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“Baseball’s Most Outrageous
Promotions: From Wedlock and Headlock Day
to Disco Demolition Night”

The author: Joseph Natalicchio
The details: McFarland, 254 pages, $29.95, released Dec. 4, ‘26
The links: The publisher, Bookshop.org

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A review in 90 feet or less:

In March 1966, John Lennon made his famously toxic comment that he considered The Beatles to be “more popular than Jesus.” It came from a restless give-and-take he had with a British reporter about the influence pop culture had on modern youth versus organized religion.

The backlash to something taken a bit out of context resulted in Lennon having to wear it. Where he stood in the U.K., it made more sense. And having experienced the U.S. Beatlemania, it had more context.

Sixty years later, as we sit in the spring of 2026, what if we were to suggest — Pope Leo XIV is more popular than the Beatles.

Talk amongst yourselves. And consider the role baseball has played in measuring all of this over the year with its promotional muscle.

The Chicago White Sox have fully embraced the ideology of how the man known in his previous religious life as Robert Prevost had a devout allegiance to the South Siders, because that’s where he grew up before ascending to the throne of St. Peter.

Earlier this month the team created a “Pope Hat” giveaway to take place on Aug. 11 against the Cincinnati Reds at their home park of Rate/Guaranteed Rate/U.S. Cellular/Comiskey Park Re-Do. Initially, it was supposed to be a theme-night giveaway, capped at around 1,500 who bought tickets in specific sections. The promo quickly went viral. Now it’s a “Pope hats for the masses” promotion.

Since Leo’s election last year, the Sox’s ballpark held a Catholic Mass in his honor. The team put up a mural honoring him near where he once watched a World Series game in 2005, a virtual video that went viral from researchers at Fox Sports, who covered that game.

This Pope hat event doesn’t seem to be all that outrageous, let alone bordering on anything considered blasphemous.

Not from a franchise once owned by the immortal Wild Bill Veeck Jr.

Veeck’s chief promotional rival during his time was Charles O. Finley.

And consider what Charlie O. tried to pull as his Kansas City Athletics were floundering in the American League during the ’64 season and sought relief from Lennon and friends.

Finley had the idea that, since the Beatles were already traversing the states that summer, why not hang out for a day in K.C.? The group’s landmark North America concert tour the previous February caused quite a sensation. They were now prepared to return and do 32 shows in 24 cities over 31 days from August to September.

The Fab Five’s manager, Brian Epstein, turned down Finley’s initial offer of $60,000. Finley went to $100,000. Still no. Finley upped it to $150,000. That’s merely as $1.6 million in today’s dollars — but the largest any American artist had ever received for a single show.

Done deal. Sept. 17 it will be.

At a time when the Beatles are doing more theaters, convention halls and arenas than massive ballparks — their famous events at Shea Stadium and Dodger Stadium came in 1965, and their last concert, at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park in 1966, about five months after Lennon’s “Jesus” remarks — Finley had a stadium venue that should have accommodated larger numbers and likely make up what he put out for it. It was much larger than places on this tour such as the Hollywood Bowl, Boston Gardens, Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens and New York’s Forest Hills Stadium (the private tennis club in Queens) and later the Paramount Theater.

Continue reading “Day 9 of 2026 baseball book reviews: You’ve been promoted” →

“Unhittable: How Technology, Mavericks and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of
Pitching Dominance”

The author: Rob Freidman/aka PitchingNinja
The details: HarperCollins, 288 pages, $32, released March 24, ‘26
The links: The publisher, the author, Bookshop.org

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A review in 90 feet or less:

That was almost really scary 😅

🎥: SportsNet LA pic.twitter.com/ANVayxEOHt

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 14, 2026

Technically, it was an illogical technological clustermess. It nearly short-circuited the ebbs and flow and safety of all concerned in a recent Dodgers-Mets contest.

Fourth inning: Mets reliever Craig Kimbrel does his crab-like glare into catcher Francisco Alvarez for a sign — even though we assume he’s hearing it through a small speaker in his cap with the new-fangled PitchCom device. That was put into the game to speed it up and prevent sign stealing. Now we see some unintended consequences.

As Alvarez realizes the pitch clock is winding down to the final two seconds, has a panic attack. Rather than allow Kimbrel to be flagged as a violator, and the count to the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani to go to 3-2, the catcher leaps out from behind the plate, sidesteps Ohtani (just as he’s coiling to what he anticipates is a ball coming at him), seems to ask for a timeout amidst his arm flailing, lurches toward the mound and plants himself in front of the plate on the grass like a school crossing guard trying to stop an oncoming e-bike.

Kimbrel, head down, doesn’t notice all this happening. So when he leaps into his jerky windup, he suddenly realizes Alvarez is an object in his peripheral vision closer than he actually appears.

And Ohtani freaks out.

Already been hit by a pitch in his first at-bat and still feeling its affect, and already startled by Alvarez moments earlier when the catcher tried to make a back-pick of Dodgers runner Miguel Rojas at first base, Ohtani spins away to his right in some kind of self preservation mode.

Homeplate umpire Nic Lentz does his own ballet leap to his left. Did he agree to Alvarez’s time-out call? We’re not all that sure as Lentz is still trying to keep some integrity of the game.

Kimbrel almost falls down.

The Dodgers’ broadcasters gasp as well. What just happened?

Unbelievable.

Ninth inning: We’re being technologically challenged again with the Dodgers putting the final touches on a 4-0 victory. Gotta use those unused Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System head-taps, because they don’t carry over to extra innings. Or to tomorrow. Use ’em or lose ’em.

Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott pitches to Mets’ No 9 hitter Tyrone Taylor with a 1-1 count. It is called a ball by Lentz. Dodgers catcher Will Smith wants a review.

The ABS graphic shows that a sliver of the ball hit the side of the gray screen box graphic. The call is overturned. It’s a 1-2 count now instead of 2-1.

“That’s ridiculous,” says Dodgers TV analyst Eric Karros. “You gotta give me more than a seam on that part of the plate (to change it from a ball to a strike). I mean … you gotta give me half a ball or something.”

Undeniable.

And all there for the fans left in the expensive seats to capture on their iPhones to share later.

For all of today’s umpires — including C.B. Bucknor — are already flinching on calling runners safe or out on the basepaths, since instant replay continues to add more nuanced layers of challenge-able calls but also refuses others like a foul tip that make it seem rather arbitrary — this technology seems to add to this pursuit of perfection that will never be attained.

“MLB doesn’t really know in what direction they want the game to go,” Joe Posnanski has written about this on an almost daily basis since the 2026 season started, and before. “They know — they HAVE to know — that the Day of the Umpire has passed, and that the game will be officiated very differently in the years ahead. And I have been saying for a while now that ABS for every pitch is coming.”

Unacceptable.

Just went on CNN to talk about my book Unhittable—how technology is making pitchers nastier than ever… and also what robo umps could mean for both pitchers & hitters.

Thanks @Phil_Mattingly! pic.twitter.com/yM8rWnlYd5

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 25, 2026

Amidst CNN’s March 25 broadcasting day, there was Phil Mattingly, the network’s chief domestic correspondent filling in for Jake Tapper on “The Lead” (and apparently no relation to Don Mattingly), trying to navigate that hour’s worth of more bizzaro news coverage. He found a way to segue from the Strait of Hormuz straight to Friedman toward the end of the show so Friedman’s new book could be discussed completely out of context before “Erin Burnett Outfront” comes on.

Mattingly: I do want to start with ABS. What do you think of this? What does this change?
Friedman: So, it changes a lot. It’s going to change things like framing. It’s going to change what you’re seeing on the on the screen because some pitches, you know, you see those curve balls that barely clip the zone that umpires give up on, hitters give up on, and now they can be challenged and be a strike. There’s a whole level of strategy that comes to be now with robo umps.
Mattingly: Does this benefit pitchers?
Friedman: That’s a great question. I think that’s heavily debated. … There are hitters that say it favors them because the strike zone will be smaller and they can’t expand the zone. But there are pitchers that say they’re just going to clip the zone with breaking stuff, east to west, north to south. And hitters are going to be helpless against it. So, I’m curious to see what happens.
Mattingly: Yeah, it’s going to be fascinating to watch it play out.

How unseemly. Unsuitable. Unbefitting for all.

And wait’ll next year when the automated check-swing review process is introduced.

Continue reading “Day 7 of 2026 baseball book reviews: Under-handed promises, over-our-heads delivery” →