FRIDAY EMAILS
Bryan,
What do you think about MLB scaling back their Spider Man 2 promotion? I still don't think it's enough. They are still going to have the advertisements on the on-deck circle and on the plate and pitchers rubber before the game.
Killa K

Thanks for the email Killa K. Wasn't there a guy in the Wu Tang Clan named Killa K? Maybe not. Anyway. This is a great public relations ploy by MLB. They say that they "scale back" the promotion, but they are still covering the plate, mound and on-deck circles with Spider Man 2 promotions. People won't complain now since the campaign was reduced, but I still think it's embarrassing. Notice how it was the STUDIO that reneged this deal, not MLB. Don't listen to the spin that MLB will put out there about "not wanting to upset their fans", it's not true. Rob Neyer wrote an article about the Spider Man 2 promotional campaign here.

I got two emails on this next topic so here they are...

ATG,
Did you read Jim Caple's article on ESPN.com about hustling? Do you think this guy has ever played a baseball game in his life?
Jesse, Appleton [WI]

Bryan,
Did you read Jim Caple's article about hustling being overrated? Doesn't Caple need a punch in the face?
Kevin, Santa Barbara

Ha ha. Well, a punch in the face may be a bit extreme. And to answer your question, Jesse, no I don't think Caple has ever played a baseball game. At least not a real one at a moderately high level of competition. I'm not one of those guys who thinks "oh you never played the game so you don't know anything about it", but at times I think you can learn certain things about the game by playing that you can't learn just by reading or watching. With that said, I'm getting a little tired of the "hustling is overrated" argument. Obviously you would rather have a lazy guy that hits 40 homeruns over a hustling utility infielder that hits .240. You have to draw the line somewhere I think. There's a difference between running out a routine grounder at 85% and running it out at 50%. Maybe the difference between hustling will only make a difference a few times a year, but that doesn't mean that it isn't important. Just because something doesn't show up on a statsheet doesn't mean that it isn't valuable.

Thanks for the emails. Keep it up.