Politicians and baseball

Ralph Nader blew a gasket over the ads on the MLB uniforms. In a letter to Bud Selig, Nader wrote that the ads "ambushed fans across the country and left them shaking their heads at this obscene embarrassment."

Uh, no. Fans complained about a lot of things but the ads were hardly near the top of the list. Does Nader think he can make a good name for himself by defending baseball from advertising? "This overcommercialization," he also wrote, "is sapping the fun out of being a fan of major league baseball."

Note to Nader, and note to President Bush, who spoke in the SOTU address like he couldn't wait to score points off the BALCO investigation: the danger is not overcommercialism but overpoliticization. Stop monkeying with the games we play for escape. Get to work on the more urgent problems that make the games necessary.

...Weds update: Dave Pinto is talking sense on the question.