MLB Pinch Hits for Ortiz in ‘Call Your Shot’ Contest
Major League Baseball has settled a brouhaha about Red Sox slugger David Ortiz doing a Babe Ruth impersonation in a home run contest preceding this year’s All-Star game at Yankee Stadium.
In a move that will placate the Yankees, the injured Ortiz will be replaced by the top two players in this year’s Home Run Derby competition in a separate home run promotion sponsored by State Farm Insurance.
State Farm’s “Call Your Shot” contest was to feature Ortiz taking a shot at a section of the outfield selected by a fan. The fan, selected in a sweepstakes running through June 24, could win a Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid and 2009 season tickets to his home team’s games.
Now the lucky fan that wins four tickets to this year’s historic game in Yankee Stadium, round trip air fare, hotel accommodations and a $1,000 MasterCard Gift Card for winning the sweepstakes, will have two shots at winning the Tahoe and the season tickets.
Tim Brosnan, MLB executive vice president of business, insisted the change was made to suit all fans—not just the Yankees.
“The accommodation had to do with bringing the best value to the fan,” Brosnan said. “We think we came up with the best alternative.”
The Home Run Derby lineup, to be made up of four All-Stars from each league, will doubtless include at least one member of the Yankees squad. That improves the odds that one of the players calling his shot—ala Babe Ruth in a 1932 World Series game against the Chicago Cubs—will be wearing Yankee pinstripes.
The Yankees organization reportedly expressed its displeasure about Ortiz occupying the “Call Your Shot” spotlight preceding the historic All-Star Game in the final year of Yankee Stadium’s existence. One Yankees official had previously chalked up Ortiz’s role in the State Farm contest as a “miscommunication” between the company and the team.
But Yankees honcho Hank Steinbrenner said yesterday he was pleased the team’s fans would be mollified by the move to supplant Ortiz based on who wins the Home Run Derby.
“There certainly were some Yankee fans who would be upset about that, just as Red Sox fans would be upset if [Derek] Jeter was doing it in Fenway Park,” Steinbrenner said.
State Farm representatives could not be reached for comment about the change in the contest that kicked up the unexpected controversy.
So the two sluggers who send the most balls into the seats of the legendary ball field during the annual Home Run Derby will be the ones calling their shots. The Babe himself couldn’t argue with that call.
