A commercial for the New York Mets that ran a couple of years ago featured Mike Piazza walking up and down the streets of the city, with New Yorkers coming up to the likely hall of famer and offering him advice on how to play baseball.
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| Despite adage, Piazza is having more fun as a brunet. |
The spot was so funny and Piazza so natural in it, recalled film director Marc Lawrence, that it was a major reason he cast Piazza as himself in a scene in the film "Two Weeks Notice," starring Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant.
Piazza, earlier this year, shot the scene, in which he dives into the stands to retrieve a foul ball and lands in the laps of Bullock and Grant.
"We had a stand-in to shoot the scene," Lawrence said. "And he said, 'Let me take a shot at it.' And he did it and he was absolutely perfect and funny and got his lines right. He couldn't have been nicer or better to work with."
Lawrence added that he hopes Piazza can make it to the film's premier in late December.
The New York Mets may have had their worst season in recent history, but Piazza's off-season business outlook is shaping up quite nicely. This despite an early season rumor that Piazza was gay, and his subsequent news conference to proclaim his heterosexuality.
Piazza will shoot his fifth national commercial for MCI this month or next, said Dan Lozano, his agent. The date for the shoot hadn't been set by late September and Lozano had not yet seen the storyboard for the spot.
As is typical for star athlete endorsers, Piazza and his agents have the right to approve or nix commercial storylines.
"We have made sure that Mike feels extremely comfortable with the storyboard and that it portrays him for who he really is," Lozano said. "Mike is a superstar in everyone's eyes, but he is the last person to think he is a superstar."
This next MCI spot features Piazza with another celebrity, who Lozano would not name. The first four have featured Piazza with NFL greats Terry Bradshaw and Emmitt Smith, country singer Toby Keith, and the television character Alf.
Piazza has a long-term deal with MCI, as well as deals with Callaway Golf, Nerf and Claritin. Lozano would not reveal the value of Piazza's commercial endorsements, but industry experts have estimated the deals to be worth a total of $3 million to $10 million a year.
Lozano said he is currently in talks with three or four companies about potential new agreements for the catcher, but would not name them, saying he did not want to talk about deals until they are signed. Lozano also is hesitant to talk about the controversy that surrounded Piazza this past spring.
In May, Piazza confronted head-on rumors in the New York tabloids and sports talk stations that he was gay.
"First off, I'm not gay," Piazza said at an informal press conference. "I'm heterosexual. That's pretty much it. That's pretty much all I can say. I don't see the need to address the issue further."
Piazza's handling of the rumor was widely lauded by media and marketing experts, but some said they were not sure that it helped him.
"Unfortunately, it probably hurt a little bit, just because it is controversy," said Bob Dorfman, executive creative director of Pickett Advertising.
But Dorfman added, "I think he handled it well. He had to make a statement. You can hold your head up and ignore it or you can come out and say you are not [gay]. I thought he did what he had to do."
Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports, which matches athletes with advertisers for endorsements, agreed that Piazza handled the gay rumor well. "And the proof of that is it has gone away."
Williams said he didn't think the situation has hurt Piazza's image with advertisers. But, he added, "It might have slowed his momentum in becoming the No. 1 choice with advertisers of all baseball players."
Williams noted, too, that if there was a time for an endorser to face a controversial situation, this past year was the time. "Right now the market is so slow, it came at a good time for him. If it came two years ago, when every other day there was a great new deal [for athlete endorsers], it could have hurt him much more."
Piazza has a number of characteristics that have made him an increasingly popular spokesman. Williams said Piazza's marketability has been helped by the fact that he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and then the Mets.
"He has been a dominant player in his position for years," Williams said. "He has played in the two major markets — Los Angeles and New York — and that puts him under the eyes of advertising decision-makers on a daily basis, and that never hurts."
It's also helped that commercials for MCI and Callaway Golf have been funny, Williams said. "Humor makes athletes more real and more approachable. ... The MCI and Callaway ads have done a lot for him. They are just humorous ads and they depict him as being a regular guy, like you and me."
"The fact is he is getting deals," Dorfman said. "You look at guys who go beyond the shoe deals and the athletic-based deals and Mike has transcended that and I would use that as a yardstick."
Piazza's scene in the Sandra Bullock movie won't hurt him, either, Dorfman said. "Unless a guy does a horrible job, [a movie part] definitely helps his marketability. He is rubbing elbows with movie stars."
