We just can't have nice things (Where's Bernie?)

[JimH5]

I didn't post this at all so hopefully people will then respond and say wow that's so nice of you. I'm not looking for a pat on the back, it's just that i remember being a young kid. Going to County Stadium on bat or pennant day. That was so awesome and i cherished those mini-bats. When a guy in the crowd once gave me my first major league baseball, i kept it on my dresser for a year or two. These promotions should be mainly about and for the kids first IMO and it really really bugs me when grown adults act like pricks and would put their self interests above kids over bobblehead toys or this current promotion involving Bernie Brewer.

 

FWIW, i'm not saying adults shouldn't keep bobbleheads they get at games just because i give mine away.

Exactly, things were so much simpler back then. I remember begging my parents to take me to baseball day or bat day or rain parka day or whatever. I'm still upset that I was a 'tweener' and didn't get one of those Pabst/Brewers fishing hats. Someday, I'll get one on the internet. I did score a 'Medalist' jersey though back in '83. What a madhouse that was. Friday night I believe, Gorman's first game back in County Stadium after the trade and Sutton got his 3,000 K. I remember the place being completely packed and they ran out of jerseys, people were getting pretty upset too, kind of foreshadowing how things are these days. The 'Autograph Fridays ' became a stampede too, I think I remember reading that they've limited that to kids this year. If so, that's a good thing. I don't think that this craziness is solely driven by greed, I think that sports in general have gotten a lot bigger with the masses. I remember going with my parents to Shopko in Janesville way back in the day when it opened- probably circa '79 or '80. Paul Molitor was back in the 'sports section' signing free autographs (sporting a stasche too, wish I could find the picture my mom took), if my recollection is correct, there was no line and few if any people milling around.. Can you imagine if this happened today? There'd be a line out the door.

I remember the night Nolan Ryan won his 300th game, and afterward a stadium employee was passing out certificates "I Was There. . ." The poor guy was just surrounded by a pushy mob, everyone grabbing for a piece of paper. He was getting it from all sides, and it was pretty crazy.

 

I'm a collector, so I appreciate the search for something cool and getting what you want--but this stuff just isn't for me. Bobbles, Lawn Statues, whatever. To me, they're like buying a hunk of Frozen Tundra, or a Beanie Baby. Everyone's got their thing, though. My only hope is that the market dries up for these and the hoarders end up with a trunk full of worthless junk--like cans of Billy Beer.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm sorry but what a bunch of losers. Seriously....you get up at like 5am on a Tuesday morning to go hoard a bunch of cheap little lawn ornaments with the grand idea of turning some huge profit? They probably took the day off of work loafing to do this too . I assume the idea of this was to get some prizes out to the kids and instead all these losers go out and grab as many of these things as possible. Get a life. The Brewers should invest more in just giving out rewards like this at elementary schools.

Fixed.

[danzig6767]

The sad part is that in most cases the people who act in such a matter are so pompous as to brag about what they've done, as if being some self indulgent stain on society is a badge of honor? They also tend to be so ignorant or maybe narcissistic they don't understand why other people take issue with what they do... it just blows my mind how selfish people can be. I once saw Brett Lawrie sign about 30 cards for a guy at a T-Rats game and found myself thinking that there's no way in hell I'd sign that many cards for someone, and I'd probably never sign for an adult outside of a team event which is part of the gig, I'd just sign for kids. I know there's fraud there to, people sending kids in to get items signed, it's just too bad the innocent intent has gotten replaced by selfishness and greed over the years.

Even with kids, many times adults use kids to curry them autographs and this whole autographs market is why many athletes now don't sign as many of them.

 

I saw a segment on some show about this and players would say how they'd sign something for a kid and then five minutes later the kid would be back with 2-3 other items he wanted signed. The player said he knew the kid was likely being paid to get stuff signed for someone who then would sell those autographed items. The athlete then is in a tough spot because if he tells the kid no, others around will think the athlete is being a jerk for not signing an autograph for a kid, but those people don't know about how exactly the autograph industry works.

 

I remember in the mid-90's when Packers fever in Wisconsin was absolutely crazy. Any autographed Packers stuff was going for big money in memorabilia shops, especially from prominent players. So these shops were paying kids to get items signed and players mentioned how they'd see the same kids there nearly every day with new items to be signed, and the players could figure out that no way were these certain kids buying all these items themselves.

 

In the end, it's adults who drive all of this. It's them who for some reason i can't figure out that place so much value on acquiring sports memorabilia, especially autographed memorabilia. That in turn has caused athletes to be more leery and resulted in kids who just want an autograph for themselves to have less access to the athletes.

 

As each year goes by, the more and more i realize just how many douchebag people are out there walking among us.

[bucksbeat]

We live in a sad world... When I heard about the promotion it went in one ear and out the other because you knew the outcome. It was definitely interesting but was as good as ruined when the idea first came to mind. The idiots in society ruin everything. Anything to find an easy way to make a quick buck without having to earn it. Cheat a promotion and slapping it on Ebay is their calling.

[strawbossisevil]

If I were a ballplayer, I would always personalize the signature. (for example: To Fred: Prince Fielder.) It would likely mean more to those who are interested in keeping the signed item rather than those who simply are looking to ebay the thing.

[RightFieldCoder]

As a STH, I know some of those autograph hounds. In 2008 our Brewers "reward" was a signed Braun bat. You had to supply the name you wanted on the bat. Braun would take the card, copy the name printed on the card, and then sign the bat. The autograph hounds were up in arms about the personalization. "What if I wanted to give the bat to my niece?" Well, you should have supplied your niece's name. They were telling me about a product that takes the ink off. They were mystified that I didn't want to use it also. They kept talking about how the value is degraded if it's personalized. So what? If all I'm doing is displaying it at my house, what do I care. They claim they only want to make sure it has value for their relatives after they die. I plan on lasting long enough that it won't matter. If I had a ball signed by, say, Clemente right now, how much less would it be valued if it also had "To Robin19" scrawled on it?

 

Knowing these kinds of people is why I didn't bother with the promotion.

 

[/rant]

[GB12]

Well at least the grand prize winner played by the rules, if you take his word for it. http://www.jsonline.com/n...milwaukee/122586209.html

[jerichoholicninja]

I have no idea how this promotion was even suppose to work. Did the Brewers send out a bunch of people to put stuff in people's lawns and then have people try to find it? If that's the case forgetting about hoarding what about trespassing.

[jjkoestler]

I posted this in the trading post section too. A video that actually makes you feel good about the promo..

 

 

"Is this a video by BF.neter MadGrad?

http://twitvid.com/K1CTY

 

Awesome video! Im so glad at least a few of these found their way to a fan's house. It looks like it made the little guy's day."

[bani1717]

No, it was in county parks.

 

What they should do is have a series of clues hidden at each park. People who collect all the clues at any one park would then be put into a random drawing for the prizes. This ensures that EVERYONE who attempts the scavenger hunt during the designated timeframe (maybe like a Saturday morning or something?) has a chance to find the clues and feel like they've accomplished something, without all the obsessed people taking all the objects before the event begins. The random drawing could just be submitted online, where you enter your name/personal info plus the clues (the clues might be letters that spell out a phrase or something) during the designated timeframe. This would make it easy to make sure no one gets more than one entry. You could also have Brewers employees handing out smaller prizes to everyone who finds all the clues at any given park.

 

I feel like this would create a better spirit of the event. I actually had a lot of fun searching for Bernie's, even though it turned out to be a total waste of time in the sense that I didn't get anything from my trips to 4 different parks and the lakefront. While at first I was more excited about the prizes than the hunt, I had fun searching just because my fiance decided to come along with me. I feel like a prize would've been nice, but ultimately whatever I got would've basically been another Brewer item in my never-ending pile of random sports items. What would've been real nice is just finding something just for the personal satisfaction.

 

That being said, this irritates me a lot more than people who get tons of bobbles or things like that, because the people who went out early and/or grabbed multiples basically ruined the spirit of the event for LOTS of other people. For people who get lots of bobbles, I think there are much better things you could be doing with your time and better ways to make money, but that's not ruining the bobble-collecting experience for others to the extent that the scavenger-hunting experience was ruined in this case. That, and the poor planning by the Brewers.

 

(Slightly off-topic rant begins here:) As for the autographs that a couple people mentioned, I collect autographs myself, and I personally can't stand the general belief that kids should be able to get autographs and not adults. As some have pointed out, some kids are working for dealers, and I can say that many adults who collect autographs are NOT dealers (while many other adults are dealers). I don't at all fault the Brewers for making the auto Friday's kids only, because that was a bit out of control, and they'd rather market it to the kids/families that come to occasional games moreso than the hardcore fans/collectors who get to every autograph Friday a couple hours early. I'm not happy about that being changed last year, but I understand it. My fiance sometimes tells me I'm like a kid when it comes to collecting autographs, and I realize a lot of people aren't, but I don't think people like me should be "frowned upon" because I enjoy getting autographs like a little kid does. I definitely appreciate the autographs I've collected in the past couple years a lot more than the ones I collected back in grade school, largely because I have nicer signed items now that will look a lot better when I display them.

[danzig6767]

I posted this in the trading post section too. A video that actually makes you feel good about the promo..

 

 

"Is this a video by BF.neter MadGrad?

http://twitvid.com/K1CTY

 

Awesome video! Im so glad at least a few of these found their way to a fan's house. It looks like it made the little guy's day."

That's awesome, thanks for posting the link.

[Roderick]

What they should do is have a series of clues hidden at each park. People who collect all the clues at any one park would then be put into a random drawing for the prizes. This ensures that EVERYONE who attempts the scavenger hunt during the designated timeframe (maybe like a Saturday morning or something?) has a chance to find the clues and feel like they've accomplished something, without all the obsessed people taking all the objects before the event begins.

You don't think that someone would just take a whole set of clues that was intended for everyone so that they had it for themselves?.....

[PrinceEatMeat]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/122698499.html

 

So she buckled and donated 17 bernies to Childrens Hospital. Good for her.

[bucksbeat]

So she buckled and donated 17 bernies to Childrens Hospital. Good for her.

And good for Brewer Fans! It's been good to hear that as a fanbase we don't just shrug our shoulders and let these people get away with being idiots. I can only imagine the negativity that she brought on herself. Loving the fact that people strapped themselves in and just kept on it.

[dlk9s]

They really should have just given out the clues the morning of the hunt. Don't even tell people in advance that the Bernies would be in parks. Just say there will be 1,400 hidden in whichever counties and cities and that at 5:00am or whatever time that clues will be disseminated on Twitter, Facebook, Brewers.com, etc. Then have the Bernies placed at one location at each site with staff members handing one out to each person.

[bani1717]

You don't think that someone would just take a whole set of clues that was intended for everyone so that they had it for themselves?.....

I think it would be pretty obvious to the Brewers if a single person got there really early and took away all the clues, resulting in only one entry from that one park. Also, the Brewers could check various parks throughout the day and at the end of the contest, or have staff members present, to make sure the clues are in place for the duration of the contest. But yes, if it's not at all policed, we've seen what can happen.

 

If you have a better idea, I'm all ears. But I've participated in a scavenger hunt like the one I described, and it seemed to work pretty well.

[logan82]

I agree that instead of having the actual Bernie statues they should have had some sort of text or internet code that would be entered. Then you pick up your prize at the ballpark. That way it would be easier to limit it to one per household. This was like a pinata breaking and the big bully stealing all the candy.

[bani1717]

This was like a pinata breaking and the big bully stealing all the candy.

More like a big bully stealing the whole pinata before it even got hung up....