Until late last week, Exxon-Mobil was the sponsor of the seventh-inning stretch at the Washington Nationals’ stadium. The incongruity of a company that has poured $10s of millions into 
trying to undermine understanding of global warming having a prominent role in the greenest stadium in professional baseball sparked a movement to “Strike Out Exxon at Nationals Park!”
Friday, the first day of protests, the announcer announced Exxon-Mobil’s sponsorship of the Seventh-Inning Stretch but Exxon-Mobil’s name didn’t appear on the main scoreboard (even as Exxon-Mobil advertising did show up on banner ads around the stadium). At Sunday’s game, the billboard simply said “Seventh Inning Stretch” and there wasn’t a syllable from the announcer about any form of Exxon-Mobil sponsorship. One has to wonder, is there an impact from public embarassment? Is Exxon-Mobil being sent to the dugout step-by-step?
Clearly, it is too early to know for sure. Next Sunday’s game has Exxon-Mobil sponsoring a giveaway of 10,000 ballcaps. As of yesterday, there still are banner ads for “Exxon-Mobil: Tackling the World’s Greatest Energy Challenges“. (How about, more accurately: Exxon-Mobil: Fighting to Prevent Action to Solve the World’s Greatest Energy and Environmental Challenges?) There still are the “Energy-Efficient Partnership” banner advertisements and other ads where the Alliance to Save Energy is providing Exxon-Mobil some greenwashing coverage. Wonder whether this will last?
Take Exxon out of the ball game
Take them out of the park
Tired of Four-Dollar Gas-O-Line
Global Warming is Making Us ScreamLet’s root, root, root for the Nationals,
And strike Exxon out of the game
For it 3-2-1 Polar Bears
And we know who to Blame!