MLB More Concerned With Pink Bat Sponsorships Than Umpires Fucking Up

For Mother's Day, MLB players sometimes use pink bats with the intent of bringing awareness to breast cancer. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports found that this season, the MLB struck an exclusive deal with the parent company of Louisville Slugger to make those bats.

From Big League Stew:

According to Passan, an email outlining the agreement was sent out to the other league-approved companies in April. As a part of those guidelines, the other companies (including MaxBat) are still allowed to manufacture pink bats, but the catch is their bats cannot include ribbons, corporate logos, distinguishing marks or names of charities.

So for the players who want to honor someone they love who's been affected by breast cancer, but don't use Louisville Sluggers—Townsend points out Trevor Plouffe and Nick Markakis—sucks for you. Honoring a sponsorship and capitalizing on a thoughtful, emotional gesture takes precedent.

Meanwhile, this week, "the human element" fucked up twice. Where a pink bat comes from is much more important to the MLB, though.

[ Big League Stew]

Photo credit: Getty Images/Mike McGinnis