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Marketing and Sponsorship

Verlander To Be Featured On Cover Of 2K Sports' "MLB 2K12" Video Game

2K Sports Thursday night named Tigers P Justin Verlander as the cover athlete for "MLB 2K12," the forthcoming release in its baseball simulation video game series. The Verlander announcement arrived slightly earlier than the cover nods in prior years of the game, but it dovetailed with Verlander also winning '11 Player of the Year and AL Most Outstanding Pitcher honors for the MLBPA's annual Players Choice Awards. The award selections, made by fellow major league players, were announced Thursday night in a one-hour special aired on MLB Network and sponsored by 2K Sports. Verlander traveled to the channel's Secaucus, N.J., studios to accept the awards, participate in the cover announcement and sit for an interview airing in the special. "This is definitely something I wanted, something I've wanted for a long time," Verlander said of the video game cover. "I do play ["MLB 2K"], often as myself, and being on the cover is something you dream of as a kid." "MLB 2K12" is set for release on March 6 and will be the last in an exclusive third-party console deal signed between 2K, MLB and the MLBPA in '05, a pact that has been a noted money loser for 2K Sports. MLBPA GM/Business Affairs, Media & International Richard White said it was too soon to tell what the next iteration of baseball video game licenses will hold. "We're taking a long look at the entire industry and we're still at an early stage in that process," he said. White added, "The cover selection of Verlander for the game had been made totally separately before the awards were decided. But the moon and the stars sort of all lined up on this one."

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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