In Ft. Worth, Barry Shlachter notes Rangers P Yu Darvish has already started to generate revenue for the team "by attracting lucrative corporate sponsorships." Rangers COO Rick George said of Darvish's marketing potential, "It's hard to measure at this point. But there are three additional sponsors we didn't have last year specifically because of Yu Darvish." George said the sponsorships represented "more than a seven-figure lift" for the Rangers. The team's new corporate sponsors are financial services firm Vanguard Group, Honolulu-based insurance agency Life Plaza, and Tokyo-based online game company Gloops (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 4/11).
BETTING ON THE FUTURE: In Cincinnati, Paul Daugherty notes the Reds yesterday signed 2B Brandon Phillips to a six-year contract extension worth $72.5M through '17, and that deal is "
on top of the $225 million they committed to Joey Votto" through '23. The Reds have "locked up six very important players now," through at least '14: Votto, Phillips, RF Jay Bruce and Ps Johnny Cueto, Sean Marshall and Aroldis Chapman. The players are "pieces around which to build," and they form the basis of what Reds President & CEO Bob Castellini "believes can be a consistently good team." He thinks that "consistent winning will cause you to come to more games than you do now." The most the Reds have ever drawn was 2.6 million in '76, to watch "arguably the best team ever assembled, coming off a championship season." Castellini has "never put a number on what he believes would constitute good support, but you have to think anything less than 30,000 a game, in a 42,000-seat palace, would be disappointing for a team that contends consistently" (
CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 4/11).
SKIPPING THE PARTY: In Boston, Dan Shaughnessy reports fomer Red Sox manager Terry Francona likely will not appear at Fenway Park "when the Red Sox celebrate the 100th anniversary of their beloved ballpark a week from Friday against the Yankees." Francona, in reference to last fall's Boston Globe article on his job performance, said, "Somebody went out of their way to make me look pretty bad. ... It’s a shame. I’m sure they’ll have a great event and I was part of a lot of that stuff there, but I just can’t go back there and start hugging people and stuff without feeling a little bit hypocritical." Red Sox President & CEO Larry Lucchino said, "I understand how strongly he feels on this matter and I accept that" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/11).
ANYBODY HOME? In Oakland, Joe Stiglich reports the paid attendance for last night's Royals-A's game at O.co Coliseum was 10,670, "but it appeared that no more than about 2,000 showed up to a game that was delayed 43 minutes at the start" due to rain (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 4/11). That comes on the heels of Monday night's game, in which the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS' Tim Kawakami noted the A’s announced attendance was 10,054, but that "would be certainly true if there were 7,500 invisible -- and very quiet -- people here." Kawakami: "This is the smallest crowd I’ve seen at the Coliseum, ever. And it compares to some of those old Candlestick crowds for chilly Giants games in the ’70s" (MERCURYNEWS.com, 4/9).
