I haven’t watched MLBTV since college. Man, those were the days. There were like a half dozen hardcore baseball fans on my dorm floor all playing fantasy baseball so we used to try and catch the at-bats by our players in between classes and studying. Best part was we all shared the same login info and password, and it came from some guy I had never even met whose email address was like @ wisconsin.edu. Gotta love that. One kid registers for the pass and half the dorms at a school 1500 miles away are using it. Anyway, back when I was watching, MLB.tv used to show the commercials as seen on the local telecast. Now I think they go with some generic, MLB.tv produced commercials. You would think I would know these things since I wrote for them last season, but I have no clue. Anyway, Deadspin points out to me that MLB is ignoring Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa in a commercial that promotes Ken Griffey Jr.’s pursuit of 600 home runs. Here’s how the screen apparently looks:
“Willie Mays, September 22, 1969…600.
Babe Ruth, August 21, 1931…600.
Hank Aaron, April 27, 1971…600.”Then the screen flips to Griffey, who sits at 599, and he says, “Ken Griffey Jr…. keep watching.”
Obviously there are two other players who belong in that group — Bonds and Sosa. I’ve already shared my thoughts on Sosa — that he’s a complete fraud, and I choose not to acknowledge Bonds’ triumphs. So while I’m not buying the legitimacy of either of their records, I don’t feel MLB media should be practicing “revisionist history.” It’s not their place to be doing that, regardless of how their employees feel.
