More than a decade ago, the Disney Company bought a hockey franchise, stuck in it Anaheim, California, and named it the Mighty Ducks. Mighty Ducks was the name of two Disney films about hockey. 

Auto racing teams would be indistinguishable except for their corporate sponsors and those sponsors' advertisements encompassing the cars.  In Japan, baseball teams are named for the corporations that own them.  There, a team is named the Nippon Ham Fighters.  They do not play in a city called Nippon Ham.  They are not opposed to ham.  They do not fight each other with hams.  They are owned by the Nippon Ham Company. 

Free video Costas criticizes idea May 6: NBC's Bob Costas tells MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on 'Countdown' that Major League Baseball was being cheap and crass with its now-canceled promotion of the upcoming movie 'Spider-Man 2.' MSNBC

Why was it such a big deal that, for three days next month, all the on-deck circle and pitchers mounds at Major League Baseball games were supposed to carry an advertisement for the movie “Spider-Man 2”? 

It is enough of a big deal that Major League Baseball has already changed its $3.6 million marketing deal with Columbia Pictures to slap the Spidey logo all around the ballparks for the games of June 11, 12, and 13. 

The “Spider-Man” thing was supposed to also appear on the bases during the games.  But this evening, Major League Baseball, facing a storm of protests, canceled that part of the promotion.  It was ruled off-base, so to speak.  The plan was revealed by a trade publication, “The Sports Business Journal,” in late January.  It was announced yesterday. 

And here comes the backlash: First, the New York Yankees had announced they would not put the logo on the bases during the games. The Chicago White Sox had not decided yet.  The Oakland Athletics were still evaluating.  The San Francisco Giants said they thought it was a great idea.  Then again, they were only playing road games that weekend. 

Other reactions, Fay Vincent, who was both once the head of the Columbia Pictures and the commissioner of baseball, called the promotion sad. 

“I‘m old-fashioned.  I‘m a romanticist.  I think the bases should be protected from this.” 

The venerable manager of the San Francisco Giants, Felipe Alou, in his 49^th season in the sport, asked: “Is this really going to happen?  Back in the Dominican Republican, we had beer companies put their names on the backs of our jerseys, but I hadn‘t heard of that here.” 

What, you never saw Chico Bail Bonds in the “Bad News Bears”? 

In this most sentimental and historically oriented of our sports, there is outrage and more importantly, perhaps, there is fear — fear that the day of the Chico Bail Bonds Yankees has just drawn closer. 

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