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Pittsburgh Pirates Add New Sleeve Ad

Some distressing news out of Pittsburgh this morning: the Pirates have become the latest team to put a jersey ad on their sleeve.

And in even more depressing move, the team actually released a hype video extolling their new ad patch “partner.”

The video shows the ad on three of the Pirates jerseys: home white, black alternate, and City Connect.

In case you’re not familiar with the advertiser, Sheetz is an American chain of convenience stores and coffee shops headquartered in Altoona, PA.

Like most teams, the ad will switch sleeves based upon each player’s handedness.

This means we’re now down to nine ad-free teams (a number likely to lower as the season progresses): the A’s, Cubs, Mariners, Nationals, Phillies, Rays, Rockies, Twins, and White Sox. (The other 20 teams who’ve sold out their uniforms to advertisers, aside from the Pirates, are the PadresRed SoxD-backsAngelsAstros, Reds, Marlins, Mets, Cardinals, Tigers, Guardians, Yankees, Blue Jays, Brewers, Dodgers, Giants, Atlanta, Royals, Rangers and Orioles.)

H/T to Mike Chamernik for bringing this to my attention. Thanks (I think).

 
  
 
Comments (43)

    I guess this means Wawa *has* to advertise on the Phillies now

    I think the convenience store rivalry is bigger than the baseball one now.

    Exactly what I was thinking as I was watching the Pirates video! Wawa already does some tie-ins with the Phils for food and drinks from time to time, and with Wawa stores popping up all over the place, I think they would have the money to kick in to get an ad on the Phils’ unis. Plus the lettering is red, so it would work on everything except the CCs. And for those, I doubt Wawa would argue about making the emblem a different color!

    Back when the Phils dropped their sleeve numbers for the inevitable uni ad I speculated it could be Wawa. As bad as ads are if it was just the goose logo with no text, given the local love for wawa it wouldn’t be awful, ditto for the Yuengling eagle logo. Either one would still make their standard uniforms better than the awful CC set.

    “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”

    MLB should sell the team names, too. They can be the Pittsburgh Sheetz and totally change the uniform to match their corporate sponsor.

    Seriously, if the NFL ever whores their uniforms out with corporate jersey ads, I’ll stop watching football, too. It’s bad enough they have them on their camp jerseys.

    Don’t give them ideas …. the Fox News Orioles, the Tyson’s Galleria Nationals, the Liverpool FC Red Sox ….

    It’s a fait accompli in Japan, where you have among others the Hanshin Tigers and Seibu Lions (both railroads) and the Yomiuri Giants (publisher).

    Hanshin and Seibu are railroads, but they were place names before the railroads named themselves after the places. “Hanshin” 阪神 means “Osaka-Kobe” (and the team plays in Koshien Stadium, right between those cities), and “Seibu” 西武 means “Western Musashi”, and Musashi is the old name of the western Tokyo-Saitama area.

    A good analogy would be if San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transport bought the Athletics and called them the Bay Area Athletics. They’re corporations, but the place names still resonate.

    So happy I just got to see the Pirates play in Denver before they added this sheety patch. One of my favorite MLB uniforms taken down a notch…

    I hate these ads with a passion, but if they are going to do it, then the ads should match the colors of the team. Or if the advertiser doesn’t want to do that, allow them to do it with black lettering on a white background. This also includes the NBA.

    They do wear red occasionally, though, and it is one of their historical colors.

    And the NHL.

    At least Chris Ilitch’s teams and their ad “partners” seem to understand that; Meijer’s logo is red but is rendered in the Tigers’ navy, while the waste company’s logo (red and blue) is rendered in mono white or red on the Red Wings’ jerseys.

    A far cry from things like Toronto Dominion’s neon green square on the Canucks’ black thirds, or the GIANT FREAKING SACK OF CONCRETE on the Cobb County baseball team’s jerseys.

    At least I’d assume the A’s will remain ad-free for a long time. Can’t imagine many companies want to be associated with that organization right now

    If the price of coffee goes up at Sheetz because of this I won’t be happy.
    Let me rephrase that…I’ll be even more upset.
    Nutting’s journey to the Dark Side is complete.

    They need to tie in to Sheetz. “If the Pirates win that day, everyone gets half off on all coffees or show your ticket stub at Sheetz for a free small coffee.”

    At least try to make the uniform ad fun for the local fans.

    I hate all advertisements on jerseys/guernseys/kits. I hate truly connected to the community advertisers a little bit less. And I hate advertisers that at least try to blend in with the design of the uniform a little less. I am from Pennsylvania (in Lancaster–where Sheetz and Wawa meet! It truly divides our community!) and have been a Sheetz man since high school. But why did they have to do this in red!

    It’s not clear (until tonight’s game I suppose) if the Pirate patch usually worn on the left sleeve will be moved to the sleeve opposite the ad. As a Pirate fan, I’m disappointed, but happy at least it’s a local company. It’s also slim enough that it’s less jarring than some of the giant ads teams have adopted. And, we’ve gotten used to red on the sleeves. Still looks crappy tho.

    That 90’s Pirate is waaay dated at this point, and probably needs to be retired, or replaced with the classic 70’s Bucco.

    Um…the photos in the article actually show the patch on both the right and left sleeves, so I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say the ad’s placement will be based on the players’ handedness.

    I’m always up for an MTO. I’m just more surprised that Nutting didn’t sell out sooner.

    Seems odd that this ad won’t be on the road greys. Don’t all other ad-clad teams wear them home and road?

    Oh, they’ll surely have an ad on the road gray. But they’re home tonight, Saturday and Sunday, so they only need to have the possible home jerseys ready to go. I’m sure the ad will be on the road jersey(s) for Monday when they travel to Cincy.

    The good-ish news is it’s thinner than most patches. The bad news is it’s red.

    Sadly, I’m really beginning to find this site depressing. End up hating 95% of what I see here. Bummer.

    Such a shame, but fitting – an inferior convenience store for an inferior team. #TeamWawa

    At this point in Western PA, the Sheetz brand is way more beloved than the Pirates. Genius move by the Bucs

    Has anyone noticed that the Pirates have often worn their black road jersey with the Pittsburgh script at home games? The “home” black with the P has been mothballed.

    Yesterday they hodgepodged the gold CC shirt with home white pants and the Stargell star BP caps. I hate the CCs, but this gold over white look wasn’t bad. Too bad none of the components went together.

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