"Some People Bought World Series Souvenirs. Others Created One"
Diane Ellis, Ed. ·
Jul 5, 2011 at 10:09pm
Get a load of this contest.
7:54 pm. November 1, 2010. The Giants beat the Rangers in Game 5 of the World Series to take home the title. Pandemonium ensues. Amid the cheering and sea of orange and black, some people chose to celebrate more...privately. Nine months later, we'll meet the World Championship Baby.
Here are the official rules. Parents of the baby born closest to 7:54 pm on August 1, 2011 will win $2,010 in cash, a commemorative brick at AT&T Park in San Francisco, and an official certificate from the San Francisco Giants acknowledging the winner’s child as the “Giants Championship Baby."
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Re: "Some People Bought World Series Souvenirs. Others Created One"
At first i thought this contest was really bizarre in a bad way, but...after reading and writing about 160 million aborted girls earlier today, it's good to see that some people still celebrate life
Re: "Some People Bought World Series Souvenirs. Others Created One"
I hope they announced it more than 9 months ago to make it fair.
Apr '11
Re: "Some People Bought World Series Souvenirs. Others Created One"
Diane Ellis:
Your initial reaction was right. It is bizarre in a bad way. It is grotesque. It isn't pro-natalist. It is one more instance of the commodification of children. Also, it encourages and exploits the strain of vulgar immodesty in our popular culture evoked by the words "Jerry Springer".
But enough of that. Given that the population of mothers is limited to rabid Giants fans who were delirious and/or intoxicated that night, there is a serious omission in the rules: they don't anticipate that there might be more than one claimant for fatherhood of the winning child.
Whad 'bout that, hunh?!?! Inquiring minds want to know.
Jun '10
Re: "Some People Bought World Series Souvenirs. Others Created One"
Remember the East Coast black-out. Nine month later there was a spike in births. You gotta ask yourself, how many of these babies were conceived in elevators, and might there be a spike in Otis as a name? There's a lot of ups and downs in life, I guess, so best to celebrate where and when you can.
Edited on Jul 6, 2011 at 5:40amFeb '11
Re: "Some People Bought World Series Souvenirs. Others Created One"
Grendel - "commodification"? Really? You need to unpucker girl - or am I just imagining all of those "first baby of the new year" contests that every local paper in the country have held since publishing began? Besides, growing up in a family headed by a Catholic father and a Mormon mother, the concept of children as a much loved (and plentiful) commodity is not as scary as it sounds. My only gripe with this contest is that the Giants took so long to win that my own family was completed years ago, and my wife had already placed me on the DL (via a coerced vasectomy)...
Apr '11
Re: "Some People Bought World Series Souvenirs. Others Created One"
You are using "commodity" equivocally. I am sure your parents regarded your siblings (and you, too) as persons and gifts of God to be loved for yourselves, not accessories, lifestyle choices, or other means to an end.
I've seen first-baby-of-the-year-in-the-local-hospital announcements, but not contests, let alone contests requiring pre-natal registration and post-natal certification. And any such announcements or "contests" focus on the birth, not the time of conception ("April Fools Baby!"). Let's see if any of the contestants has a C-section to try to stick the time-of-birth.
And although I usually disdain "commercial" as a term of opprobrium or delegitimization, FWIW, the Giants' contest is crudely commercial compared with a light-hearted, journalistic human-interest gimmick.
Edited on Jul 6, 2011 at 12:12pm