Lots of fun stuff on the Daily Rewind today (the episode for April 5), from the Padres’s Kevin Kouzmanoff and Khalil Greene tripping over each other to penguins in New York. But perhaps the funniest bit was the news that the authorities in Canada have ordered two of the Blue Jays’s promotional adverts to be re-filmed.

Before the start of every season, Major League teams will film a series of commercials involving their players (and often the team’s manager) which are then used throughout the year to advertise matches and such like. The A’s, Brewers, Mariners, Royals, Twins and the White Sox all have commercials under the Multimedia heading on their official sites for you to watch. The Twins always seem to come up with some good ones (the one showing Tori Hunter at a kid’s birthday party is a particular favourite of mine from last season), and indeed the Daily Rewind included their “Magic Show” clip during the first advert break on today’s broadcast.

They are especially good if you can put a slight dig at one of your rivals in them. The A’s have a good one this year called “To skin a cat” which shows Huston Street striking out various batters and ending with Barry Bonds walking away from the batters box having been K’d by Huston and being referred to as “one very unhappy cat”! They also have a clip called “Existential” which ends with a player being struck out by Danny Haren. By chance, the player happens to have an Angels uniform on.

Anyway, the point is that the commercials are supposed to be a bit of fun. The Television Bureau of Canada obviously does not have a sense of humour. Picture the scene:

Frank Thomas confronts two kids having a pillow fight and tells them to stop. One of the kids hits him with his pillow, so Big Frank grabs the pillow and swings it at the kid sending him flying off the bed on to the floor.

I had a little chuckle when I saw it, as I’m sure 99 per cent of people would. But now it’s going to be changed to include a softer landing and a “don’t try this at home” warning. They have also objected to a commercial in which A.J. Burnett chucks his rubbish into a moving garbage truck (or bin lorry as I would call it!).

Maybe the Television Bureau of Canada can’t tell the difference between a slap-stick commercial and the promotion of child abuse, but the rest of us can. I guess that’s the world we live in nowadays. Thank god we’ve got things like baseball to distract us!