Major League Baseball
Spider-Man covering the bases in ad promo

By Larry Stone
Seattle Times staff reporter

AP The "Spider-Man 2" logo will adorn bases over a June weekend.

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Now Spider-Man is about to intrude on Safeco Field — literally — and 14 other ballparks in a controversial promotional campaign in mid-June that will mark the first time that advertising signage will appear on the bases in a major-league game.

An ad for the movie "Spider-Man 2" will appear on first, second and third bases during interleague games on June 11-13, a move that inspired strong nationwide response, ranging from outrage to amusement.

At Safeco Field, the promotion will take place Saturday, June 12, during a Mariners game against the Montreal Expos.

Spider-Man's image will also appear on home plate and the pitcher's rubber before the game, but will be removed after the ceremonial first pitch. Advertising for the movie, which will open June 30, will also appear on the on-deck circles during the game.

According to The Associated Press, major-league baseball will receive about $3.6 million for the promotion, negotiated by MLB Properties with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony.

In addition, according to a team executive cited anonymously by AP, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will get more than $100,000 each, and most of the other 13 teams at home that weekend will get about $50,000 apiece. The Mariners' take is closer to the lower figure, a team official said.

The promotion, which baseball officials said is designed to attract a youthful audience, will also include giveaways of foam fingers, masks and a video trailer of the movie.

While U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, wrote a strongly worded letter of protest to commissioner Bud Selig, and the nonprofit group Commercial Alert called for a boycott of Sony products, Mariners players — many of whom didn't even know about the Spider-Man tie-in until reporters told them — were mostly unperturbed.

"It doesn't bother me at all," said third baseman Scott Spiezio. "My kid likes Spider-Man. If it was a different movie, I'd be mad. I don't think it affects me on the field at all. If people are offended by it, they have the right to be, but for me, I could care less ... " Spiezio brightened and said, "Maybe I could 'web' the bag. Maybe I could web the balls as they go by."

Mariners manager Bob Melvin joked, "I don't think I'll have to wear a Spider-Man uniform that I know of, but we'll see where the promotion goes. I'll probably have to process this for a while."
 
Second baseman Bret Boone said, "It doesn't matter to me. I'm not going to make an uproar about it. Big deal, something's on the base."

Boone, the third generation of his family to play in the majors, said he's not concerned about the commercial intrusion upon the game. Earlier this season, some controversy resulted when uniform patches with the logo of copier producer Ricoh were worn by the Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays during two games played in Japan.

"Baseball's different now," Boone said. "It's big-time business. There's advertising all over the walls. ... That's the way the game is. I'm not opposed to it."

Opposition was heard yesterday from many corners, including senatorial candidate Nethercutt, who in his letter to Selig said he was "stunned" by MLB's "over-the-top commercialization of baseball" that "undermines its value to our nation and potentially questions the need for MLB's special monopoly status."

"I guess it's inevitable, but it's sad," former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent, also a former president of Columbia Pictures, told AP. "I'm old-fashioned. I'm a romanticist. I think the bases should be protected from this. I feel the same way I do when I see jockeys (wearing) ads: Maybe this is progress, but there's something in me that regrets it very much."

In a nationwide conference call yesterday, MLB's president and chief operating officer, Robert DuPuy, defended the Spider-Man promotion. DuPuy said that baseball rejected a proposal to have webbing in the netting behind home plate because it was potentially distracting to players and fans.

Some of the fans filing into Safeco yesterday for the Mariners' game against Minnesota seemed skeptical about the promotion, and its purported appeal to young fans.

"It might work, but I think the game itself is better than having a bunch of ads out there," said Joe Munk, 20, visiting from Utah.

Amanda Bolton, 19, also from Utah, added, "It would be cool and everything, but then it wouldn't be sports. It would just be so corporate."

Mariners team officials were taken aback by the wide-ranging response, at least by the media, to the Spider-Man promotion. Asked if the club had felt any trepidation about having advertising on the bases at Safeco Field, vice president of communications Randy Adamack replied, "Not until today."

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com

Times staff reporter Bob Condotta contributed to this report.