The Minor Contest: American Parade

Two rival American minor-league baseball team owners in Minnesota and New York are wound in a competition involving a comics-and-cards collecting modern-day dream.

I needed to offer up an 'Americana vignette' about timeless social interest in patriotic dioramas, and this extra yarn was inspired by the film For Love of the Game (Kevin Costner!).

Thanks so much for reading (signing off),

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"Ishmael Merchant decided to blog photos of his American baseball (MLB) card collection on the Internet, in blogs about the modern social value of capitalism in youthful markets. He was especially proud of his Ryne Sandberg (Chicago Cubs), Kirby Puckett (Minnesota Twins), and Rickey Henderson (Oakland Athletics) cards. Merchant wanted to promote his Puckett Fleer-card during Black History Month, so Americans would appreciate Ishmael's sense of online patriotism. He was a real-life knight!"

"The Puckett Fleer-card Merchant posted photos of on his Internet blogs was quite outstanding and in stellar shape! It was a valuable and symbolic 20th Century American baseball card. Ishmael considered this card a terrific symbol of modern consumerism marketing for American athletics. However, this particular card, because he blogged about it on the Internet, was about to cast Ishmael on a very unusual adventure."

"An attractive female owner (Shelbye Harris) of a new minor-league team connected to Puckett's team, the Minnesota Twins, saw Ishmael Merchant's Internet post about the splendor and patriotism and consumerism value of the Fleer card and decided she wanted to hype the distribution of images of the Puckett card in modern media and markets to complement her advertisements about the new Minnesota minor-league baseball team tied to the Twins which she now owned!"

"Ishmael explained he loved trading and buying and collecting baseball cards ever since he was a kid. He'd collected thousands of them and was a big fan of all kinds of 'Americana' consumerism totems such as iconic classic pro-American life TV shows like The Little Rascals and Happy Days. Shelbye Harris realized she'd discovered a true American patriot in Ishmael Merchant and wanted to use his sense of 'Americana spirit' to help her marketing strategy for her Minnesota Twins connected minor-league team, which incidentally, was called the Rascals. This was to be a really 'Americana' diorama."

"However, a rival female owner (Anka Pasternak) of another minor-league baseball team connected to an MLB team, the New York Mets, had a competitive plan to downplay Shelbye's Rascals plan! Anka was a Russian-American, immigrant, and daughter of a wealthy Russian billionaire who owned the Euro-soccer team Chelsea in England's Premier League. Anka wanted to promote her minor-league baseball team connected to the NY Mets, which was called the Stars, by advertising the social fascination with foreign and exotic fashionable products/goods such as Christian Dior men's cologne, not simply 'Americana totems' like Ishmael was helping Shelbye Harris advertise for the Minnesota Rascals! Anka was therefore a real ruthless challenger."

"Fortunately, Ishmael also collected American comic books and his collection was extremely impressive. He decided to provide Shelbye Harris a series of comic book prints featuring popular scenes from recent big-budget Hollywood (USA) movies adapted from comic books such as Batman (DC Comics) and Iron Man (Marvel Comics). These superhero prints would accent Shelbye Harris' plan to create an 'Americana mosaic' for smalltown and endorsement-lucrative marketing angle to increase interest in her Minnesota Rascals minor-league baseball team. Ishmael's comic book prints were definitely American gold."

"Ishmael and Shelbye began dating, and he was offered an executive position with the Minnesota Rascals. He used some of his newfound money to buy for Shelbye a darling black-diamond ring which represented his passion for American baseball and American aesthetics! This was a terrific sideshow in the otherwise tense competition between Shelbye's Minnesota Rascals and Anka's New York Stars! Who thought American minor-league baseball could be so darn shiny?"

"A major Hollywood (USA) celebrity began to take notice of this heated rivalry between the Minnesota Rascals and New York Mets and decided to feature a dramatized adapted short-story sideshow in his new Spielberg movie about an iconic world-traveling American pilot who begins to discover the everyday magic of simple American drama!"

SHELBYE: You won't win this one, Anka.

ANKA: Having Merchant's comics and cards doesn't make you queen, Shelbye!
SHELBYE: We'll see.
ANKA: This is a time of great marketing, not standard American rhetoric.
SHELBYE: We'll see.
ANKA: Americans want pizzazz in their pizzas right now, Shelbye.
SHELBYE: Well, Americans always appreciate good old social smiles too.
ANKA: I didn't know you were a 'tradition' nut, Shelbye.
SHELBYE: You haven't learned enough about Americana divinity, Anka!
ANKA: We'll see.

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