As a team, the New York Mets have hit fewer than 80 home runs on the season, with the team’s only player in double digit territory, Gary Sheffield on the DL. Many have blamed it on the team’s injury-riddled season, but a main reason for the Mets’ lack of power has been the spacious Citi Field. Similar to the old Shea Stadium, Citi Field’s large outfield makes it a pitcher friendly park, but the varying heights of its outfield fences, which are as high as 16 feet in left field and 18 feet in right field, make it extremely difficult to hit the long ball.

Despite the homer-averse dimensions of Citi Field, fans have lauded its interior design, amenities, and facilities. Sponsored by the Caesars, the Mets will be holding Citi Field Replica Day to and giving away replicas of their new stadium to the first 25,000 fans in attendance. Promotional stadium cushions might be a better giveaway to make Mets fans a little more comfortable during the potential blowout against the Phillies. Nonetheless, it’s still a nice way to remember Citi Field’s inaugural season.

Posted: August 24th, 2009 under Baseball, General, stadium giveaways.
Comments: 1

In another spectacular turn of events for the MLB promotional nights and player transactions, the Oakland Athletics will go ahead with their Jason Giambi Bobblehead Night tonight even though they released him in his second go-round with the A’s on August 7th because of commitments to sponsors. The giveaway is now being termed a “collectible item” instead. At least this bobblehead giveaway won’t be as awkward the TWO Victor Martinez promotional nights after the Indians traded him to the Red Sox. I’m just grateful there aren’t any Matt Holliday promotional night during the second half of the A’s season.

Posted: August 21st, 2009 under General.
Comments: 1

It’s Brett Favre, and unfortunately, we’ve come to expect this type of offseason behavior from him. It only took him 3 weeks to unretire this time. He got to skip training camp and then signed a 2-year, $25 million deal. Fortunately, the Vikings have hedged their bet by only guaranteeing $6 million of the first year’s $12 million for skill and injury. Favre probably took a $1 million paycut if the Vikings agreed to have a Favre bobblehead or t-shirt giveaway when the Vikings face off against the Green Bay Packers on October 5th.

Posted: August 19th, 2009 under General.
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After winning the Buick Open and the Bridgestone Invitational by margins of 3 and 4 strokes respectively, Tiger Woods appeared poised to capture his 15th major at the PGA Championship at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota this weekend. At the Bridgestone Invitational he had made all but one of his putts 10 feet away from the hole, and it didn’t seem like anyone could beat him and his hot putter going into the PGA Championship this weekend. However, his putter finally failed him going into Sunday with a 2 stroke lead over Y.E. Yang and Padraig Harrington. Woods needed 33 putts to complete the round and that final-round magic failed to show up this Sunday. On the other hand, Yang, who had only won one other PGA tour event, shot a field-best 70 on Sunday to capture the PGA Championship.

Y.E. Yang received the Wanamaker Trophy for winning the PGA Championship, but he got more than just a trophy. Winning the PGA Championship earns the champion an automatic invite to the Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open for the next five years and makes him exempt from qualifying for the PGA Championship for life. They also receive membership on the PGA Tour for the following five seasons and invitations to The Players Championship for five years. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for swinging a couple of golf clubs really well for four days.

Posted: August 17th, 2009 under General.
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Despite the Cleveland Indians’ fire-sale of players at the MLB non-waiver trade deadline, they managed to keep one of the players tied to their promotional nights at Progressive Field. Last night, all fans in attendance under the age of 14 received a Fausto Carmona figurine hat I’ve seen golfers with promotional hat clip ball markers to keep track of their own ball, but what’s going to happen with the giveaway after the kids realize that it’s just a toy with a clip? Now, they just have a three-inch-tall Carmona doll. It might be a cool promotion if Carmon was pitching well, but he hasn’t lived up to expectations since his 2007 campaign when he devastated opposing hitters and compiled a 19-8 record. Now he’s a struggling starter with a 6.66 ERA and a 1.77 WHIP. Yikes!

Posted: August 14th, 2009 under General.
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This past weekend, the Pompano Beach Saltwater Showdown Fishing Tournament was held in South Florida. I know many people question whether competitive fishing is a sport, but my general policy is that if it’s on ESPN it’s a sport (Bassmasters is on every Sunday morning). Although this tournament was broken down into various divisions. The division with the largest prizepool was the Team Division, whose winner won $7,500 and a trophy. Winners of smaller divisions won smaller cash prizes and plaques.

In addition to the tournament, the Pompano Beach Saltwater Circuit also held a raffle for a 29-feet SeaVee. With tickets going for $50 each or 3 for $100 and only 4,000 tickets being sold, some boat-loving person went home with a great boat valued at $132,000. The donations generated by this promotion also support the Kiwanis Club of Pompano Beach. It must have been one busy weekend for all those fishers. The standard promotional lures and fishing accessories probably wouldn’t have cut it with this group of passionate anglers.

Posted: August 12th, 2009 under General.
Comments: 1

The Toronto Blue Jays have decided to continue to flounder in mediocrity in the AL East for another few seasons by keeping pitcher Roy Halladay instead of trading him for prospects, but you’ve got to give them some credit for trying to draw fans in with this fun Tom Henke Figurine promotion this past weekend. Promotional toys are generally a hit with the fans. Bobbleheads and wind-up toys are some of the better toys that have been given away at baseball games, so hopefully this figurine did alright. This figurine was given away to the first 11,000 fans in attendance, so I’m sure there were tons of disappointed Jays fans.

Posted: August 10th, 2009 under General.
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Wii Sports Resort was last week’s best-selling new video game, and it should really come as no surprise with the popularity of Nintendo’s motion-sensor home video game console. As a follow up to Wii Sports, which was originally packaged with the Wii, this game offers a new set of games including archery, wakeboarding, Frisbee, swordplay, basketball, table tennis, canoeing, skydiving, and airplane flying. It also offers more enhanced golf and bowling options in this game through its new controller add-on, Wii MotionPlus. This add-on snaps onto the Wii remote, increases the responsiveness of the motion-sensitive controller, allowing players to put “spin” on the bowling ball and to “slice” a table tennis shot.

Due to the gaming public’s great reaction to Wii Sports Resort, this game appears poised to break the sales records set by Wii Fit, which was the number one game for seven consecutive weeks. Nintendo used these promotional frisbees to promote Wii Sports Resort, but it could have developed a more compelling marketing strategy by giving away branded sports equipment from each of the new games in Wii Sports Resort. Its marketing team has done a great job of getting this game recognized by even the most casual gamers, but giving away products like branded basketballs, custom miniature canoe paddles, and imprinted ping pong balls could have put this promotion over the top.

(via Video Game Memorabilia Blog)

Posted: August 7th, 2009 under General.
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The Dodgers have decided to hold another Ramirez promotional giveaway. Instead of bobbleheads this time, the Dodgers will give away individually numbered, limited edition Mannywood posters featuring artwork from his own sold-out Bobblehead Night. The promotional posters are sponsored by KLOS, an FM classic rock radio station based in Los Angeles, and will be given out to the first 20,000 fans in attendance tonight. Apparently, I can’t get enough of Mannywood either.

(via LA Times Blogs)

Posted: August 5th, 2009 under General.
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Every MLB marketing team should know to never schedule player-specific promotions immediately after the trading deadline on July 31, especially when he’s one of the most tradable assets on your team. The Cleveland Indians apparently neglected to teach their marketing team that simple rule when laying out the promotional schedule for this season.

On the day of the trading deadline the Indians traded C/1B Victor Martinez for reliever Justin Masterson and minor leaguers Nick Hagadone and Brian Price. However, the Indians were holding Victor Martinez bobblehead night at Progressive Field for the first 20,000 fans in attendance the next night and will be giving away Victor Martinez Chest Protector Backpacks to kids 14 and under on Thursday. The Indians marketing didn’t just mess up one, but two promotions. They could have spread these promotions out-maybe one before and another after the All-Star break to hedge their bets, but having them in the same week after the trading deadline was simply poor judgment. The Indians still held Victor Martinez bobblehead night, but it didn’t make it any less awkward. At least Time Warner Cable, sponsor of the promotional night, got some extra publicity out of it.

Those are some pretty cool giveaways too. It looks like a really detailed bobblehead with the catcher’s mask on his head, but the promotional backpack is really the prize out of the two Martinez giveaways. What diehard Indians fan under the age of 14 wouldn’t want one of these cool bags? I’m way over 14 and I want one.

(via Big League Stew)

Posted: August 3rd, 2009 under General.
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