Sunday, May 14, 2006

$50,000? That's It?

Bump and I are watching the Twins-White Sox game, and Johnny Miller and Joe Morgan just announced that Major League Baseball donated $50,000 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Bump and I were both like, "That's all? That's all you could come up with MLB?"

Has Major League Baseball come upon such hard times of late that it can't afford to give a cause like breast cancer more than $50 grand? What, you haven't been getting enough money from ripping off taxpayers for publicly funded stadia?

Because, seriously. How much did those pink bats cost? The wristbands?

Okay, a bat costs what, $150? $200? (you have to paint them pink, after all.) If you've got one bat for every player on the active 25-man roster (or two for just the hitters, 14 or so on the team - let's say 30 bats) times 30 teams = $180,000.

Somebody please correct me. Somebody tell me that a pink bat in the majors will go for only $12.60. That pink wristbands, when purchased in bulk, cost only 50 cents a pop. That Johnny Miller and Joe Morgan got it wrong, and only the Twins donated $50,000. MLB donated 30 times that. Somebody tell me that, please.

I won't start on how perhaps baseball's audience may not be the most strategically targeted awareness campaign. I think awareness is incredibly important, anywhere, anytime, but the whole thing strikes me as about as sensible as raising awareness for testicular cancer at BlogHer.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But are most 18-50 year-old men watching the game, seeing the pink bats and wristbands, then turning to the women in their lives and saying, "Hey honey, when was your last mammogram?"

Okay, I'll back off on that point. If only one person does that, it's worth it.

But, Major League Baseball: $50,000? Come ON. Seriously. That's weak.

1 comment:

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah said...

MLB sucks ass. It is a misguided, overbudgeted organization.

That bing said, I'm shocked they gave anything to a disease that pertains mostly to women.