The Yankees in the wake of signing P Masahiro Tanaka have "signed a deal with an advertising firm in Japan that wants signage up in some unusual places" inside Steinbrenner Field, home to the Yankees Spring Training, according to Chris Wilkerson of the TAMPA BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL. The plan "includes signage for four companies hoping to catch eyeballs not ... in Tampa, but back home in Japan." The ad package "includes four companies," dental hygiene firm Sunstar GUM, engineering firm THK, Internet marketing firm Final Code and "a Japanese confectionery whose signage isn’t even in English." The companies' ads "run on interior fencing at the practice field adjacent to Steinbrenner Field as well as inside the stadium and in the bullpen." All of the ads were "carefully placed to be in the background when a large group of Japanese media film Tanaka during spring training." Single-A Florida State League Tampa Yankees VP & Marketing Dir Howard Grosswirth, whose team plays its regular-season home games at Steinbrenner Field, is "in discussions with another company that wants to advertise on a wall inside the bullpen that will be visible for only a few of the 11,000 seats in the stadium, but all of the fans back in Japan when Tanaka is warming up" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 2/20).
