Quote:
Originally Posted by RedEye
This is all true. Good points.
You would admit, though, that there are distinctions to be made here as well. Adding a Spanish language shirt to the mix has more potential for far different forms of fandom than the green Irish shirt. To me, the Irish shirt seems more like a pure gimmick (and I'm part Irish) than the Los Rojos, if only because it is in the same language and there is a ton of overlap between the two groups (Anglophone Irish Americans and other Anglophone Americans tend to be pretty closely affiliated with one another, at least over the past few centuries).
The Spanish stuff, though, that's much newer and more dynamic and untested waters. Right?
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I'd say Rojos shirts are a pure gimmick with the opportunity to spawn future gimmicks, even to progress beyond gimmicks. Green shirts and caps are about as far as you can take the Irish thing. Beer cozy is about the only other place to go. Irish cultural traits like extreme distrust of outsiders and repressed sexuality just don't make for great merchandising opportunities.
Like you noted, who knows where the Hispanic thing goes. There's nations full of Spanish speaking people who follow MLB plus a massive Hispanic-American culture. The jersey itself reflects American mashup culture, which is an avenue to reaching younger fans. So it's definitely bigger down the road.
As for today, it's just another product off the huckster mill.