From the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Todd Zolecki.
Baseball treasures its traditions, which is why the national pastime is so special to so many people.
Hot dogs, peanuts, Cracker Jack.
The traditional blood sport of cockfighting has not made its way into baseball’s fabric, and it probably never will considering that it is illegal in 48 states and the District of Columbia. So imagine the surprise of two Phillies season-ticket holders when they recently played a Phillies highlights DVD only to find a Spanish-language cockfighting video.
The Phillies had sent about 4,000 DVDs to season-ticket holders who had not renewed their season tickets, and as far as they know, only two have featured the sport where specially bred gamecocks are placed in an enclosure to fight to a bloody death.
The DVD manufacturer, ProAction Video, took responsibility for the error. It said when it started its Phillies DVD run, a few DVDs from a previous run to another customer inadvertently remained in the molding equipment.
Oops.
Some of the cockfighting DVDs were stamped with a Phillies graphic, which featured second baseman Chase Utley (above) and the title Power of the Plan.
The Phillies said in a statement that they “regret if any recipient was offended as a result.”
Presumably, the Phillies also regret if any recipient was delighted as a result.
The apology is a nice start, but I fail to see what good it will do for those who may now have permanent scars from viewing the video from these disgusting, degrading spectacles.
I hope the next step would be for the Phillies to recall the other 3,998 DVDs featuring 2005 highlights and replace them free of charge.
I wonder if this increases his fantasy value. I’ll be looking for roughly .290, with 28 homers, and 38 kills.