If you click on the Amazon Wireless ad near the top of the rightmost sidebar, you can order a HTC ThunderBolt 4G Android Phone (Verizon Wireless). You’ll save money and help support this site at the same time, as the retail price I’ve seen in $250, and the Amazon price is well below that.

The Orange County Register presents Bad MLB Merchandise.

Bad Cinema was my favorite LPG sketch. Great discussion of insect fear films of the ’50s.

The Sporting New is now selling covers from the history of the newspaper. You can see the baseball covers here.

Apliiq offers subtle World Series t-shirts, colors with no logos.

Mike Remlinger took possession of Sammy Sosa’s corked bat barrel during the game where Sosa broke the bat, and now he’s putting it up for auction:

Schulte says the bat barrel, in which cork is visible, was authenticated by Remlinger and PSA/DNA Authentication Services, and could bring in excess of $10,000. Bidding was still at the starting price of $750 late Friday and ends Oct. 31. The handle’s whereabouts are unclear.

Remlinger now works in the emerging field of life coaching, advising young athletes on improving their performance and charting a life outside of sports — a path he says he chose after making some bad decisions in his own life.

“I did try contacting Sammy about it last year to see if he wanted it back,” says Remlinger, adding that this is the only item from his playing days that he’s selling. “His personal assistant said Sammy was interested in getting it back, and he’d get in touch with me, but I never heard from him.

“Hopefully this won’t be something that the people with the Cubs will see as a negative, and (say that) I shouldn’t have done what I’m doing. To me, this is an item for the public and has more service to be out there than to be sitting in my closet.”

Maybe this will get runs back up:

Josh Hamilton of the Rangers and Colby Rasmus of the Cardinals both hit jaw-dropping home runs on Sunday, earning the pair each a brand new set of Callaway Diablo Edge golf clubs.

For the duration of the season, Callaway is rewarding any professional baseball player who hits a homerun over 470 feet with a full set of Diablo Edge clubs. Why? Because ballplayers that embody the attitude and skill that it takes to drive a ball 470 feet and longer are exactly the type that would want to play the new Diablo Edge clubs, which are designed to blast the ball longer and straighter than ever before.

Sure beats winning a new suit.

Amazon is having a one-day sale on MLB 2K10.

Robert Bowman will not run for governor of Michigan. I suspect running MLBAM is a much more rewarding job.

I like Craig Calcaterra take on the MLBAM tabloid:

Let’s see, fiftysomething ex-newspaper men writing opinions about baseball while being paid by Major League Baseball. I can’t wait until I read the tenth version of “Commissioner Selig: Merely great, or the greatest ever?”

Card Wars!

The Boston Pops will release a new recording, The Red Sox Album, on opening day, April 6. You’ll be able to buy it here or download it here. From the press release:

The Red Sox Album, featuring the Boston Pops Orchestra along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, includes new arrangements of Fenway’s traditional fan anthem “Sweet Caroline” and the baseball classic “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Members of Red Sox Nation will also be treated to a new arrangement of the Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shippin’ Up to Boston,” the theme song for Jonathan Papelbon’s Irish victory dance. Two of Sousa’s classic marches, the Boston Pops’ signature “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and the “National Game,” highlighted by the crack of David Ortiz’s bat, are also featured. Completing the album is the musical version of baseball’s famous heart-wrencher, “Casey at the Bat,” with special guest narrator Broadway star Gregg Edelman. A special tribute essay by award-winning print and TV commentator Mike Barnicle is featured in the CD booklet.

Home Run Derby reports on the case of the stolen stolen base.

Letting Citi keep their sponsorship of the Mets new stadium may be a good idea after all:

Bednar response: “Whatever generates great profits back to help us repay those TARP funds, is a smart business for us to be in to.”

In fact, Bednar says for every one dollar the bank spends on sports, it generates three in income. Paul Swangard is a sports marketing professor at the University of Oregon.

“I can’t see why you ‘d have strong criticism because that’s what will get these banks out of the situation they’re in,” Swangard says. “By engaging the right customers, those who will deliver economic value to the long term. And if it happens to be that it’s their loyalty to a sports brand that gets you the opportunity to have that conversation, I see nothing wrong with that.”

Maybe Baseball Musings should buy ad space at Citi Field, too.

A Dallas Honda dealer will refund the money on any car purchased between Monday, March 9, and Monday, March 16 if the Rangers win their first four games and the Yankees lose their first four games. The odds are long but not that bad. If you rate all the games as a toss up, the odds of getting a free car are 1 in 256. Given that the Yankees are starting against the Orioles, the odds are probably longer than that. Still, if you were going to buy a new car, why not take the chance?

Washington unveiled a new slogan today:

Anyway, today the Nationals unveiled the slogan at the center of their 2009 marketing/advertising campaign — yes, NatsTown. The “NatsTown” idea will attempt to convey the spirit (and here I quote the press release) that “unites all fans in everything Nationals — at the ballpark, in the community, and in their everyday lives.”

The first thing NatsTown made me think of was Joba Chamberlain’s nickname for Cleveland. 🙂

Metsgrrl posts four alternative Citi Field logos submitted by one of her readers. They’re better than the original, but they use traditional Mets logos in the middle circle. The feature that sets Citi Field apart is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. The logo the Mets designed tried to capture that, where the blue diamond represents the field and the orange rectangle the rotunda. A great logo would make the rotunda the centerpiece, the reason to visit the park. It’s certainly the reason I’d like to drive to Queens this year.