"Listen Bud He's got radioactive blood"
—"Cleveland" Spiderman TV Show Theme

Now that Spidey-Gate is behind us, it's time to reflect upon the fans' victory in this battle. As we cavort in triumph, the lords of baseball prepare for an onslaught that will inevitably bring us corporate sponsorship of player names and teletubby-esque uniforms that play commercials whenever the given player is in view. Baseball has backpedaled and decided not to emblazon their bases with the Spiderman logo to promote the release of the second film during a weekend in June. And all is right with the world again.

Of course the hypocrisy of the about-face is an added indictment of baseball's motives. Since they insisted that they were placing ads directly on the field "for the kids", are they now forgetting about the kids to bow to public pressure a day later? If they believed in what they were doing in the first place, then why change now? At least, they were planning to do it during the blight of interleague baseball not a Yanks-Red Sox series.

I explained Spidey-Gate to my wife and found my enthusiasm waning in the face of her blank stare. The sanctity of the field is something very difficult to convey to someone who asks, "Which one is the shortstop again?" every time she sees a game. I did put the whole situation in perspective for me though. What with everything else going on in the world from tortured prisoners to a farcical war in Iraq, from claims by the Bush administration that we went to war to bring freedoms to the people of Iraq to the story that Disney is muzzling Michael Moore because he made a film that is critical of the Bush administration, from the Bush administration criticizing John Kerry's Vietnam War record to the fact that no one can remember President Bush even finishing out his tour during Vietnam in the cushy stateside assignment that his connections procured for him. I don't mean to get political though with the sham our government has become it's difficult to be otherwise.

Anyway, I am more amused than upset over the whole Spidey-Gate affair, especially given the fact that I try to ignore interleague baseball as much as possible. I know this is odd for someone professes to rant on occasion. But I feel this is a war that we have already lost. Look at the mini billboards that the Yanks and D-Rays wore in their Japanese Series. And we are already used to referring to a major-league stadium as Petco Park(!). MLB won't give up after being rebuffed once. It will continue to make the easy grab for cash and milk its product for all its worth. Maybe I'm a bit jaded. Thank goodness there'll be a new Joe Morgan chat to dig into tomorrow. It'll be like a breath of fresh air.