Marketplace Round-Up

The Red Sox have entered into a partnership with Japan-based Funai Electric Co. under which Funai will be “featured on a large billboard behind the outfield wall” at the team’s Spring Training home at City of Palms Park and will sponsor the tent in which Ps Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima will conduct interviews with the Japanese media. Funai will have placement on the backdrops where the two pitchers conduct interviews at Fenway Park and on the road this season (BOSTON HERALD, 2/15).

CHANGE UP: During Spring Training, the Yankees are wearing “blue mesh hats with white piping on each side and an interlocking silver NY, and mesh shirts with white sides.” It is “expected fans will rush out to buy the non-traditional garb once they see the Yankees wear it.” A Yankees employee said, “It’s all about marketing” (N.Y. POST, 2/15).

PLAYING THROUGH: In Dallas, Bill Nichols reports Adams Golf is “making its first foray into the LPGA,” having signed golfer Brittany Lincicome before the season and adding Brittany Lang and Heather Young to its roster this week. Most of the company’s endorsers had come from the Champions Tour, including deals with Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer, as well as the Nationwide Tour. Adams, which is a “major player ... in niches such as fairway woods, women’s clubs and hybrids,” draws over 20% of its revenue from women’s clubs (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 2/15).

TWIST ENDING: After his first award of $24.5M was tossed out and a subsequent one of $15M was upheld, former NHLer Tony Twist has “settled for $5[M] in a suit over his depiction in a comic strip.” The settlement between Twist and Todd McFarlane Productions was approved in bankruptcy court in Arizona. The litigation began when McFarlane used Twist’s name for a “violent, mob boss character” in its comic series, “Spawn” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/15).