, and Brady doesn't do 'em.

 

A Visit Hawaii ad, perhaps?

 

How soon you forget the new Dodge Dart!

 

There's a "chicks dig the long ball" sequel with Bumgarner & Verlander there for the writing for a creative ad agency.

 

I'm not sure he was ever the best player on any of those Yankee teams.

 

Maybe today's MLB stars aren't glory boys and play the game the right way - unlike Jeets.

 

Really? From 96-01, he wasn't the best player any of those seasons? Like to hear who was better than him on that team in 99.

 

I think there are a couple reasons. The first is that in an age of television the best pitchers only throw every fifth day. The best hitters only bat four times ina three hour game. Tom Brady throws 40 passes in thaat time and LeBron James will take 20 shots a game.

Secondly, I think of baseball is a sport that has been marketed far better locally than nationally. I think in most markets an NBA team would have to be really good to attract more fan attention than a medicore team.

But I think that the gap in interest between the sports is far narrower at the national elvel. Basketball stars, in part becasue of the amount of shoe money that is put behind them, are marketed much more effectively at the national level.

 

The best hitters pretty much always have batted four times a game.