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Shrewd marketing decision or veiled shot at the rival Los Angeles Dodgers? The San Francisco Giants' announced promotion for a game against their longtime adversary this upcoming season might just be both.
The Giants, per their ticket site, are giving away Mickey Mouse ear hats to the first 15,000 fans in attendance when the team takes on the Dodgers at Oracle Park on June 30th, courtesy of Dodgers Nation.
Invoking Mickey Mouse might conjure up thoughts of “The Happiest Place On Earth”, but in sports, the label is an insulting one. Wayne Gretzky famously derided the New Jersey Devils as a “Mickey Mouse organization” back in the early 1980s.
More recently, the term was used to describe the Los Angeles Lakers' 2020 NBA title win, which took place inside the NBA's bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida. The Dodgers' 2020 World Series win also got slapped with the “Mickey Mouse” label because of the shortened season and lack of fans in stadiums that year.
It's a near-certainty that the Giants' marketing department knew exactly what it was doing when scheduling the Disney-inspired giveaway on a day when the Dodgers are in town. But while San Francisco is having its fun now, it might not get the last laugh.
Giants gain upper hand on Dodgers, but for how long?
Give the Giants a win for this one against the Dodgers, mostly because they need a reason to feel good about this rivalry.
The offseason has otherwise been dominated by Los Angeles' unprecedented spending spree in free agency. A team that has won 100 games in each of its last four full seasons added the game's best player in Shohei Ohtani.
The fun didn't stop there though, as the best starting pitcher on the free agent market, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, also signed for big money to play for the Dodgers.
So credit the Giants here. But if your franchise's best offseason move is scheduling a trolling giveaway, how good are things going, really?
