January 19, 2004
Get 'Em While They're Hot
They won't be there much longer, but Major League Baseball's online store is selling Alex Rodriguez's Red Sox home jersey.
If it's gone from the MLB shop then check out the report on this at BostonDirtDogs' website.
Posted by jghiii at January 19, 2004 10:58 PMDude, you were Punk'd!
It turns out this MLB.com "Alex Rodriguez Red Sox Jersey" web page was just a big hoax. This news report was posted on ESPN.com:
Dirt on the shirt: A-Rod jersey a hoax
A person who has access to create pages on MLB.com posted a link to the Web site's online shop that offered fans an opportunity to purchase an Alex Rodriguez replica Boston Red Sox jersey for $99.95.
An image of the page appears on Red Sox fan site www.bostondirtdogs.com. and remained posted Wednesday morning. The file containing the A-Rod jersey image was uploaded to bostondirtdogs.com on Friday and was accompanied by the text "Boston Red Sox Alex Rodriguez Replica Home Jersey. Be one of the first to own a jersey customized with the name and number of the newest Red Sox, Alex Rodriguez! $99.95."
A source close to the situation said the link was up for several minutes and the same individual who posted it apparently removed it from MLB.com.
"An authorized person conducted an unauthorized hoax," Jim Gallagher, spokesman for MLB Advanced Media, which runs MLB.com and 30 team Web sites, told ESPN.com. "We take this situation very seriously and we are currently investigating."
MLB.com Advanced Media editor-in-chief Dinn Mann was not available for comment.
-- Darren Rovell, ESPN.com
I never thought it was real. I thought it was a very embarrassing mistake.
MLB had since announced that it was an "unauthorized hoax" (not to be confused with an authorized hoax), but I know for a fact that the item was listed in their store for more than "several minutes". I looked at the listing when I first discovered it, and was surprised to see it still online 12 hours later.
It was a prank taken too far. Someone's probably in big trouble. I never thought it was real. I thought it was funny.