Suppressing inter-sausage competition in order to foster the league's image?Lost in the local and national hubbub over the introduction of a fifth Racing Sausage to the Klement's lineup at Miller Park is the fact that Major League Baseball, which has authority over such merchandising and licensing matters, has put the Chorizo back in the freezer.
Baseball has strict rules for clubs that want to introduce a new mascot, uniform or logo change, and the Chorizo got caught up in the rules.
According to Susan Goodenow, an MLB spokesman, baseball wants to be sure that fans tie into new characters or promotions from a marketing and licensing standpoint.
We are dealing with a business that has some of the characteristics of a regulated industry. It won't go quite as far as "The existing sausages are capable of performing the race. If more interesting races are desired the existing sausages can race faster. The Chorizo is incompetent to participate in a sausage race."She said baseball granted the Milwaukee Brewers a special dispensation allowing the character to participate in last Saturday's Sausage Race as part of Cerveceros Day at Miller Park.
But for the Chorizo, it was one and done for 2006. And with it went a public relations campaign that got Klement's and the Brewers national publicity.
But there is the potential for some deal-killing attorney to decide that some people are having too much fun.
If Major League Baseball acts like a cartel, I'll let you know. Spam and mash for any killjoys.Dan Lipke, Klement's senior vice president of sales and marketing, said the company had no problems putting the Chorizo on the physically unable to perform list for the rest of the season.
"Everything in sports and business is a work in progress," Lipke said. "It is what it is."
Lipke said the downtime would enable Klement's and the Brewers to design new marketing and promotion programs for the five racing sausages.
"But baseball has the final say," he said.
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