Brewers C Jonathan Lucroy yesterday at the MLB All-Star Game explained that he "did not actually approve at all of a political 'attack-style' ad trumpeting his All-Star case" over Cardinals C Yadier Molina, according to Derrick Goold of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Lucroy said, “The whole political attack thing was something that I was not a part of. I did not know that they were going to do that. I’ve never been that guy. If I knew that was going to be directed at the Cardinals ... I would have told them, ‘No.’” The Brewers' marketing department wanted to film Lucroy "shaking his head in the dugout" and "tape him saying his name and that he approved of the message, borrowing directly from political ads." However, Lucroy said that he was "not told the concept of the ad." In the ad, which was "clearly a satire," a voiceover "suggests that Molina is a skilled catcher but that he is a St. Louis Cardinal, and with sounds of screams and babies crying in the background the narrator asks whether the world really wants another St. Louis Cardinal in the All-Star Game." At that point in the spot Lucroy "appears in the ad shaking his head." Lucroy: “I understand if [Molina] was put off by it. I want to set it straight: I didn’t know.” Meanwhile, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny and other team officials "expressed surprise in the ad’s tone and surprise that Milwaukee would be so pointed with its campaign." Lucroy was not voted by fans to the NLteam, but he "won the player and coaches vote" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 7/16).
