Super Shorts' Marketing Mayhem
Baseball America Online, July 1999
By Alan Schwarz

No analysis of the tools of Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez would be complete without ranking their skills in the ultimate forum: marketing. Teenage girls shriek for Derek and Alex the way their mothers did for John and Paul. And Garciaparra has come to embody America’s blue-collar pride while capturing the hearts of Red Sox fans everywhere. So we consulted experts to help us determine just who has what it takes in the endorsement biz: Marty Blackman, president of Blackman and Raber, a New York sports talent consulting firm that recommends athletes for commercials; Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon’s business school and the man who, as advertising manager for Miller Lite in the 1980s, helped cast Bob Uecker, Billy Martin and Marv Throneberry for their classic ads; John Rolfe, senior editor for Sports Illustrated For Kids magazine, who has his finger on what’s hip with the next generation; and Toni Ambrose, a 34-year-old self-professed baseball nut from White Plains, N.Y., who crashed the All-Star Game in Boston and insists she is not partial toward Jeter. Panelists were asked to rank the players on a scale of 1-to-10 in the categories that Burton told us determine how marketable an athlete can be, from talent to looks to crossover appeal. As you’ll see, Jeter, who already endorses for Nike, Florsheim and Skippy, has topped his fellow shortstops again.

Overall 1. Derek Jeter 2. Alex Rodriguez 3. Nomar Garciaparra On-Field Performance 1. Rodriguez (9.3) 2. Jeter (8.3) 3. Garciaparra (8) "Kids are notorious bandwagon riders. Jeter's having a great year, and even though Alex is great, Ken Griffey is still the Mariners." (Rolfe)

Team Performance 1. Jeter (9.8) 2. Rodriguez (7) 3. Garciaparra (6) "Nomar's team never wins the World Series, the Curse of the Bambino and all that. He's got a totally different positioning than Derek Jeter, whose name just rolls off young tongues. Garpiacarra? Carciagarra? Let's just call him Nomar G." (Burton)

Team's Market 1. Jeter (10) 2. Garciaparra (8) 3. Rodriguez (5.8) "The positioning on Jeter is big city, big guy. He's the top dog. The Northwest (for Rodriguez) is a black hole. There aren't enough eyeballs." (Burton)

Looks 1. Jeter (8.3) 2. Rodriguez (7.3) 3. Garciaparra (5) "Nomar isn't as handsome. He's not a turnoff, but definitely not the same." (Ambrose) "Jeter's the quintessential pretty boy, but A-Rod's close. This is making me squirrelly." (Rolfe)

Well-Spokenness 1. Rodriguez (8) 2. Jeter (7.7) 3. Garciaparra (7) "Jeter's very composed. A-Rod the same thing. They speak very well and come off as very mature for their age. Nomar speaks from the heart but doesn't come off as confidently." (Ambrose)

Camera Presence 1. Jeter (8.8) 2. Rodriguez (8.3) 3. Garciaparra (6.8) "A-Rod's more outgoing. Jeter seems like it's pulling teeth to have him say anything remotely interesting. He's not cold or aloof, but not zany or rollicking like you might get from A-Rod." (Rolfe) "Jeter's got a more angled face. You can see he'll photograph well. He's got a nice smile, pleasant. He's likeable; that's the key word." (Blackman) Crossover Appeal 1. Jeter (8.8) 2. Rodriguez (8) 3. Garciaparra (6.5) "Black-white, old-young, male-female, Derek's a no-brainer. And the Ricky Martin phenomenon is going strong, so A-Rod is poised to ride that wave." (Burton)

While We Were At It Some questions we just had to ask about the Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

Least Want To Play Poker Against 1. Garciaparra 2. Jeter 3. Rodriguez "Garciaparra. I think he's the most straight-faced. Other guys have twinkles in their eyes. You can see things." (Syd Thrift) "Jeter. He has such an even temperament on the field. It seems like he's the least emotional of the three." (Roy Smith) "Rodriguez. He's smooth. He's sly. He's old beyond his years." (Dave Wilder)

Best Looking 1. Jeter 2. Rodriguez 3. Garciaparra "I'm not answering that. I'm better looking than them." (Jose Rosado) "Jeter. Anybody who can hang with Mariah Carey . . . " (Chuck McMichael) "Them." (Nomar Garciaparra)

First To $200 Million Contract 1. Rodriguez 2. Jeter 3. Garciaparra (6) "Rodriguez. He's gonna be the direct recipient of whatever happens to Griffey." (Gordon Lakey) "We'll all be in the insurance business by then." (Mark Newman)

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