Tacos: Free. Product placement: Priceless.

Joanna --

It was Royce Clayton, not Lugo, but yeah, that back and forth was really, really disturbing, and over the line.

Even more disturbing, however, is this new trend of making the home crowd watch television ads on the scoreboard IN THE STADIUM.

You know why tickets were bid up so high on Craigslist? It wasn't just to see the game, but to see it without being bothered by Dane Cook every four minutes. Unfortunately, even inside Fenway Park, there was no escape, as we had to listen to "ACHTOBER" even there.

To their credit, Fox did one thing well, miking the pitching coach so we could hear the conversation on the mound. In 30 years of watching ball, I've never heard that. But I'm surprised Apodaca didn't tell his pitchers to put a little hot sauce on it, so we can keep playing deeper into ACHTOBER!

i said the exact same thing to my roommate -- what a ridiculous conversation...it had to be prompted...

and regardless of whether it was prompted or not, did producers have to play it during the game?

reminds me of when super bowl mvps say they are going to disney world after their victory...

Corrected, Jeffrey, thanks. And Asad, that's the point I'll make in tomorrow's paper: Sure, it's credible that Clayton was amused by the promotion. I was, too. And there's a time for product placement. But there's also a time for restraint. - Joanna

I'm all up for "Trash a Taco Tuesday" just to show Taco Bell just how cheesy we think they are.
Its sad that its a Native American (Ellsbury) that led to this - the diabetes rate amongst native Americans is now the worlds highest, in large part due to the cheap trash food and soda distributed by these [redacted] at "Yum Brands"

i just caught up on an episode of Bionic Woman from 2 weeks ago...and they had a blatant product placement for the chocolate drink YooHoo...first when the two characters drink it...then second when they discuss how many words can be made out of the letters in 'yoohoo'...

i'm starting to get disgusted with all the product placement in shows..

Joanna, is there a move by the FCC or other agency to have shows disclose what products are intentionally placed in a tv show. It feels a lot like subliminal messaging....

I saw that episode, too, Asad, and I specifically noticed a little fine-print note as the credits rolled at the end: "Promotional consideration by YooHoo." Blink, and you would have missed it, but it was there. Which makes me wonder if there is, indeed, a rule...it's worth some questioning. I'll let you know what I find out.

When watching the game, I didn't personally feel like the conversation in the dugout was setup the way people are putting it. I'm a ballplayer and I'd have had fun talking about it in the dugout just like they did. Knowing I had the power to change the way everyone in the world got their taco (or not) is a powerful subject! Of course there would be commotion about it!

The producers of the Fox network are having to do things on the fly with the video/audio work. If they can capture controversial things, they will within their limit. I think the real question here is if that extra work to show what was captured was warranted. I think it's cute to see the players talk about their taco destiny.

I don't think Jacoby Ellsbury's brilliant base steal in Game Two was arranged in WWE fashion for its commercial effect. I went and claimed my taco today just to honor his excellence in my own small way (the taco slinger in the local store in Arlington, Virginia, shook his head and smiled and said "This guy's gonna be famous!").

Whatever percentage of Ellsbury's genes are American Indian (Russell Means: "You born in America? Then you're a Native American!"), I think it's Jacoby's prerogative to define his identity. Right now, I bet he's thinking "stand-out rookie World Series Champion," and well he should! I bet he's NOT thinking of himself as the moral exemplar of "his people" enthralled to some progressive food Nazi's Puritanism.

Well put, Terry. I think people are too hung-up on their hyphenated-American-ness: Italian-American, African American, Irish-American, Mexican-American, Polish-American...

Shouldn't we be looking for things that unite us rather than for things that divide? What defines us - ethnicity of the people who preceded us or is it ourselves? Is that really so important? If so, then perhaps we should have rules about it, for example, what percentage of our blood must come from an ethnic group before we can "claim" that group as our hypenated heritage? What should it be: not less than 1/16? 1/64?

Last people to try something like this were Hitler and his henchmen who were pathologically obssessed with ethnic puriity - their own andeveryone else's. It is thanks to the WWII effort of the (non-hyphenated) Americans, Brits, Canadians and Aussies, the Red Army in the East (and let's not forget the many nations' resistance forces) who defeated the Nazi's effort to measure us solely by our blood lines...

Jacoby Ellsbury played an AMAZING season of baseball and this is what we are celebrating - NOT whether he is a first (or third or whatever) player of Native American ancestry, who played a fantastic season of baseball... And, Jacoby, if you read this - thanks for the tacos. I don't care for them myself but I know a fellow who claimed his.