MLB has some new rules in place this year, and it wants everyone to know. The game is going to be more fun, like it apparently used to be—old guys who hate change are never wrong! In case you didn’t hear about the rules or were driven away by the absolutely teeny bases, the league released a slate of commercials promoting the new rules. We here at BP will be reviewing each new commercial. If you want a barometer for the quality of these ads, the tagline is “Three New Rules. More Great Action.” Buckle up.
If you haven’t seen the spot, it’s provided below.
Our first scene (above): We have our main character standing where a first base coach’s box would be. He’s dressed in a baseball style jacket, black…jeggings (?), and what appear to be loafers, no socks. Typical baseball coach attire.
He opens by heckling the pitcher with some generic jeers and then hits the child, who I’m guessing is eight or nine years old, with “I could get my passport renewed faster than this.” This is the kind of relatable jab that endeared Dennis Miller to NFL fans.
Our hero is now complaining about the pitcher blowing a bubble instead of throwing a pitch, imploringly asking the first baseman why he’s blowing so many. A better line of inquiry might be why he wore what are definitely loafers to coach (?) first base.
Okay I’ll give them this—it’s solid exposition on the shoes and pants. He’s going dancing later. Maybe also needs to pee? Definitely not a coach at this point. So…he’s just a guy? A solitary adult heckler dancer at a pickup game or practice? What brought him, and thus us, here?
Ah. Of course. The desire, nay, need to spread the good word. MLB has a pitch clock now, “cutting out all the downtime,” and the best way to share that was to…holler about it during the downtime, I guess?
You excited about this commercial?
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Is there some sort of humor timer? It mighta saved us all some time on this ad.
Grade: F-
Thank you for reading
This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.
Subscribe now