Here is an old interview that is worth replaying on The Rising Score.

Taro is a very knowledgeable Baseball Guy in Japan. He came to The SMWW “Meet & Greet” in Boston

Ryan Latham of The Boston Red Sox letting Taro into Fenway Park on September 9th

Listen to Interview with Taro

The Welcome Back Veterans fund is trying to raise $100 million for returning soldiers with the Stars & Stripes Performance 59FIFTY On-Field Cap. Teams will wear them for the 4th of July weekend and September 11th. The hats as you can see incorporate the flag’s stars and stripes onto the logo. I am never a big fan of altering the uniform, but it is for an excellent cause, the design isn’t too over the top like this hat, and New Era hats are always quality. Like any New Era 59FIFTY hat, look for it to be uncurved, half-on and crooked or backwards, kind of just resting on the heads of suburban whiteboys everywhere.

Detroit Tigers reliever Jason Grilli has a tee-shirt, and it is pretty lame, but a definite collectors’ item (if you’re a big Detroit middle relief fan). Being a Tiger fan, I am shocked that I had not stumbled upon this fashion gem until just now. I don’t know when this came about or why it was even developed to begin with, but he can’t be serious. Just a terrible play on words replacing the ‘Girls’ in ‘Girls Gone Wild’ with ‘Grilli’s.’ Also, his pitching arm is blurred out. So weak. But at least the Olde English D isn’t being disgraced as it was airbrushed from the design. Also available for purchase are the sunglasses with windshield wipers he wore during the 2006 ALCS celebration.

Pitifully cheesy merchandise aside, Jason Grilli has been rather good lately, following a terrible start to the 2008 season where he was booed every time he did something. His lowest point was giving up 3 ER on 3 pitches against the White Sox earlier on. However, he has gotten his ERA down to 3.29 and is working on a scoreless streak of 11.1 IP. The Tigers need him to continue pitching well because their starters have been one of the greatest disappointments in baseball this year. Tiger fans give him a lot of grief for some occasional catastrophic outings, but he’s still one of my favorites. I am a homer sometimes (but not as much as Phil) and I apologize.

UPDATE: Grilli has been traded to the Colorado Rockies. Just when he started pitching well.

According to this piece here, water is not allowed in the U.S. Cellular Field dugout now, due to Gatorade being the official sports drink of Major League Baseball, meaning no water, no Vitaminwater, no Red Bull, no other drinks in the dugout other than Gatorade, and certainly, no tobacco juice from Nick Swisher. I wonder if the rest of Major League Baseball is following this unhealthy attitude for sports marketing.

I wonder what Bobby Boucher thinks of that. He’s gonna open a whole case of whoop-ass pretty shortly on Selig here..

Don’t drink the water! (nj.com)

Canada’s consumers are falling victim to overreaction and hypersensitivity too! This ad for the Toronto Blue Jays created by Publicis Toronto shows Frank Thomas in a young child’s room where a pillow fight has broken out. The 6-foot-5, 175 Lb. slugger drills the kid with a pillow, sending him flying to the floor. It’s kinda funny and seems pretty innocent.The Television Bureau of Canada, the watchdog that approves TV commercials for private broadcasters, forced the Jays to pull the ad and revise it to not show the boy being hit to the floor.

The fun-wreckers at TBC said, “It is imperative to keep the best interests of young children and youth in mind when producing commercials. Because children and youth are very impressionable, commercials should not contain any visual or audio portrayals which are detrimental to their well-being.” Since when are pillow fights “detrimental?”

But this is what advertisers face these days. You wonder why most commercials suck? This is why. The brilliant minds behind good commercials are stifled and shelved every day because of this kind of lunatic thinking. The people who complain about ads like this are the same people here in the U.S. who blame McDonald’s for making their kids fat but go to their school board to ban the game of tag in phy-ed class because it makes kids feel bad if they aren’t “it.”