We can plant a house. we can build a tree....and play it on Wii

I love baseball. I like baseball video games. I like Nirvana. However, I do not like Nirvana in my video games. Last week I read something over at deadspin about Nirvana being featured in an upcoming video game. I said, huh, and moved on. After all I was at work and had customers on hold. The higher ups at The No Limits Fun Factory get mad when you leave customers on hold too long – even if it’s because you are surfing a non approved website.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago when I was typing away at home and hear a Nirvana song on the TV. I looked up in time to see a video Derek Jeter turn a double play as the unsuppressed rage of the late Kurt Cobain wailed on. The song was “Breed” and it was a commercial for 2K Sports new MLB 2K7 video game. When it was over I leaned back in dismay I realized another little piece of me had died.

I wasn’t the biggest Nirvana fan after all I didn’t cry or lock myself in my dorm room when Cobain died, but I liked their music. I understood what they meant to a generation of kids born into disco and reared on the music of the 80’s which included the original complete marketing package – The New Kids on the Block.

That’s right you kids under 30 – you weren’t the first have to live through groups of young, clean cut wholesome boys dancing in sync and making the young girls squeal. When the New Kids grew up the void was filled by grunge and at the fore front of grunge was Nirvana. While they didn’t invent the genre they are most identifiable with it. It was moody music for kids who felt lost. The Generation Y had nothing to believe in, no great causes or wars to protest. Then again as apathetic as the generation was (or is) who would have cared enough to protest anything.

When Cobain died I can’t say that I was surprised. I was disappointed that he would not be making any more music, but part of me was relieved. At least he went out before he sold out. Part of the appeal to them was the fact that there music didn’t sound like it was being sold to any particular demographic. If you were unhappy with your place in life you could listen to a band of kids from Washington who wore ratty sweaters and sang about misery with a raw voice.

Of course knowing now what I didn’t know then of course their music was directed at a certain demographic. Nothing is sacred to record executives and their specialty is knowing what to sell to who and when. They could tell the youth of America was feeling a tad disenfranchised and they found a band that they could use to make a lot of money with.

Leaping back to the present I don’t even know who to direct my anger at. Should it be at whoever allowed 2k Sports to license the song (Courtney Love I presume), 2k Sports marketing department for feeling the need to include this song at product driven at my demographic, or maybe at myself for believing that anything was sacred anymore.

Then again in a country where the Beatles are popping up in a H&R Block commercial and Johnny Cash is being used to sell blue jeans what should I expect. I guess there was just a small part of me that thought if there was one band that wouldn’t succumb to commercialization it would have been Nirvana.

From the rest of the tracks on the game it looks like 2k sports might be trying to add revenue by releasing an alternative hits soundtrack as well. Well known alt or indie bands such as Sublime, 311 The Pixes, Nerf Herder and Wolfmother also make the cut.

Maybe if Nirvana would have just been included on the soundtrack and not used during the commercial it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. Maybe I’m just getting old and need to stop whining about bands from the “good ol days”. Or maybe, just maybe some one can just leave those bands alone. After all I’m sure Moby still has some songs left that he hasn’t sold to someone yet.


Since that doesn’t really have anything to do with sports I guess I’ll drop a few quick hits on you.

- Scott Kazmir pitched Saturday for the Rays. He wasn’t impressive but at least his arm didn’t fall off. So that’s a positive in my book.

- Bad news Jon Gomes took a called third strike in his final at bat in the game. Good news - Jon Gomes hit two home runs in the game. The best news is that he hit them to right center field. When Gomes is driving the ball in that direction he is on. While Joe Maddon might be looking at Greg Norton as the opening day DH – don’t count Gomes out of that race.

- The Lightning were beaten whupped by the Panthers Saturday night. That’s good for them. It gives Torts something to yell at them about.

- Liverpool lost to Man U. The worst part was that pretty boy Cristiano Ronaldo scored the goal. I would have to say he is making a nice push for FIFA player of the year. He’s also my girlfriend’s favorite player – ‘cause he’ “pretty”.

Till next time.