• by October 6, 2003

NOW PITCHING, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL - One of the biggest advertisers during baseball's division championships this past week was Major League Baseball itself. Spots on Fox and ESPN featured players like Derek Jeter and Torii Hunter, with the Minnesota Twins centerfielder exclaiming that he'd rather steal a home run than hit a home run. Obviously baseball - after years of whiffing with players' strikes, a lockout, declining interest and ratings, and a blown all-star game - wants to hit a home run, too.

A TREND LIKELY TO GIVE PAWS. The Riff likes animals as much as the next media industry columnist, but our passion for the feline order has never strayed much beyond the occasional silver and gray tabby. So we're a little uneasy about the media frenzy surrounding the biggest members of the cat family. Tigers are suddenly popping up everywhere - the stages of Las Vegas casinos, the apartments of Harlem high-rises and the front pages of metropolitan dailies - and we predict Madison Avenue will be next. Well, it's not as if Kellogg has abandoned Tony, but watch for Exxon to resurrect its long hibernating (ESSO) mascot to reintroduce the notion of putting a "tiger in your tank." Meanwhile, at least one hot San Francisco has shop has figured out that the best way to earn your stripes is to incorporate it in your name: Red Ball Tiger.

O, CANADA, TOO? - Canadians spend way too much of their time fretting over the undue influence of the United States on their culture. True, Canada shares a long border with the U.S. and a majority of Canadians live within 100 miles of the border, well within the sphere of reach of American TV, radio, music and movies, but that doesn't mean their own indigenous media content is any less irritating than ours. So it shouldn't be surprising that Canada may take a cue from the U.S. in the fight against annoying telemarketers. The CRTC - Canada's FCC - is considering whether to enact its own do-not-call list, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. There is an industry-regulated list but it's not all that popular - CBC said only 500,000 Canadians have signed up. But there's one difference between American and Canadian telemarketers: The CBC quotes one Canadian telemarketer as being willing to honor a federally regulated do-not-call list.

ARNOLD LEADS IN WAR OF WORDS - Riff won't be as presumptuous as to make a prediction in Tuesday's recall election in California, but there's one headcount that Arnold Schwarzenegger has already won. The Factiva Index found the movie-star-turned-politician was mentioned 1,230 times in the media during the week ended Sunday. That's far ahead of Gov. Gray Davis, the guy who Arnold wants to unemploy, who only received 916 mentions. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who wants to replace Gray if he's booted, earned 501 media mentions. To put the results into perspective, ex-child actor Gary Coleman received 51 mentions, adult-film actress Mary Cook received 39 mentions and publisher Larry Flynt earned 48 media mentions. No word on what those mentions were.