Merry Christmas from Baseblog!
Earlier this month, all Major League Baseball teams released their own Season’s Greetings e-card. Some were funny, some were creative, while others were … simple, to put it nicely. In the spirit of competition, I took a look at each of the NL Central team’s holiday greeting and put them against one another. Which team has the most holiday spirit? Find out below.
Before we look at the holiday standings, here are the highlights from each team’s e-card.
Most Interactive Greeting: Pittsburgh Pirates
Actually, the Pirates had the only interactive greeting in the Central. The rest of the teams just posted videos, so props to the Pirates. Eleven presents rest under a black and gold decorated tree, with players like Andrew McCutchen, Jose Tabata, Joel Hanrahan, as well as manager Clint Hurdle inside. The parrot mascot also makes an appearance, but I’ll let you see that for yourself.
Best Use of Highlights: St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals’ greeting begins with a gentle tune and a book on-screen entitled “Funny how you always remember the first snow of the year.” Suddenly, the book opens and video of the electrifying, World Series clinching night at Busch Stadium plays, with confetti in the sky falling like snow. Albert Pujols and company hug in celebration to Christmas music and Cardinals logo snowflakes. The confetti-snow comparison is great and worth a happy chuckle.
Most Heart-Warming: Chicago Cubs
The greeting from the Cubs is a recap of all the giving they’ve done this year and the charities they’ve supported, as well thanking the generous fan base. Pictures from the Wives’ Food Drive, the Bricks and Ivy ball, the Mesa Soup Kitchen and other good deeds from the year are shown. It’s nice to see Sean Marshall hanging out with our troops and people in wheelchairs playing ball. New Cubs players Ian Stewart and David DeJesus even make an appearance, photoshopped into the foreground.
Most Difficult Concept: Houston Astros
Featuring different players, executives, and employees (as well as one red spandex man), the Astros’ holiday video uses multiple screens infused into one, up to 25 at a time. All the shots are edited together and coordinated perfectly as well. White Astros logos (presumably snowflakes) made out of paper fall down from the sky, baseballs and posters with season’s greetings are passed from screen to screen, and in the end, a Christmas tree (topped with the Astros star) is made combining multiple shots. It’s incredibly creative and it looks like it took a lot of planning to pull off. You really need to see it to believe it.
Best Slogan: St. Louis Cardinals
The World Champions’ video ended with “Post-Postseason’s Greetings from Cardinal Nation”. Clever, eh? It doesn’t get much better than that. An honorable mention goes to the Milwaukee Brewers. Their short and to the point greeting finishes with “The Milwaukee Brewers wish you a championship holiday season.” Considering how creative their Holiday 4 Pack ad was, I expected more than a simple group picture from the Brew Crew.
Top Player Appearance: Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates
McCutchen, wrapped snuggly in the royal blue present under the tree, had the most entertaining appearance of any NL Central player. The 25 year old stud sings Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to himself, then comically notices the camera. After wishing Pirates fans a happy holidays, he goes back to singing Jingle Bells to himself. It’s cheesy goodness, and I don’t know an MLB team who wouldn’t want him under their tree. Honorable mention goes to Brandon Phillips of the Cincinnati Reds. “It’s your boy, B.P.,” and a jolly “Ho, ho, ho,” are almost enjoyable as McCutchen’s singing.
Now we’ve seen the highlights, where do the greetings stand? Without further ado, here are your 2011 holiday standings! To pump up anticipation, the standings are listed in reverse order. Drum roll please …
6th Place: Milwaukee Brewers.
I was disappointed in the Brewers’ holiday greeting. It seems they were too busy upgrading at shortstop, third base, and backing up the outfield to put together a quality greeting. But hey, that’s what’s important, right? I think Nyjer Morgan and the Racing Sausages can star in the next one and kick it up a notch.
5th Place: Cincinnati Reds.
The use of different players and languages was nice, but the Reds’ video wasn’t anything special. Next year, let Phillips freestyle to some classic Christmas tunes.
4th Place: Chicago Cubs.
This video wasn’t all that exciting, but I put it above the Brewers and Reds for the charity aspect. A big part of the holiday season should be remembering to give back and help out those less fortunate than you. That being said, these bottom three e-cards were very close.
3rd Place: St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cards’ World Series highlights and confetti–erm, I mean, snow put them above the rest. Plus, like I said, Post-Postseason has a nice ring to it.
2nd Place: Pittsburgh Pirates.
Andrew McCutchen and the parrot made this holiday greeting enjoyable. Bonus points for the interactivity.
1st Place: Houston Astros.
The Astros dominated this holiday season competition hands down. The concept was creative and took extra effort to pull off. Houston has been towards the bottom of the division standings in recent years, but this holiday season they can hold their head high.
Congratulations to the Astros, and once again, a very merry Christmas to you and your family!
[...] In case you missed it, closer John Axford posted a JibJab “Elf Yourself” video for the holiday season. Maybe the Milwaukee Brewers should have just used that instead of their boring holiday greeting. [...]