Not only have the Giants whiffed on top free agents recently, they’ve left one of their most important sponsors without a player in their commercials.
2021 was a banner year for San Francisco Giants baseball. The team won a franchise-record 107 games, fans loved quirky manager Gabe Kapler and his creative platoons, and Alex Dickerson was on our televisions nearly every inning, talking about how much he loved cheese steaks.
It’s legitimately the best cheese steak he’s had outside of Philly!
But Dickerson left the team, and the Cheese Steak Shop, after that magical 2021 season. Perhaps concerned that another spokesman would leave the team and make the commericals look dated, the Shop turned to former manager Bruce Bochy and coaches Tim Flannery and Ron Wotus the following season.
You can’t live in the past! Your cheese steak would get stale! They went 81-81. Even a creative and unsettling commercial where Brandon Crawford essentially did a mukbang video with cheese steaks couldn’t reverse the bad sandwich momentum.
Crawford was a great choice, except that his days with the team were numbered. Once again, the Cheese Steak Shop had to change spokespeople. Last season, they leaned on NBC Bay Area personnel and former public address announcer Renel Brooks-Moon. The Giants, and the Cheese Steak Shop deserve better, by which we mean a long-term face of the Cheese Steak Shop. Here are some top candidates.
- Matt Chapman
The case for Chapman is strong. He has a long-term contract that keeps him in a Giants uniform for six more years. Chapman invented a postgame ritual where he selects players of the game and has them shoot a basket, with Chapman himself officiating the attempts, in a referee shirt. That shows he has the creativity the Cheese Steak Shop needs, along with comfort in the spotlight and with wearing costumes.
2. Logan Webb
The Giants ace is another player on a long-term deal, letting the CSS get some stability as the face of their grilled meat empire. Webb can also expand the profile of the often Giants-specific nature of the Cheese Steak ads, as the Rocklin native is also an avowed fan of the Sacramento Kings and the Las Vegas Raiders. Much to Giants fans disappointment.
3. Tyler and Taylor Rogers
While the Rogers brothers are only guaranteed to be on the roster for one more season, assuming the Giants complete a no-brainer of a deal in arbitration, advertisers can’t resist twins. Whether it’s the Doublemint Twins, Ronde and Tiki Barber for Visa, or Coors Light songs, commercials can’t get enough of twins.
Maybe the Cheese Steak Shop can double its efficiency with a left-handed cook and a right-handed cook manning the grill together. Maybe there’s a pun about submarine sandwiches and a submarine delivery. Or they just try a song:
I love onions on the grills
Spraying on Cheez Whiz
Eating with my friends
And twins!
4. Junh Hoo Lee
The wildly charismatic Lee is also signed long-term for the Giants, and based on the legendary, delicious Korean steak sandwich from Rhea’s Deli, there’s definitely a potential crossover for a Jung Ho Lee specialty item. Sure, cheese isn’t a big part of Korean cuisine, but wouldn’t kimchi taste great on a cheese steak? Or, they could start selling a sandwich with Lee’s favorite Korean food, pork belly. His explanation? “Because it’s good.”
5. Mike Yastrzemski
Perhaps this is wishful thinking that the Giants will bring back Yaz next season, but if he can convince the entire team to grow mustaches for the entire month of May, he can certainly convince the public to eat delicious cheese steaks.
6. Blake Snell
Snell will be a free agent, and after his incredible second half of the season, he should certainly have plenty of suitors offering big money in free agency. But if the Giants need an extra sweetener to match a lucrative offer from the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers or Rangers, perhaps the ones of thousands of dollars available in cheese steak promotional cash will be enough to bring Snell back to the Bay.
7. Gabe Kapler
This one is a longshot. Kapler was unceremoniously fired by the Giants and currently works for a different major league team. He’d also object to the entire concept of cheese steaks, because the bread contains so many carbs. But maybe there could be some kind of “Paleo Cheese Steak” menu item, and Kapler could do the ads shirtless.
8. Matt Williams as Babe Ruth
Make this happen, Cheese Steak Shop.