Between innings on television

[trosmok]

During pitching changes and between half-innings, radio announcers used to take the time to read the commercials and usually tried to tie in something from the game. I recall Dizzy Dean being a master of the artful segue, and others including Red Barber managed to roll right into the ads without missing a beat. Today, the television broadcast ads only occassionally have a baseball theme; Pepsi trucks with A-Rod, Wheaties with the Vin Scully voice-over of gimpy Gibson's homer, and precious few others. What are you're favorite commercials that are regularly shown during breaks in the ballgames?

[Food]

The local Fox Sports Net affiliate out here (maybe elsewhere too, I dunno) had a series of funny ads used for A's and Giants showing day-to-day people in day-to-day situations suddenly smashing full-on into somebody over the radio call of Matheny/Kendall blocking a close play at the plate. The end of those ads was exceptionally cool: A dude runs down the sidewalk shouting "Taxi! Taxxxiii!!!" Out of nowhere, someone crouches and blocks him, and taxi-shouter does a full front-flip, landing flat on his back on the pavement. It's impressive to look at, because that could NOT have felt good.

[jays632]

Jays games often have some remotely amusing commercials to try and just promote the team and thus get people out to home games. Last year they had a woman as a cop or something interrogating Halladay, Hudson and Koskie. And a Bond parody with Vernon Wells as 'The Man With The Golden Glove'.

This year they had Troy Glaus hitting a pinata over a backyard fence after a little girl couldn't open it. Halladay throwing a rock from the stretch at a bee hive and knocking it down after he saw kids misbehaving. And Wells playing hide and seek but running about 4 city blocks and hiding in a dumpster.

[Chelle]

The O's have the worst commecials ever. They have a Red Roof Inn commerical which I've seen over 1,000 times. I think there is subliminal advertising telling me to kill people.

Otherwise Peter Angelos has had the same 2 O's commercials playing. 1 is a walk off HR from last year (as if we can't tell it was last year) and then this horrible spliced together one with music from a bad wedding band.

*sigh*

I flip to the MLB package and watch other teams play.

[cbenson5]

I like the Home Depot commercials with John Smoltz.

[trosmok]

Earlier in the season, there was a clever piece where a slugger (can't begin to recall who), fungoes a ball clean across the Atlantic and a little Dutch kid playing in the street with a homemade ball gloves it, sees the autograph, and smiles while showing his friends. The next scene shows a series of buckets labeled "Europe", "Asia", etc. and the batter begins pounding some more across the ponds. May have been first shown during the World Baseball Classic, but it was definitely a visual winner.

[Sliding Billy]

Since the Red Sox are on NESN, which is essentially a local cable station, there are some wonderfully tacky ads for local retailers, featuring the owners themselves.

Sort of related: Jerry Remy read a promo for a program on the homes of various personalities, this episode featuring Big Papi's crib, then in genuine puzzlement asked, "Why on earth would anyone want to do that?"