While Toyota's logo was prominent as Derek Jeter discussed his history-making 3,000th hit with reporters on Saturday, it was Verizon that found itself a surprise benefactor of New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter's historic home run and 3,000th hit on Saturday.

The hit happened to be a home run and was grabbed by 23-year-old Verizon employee Christian Lopez, whose kind act of just returning the ball to Jeter and not holding it ransom or selling it for big bucks has put a good glow on his employer as well.Continue reading...

Nike's blog marked Derek Jeter's highly anticipated 3,000th hit with a video that puts the achievement (he's now the 28th player to hit 3,000, and the first to do so in a New York Yankees uniform) in statistical perspective.

Babe Ruth didn’t do it. Lou Gehrig? Nope. Joe DiMaggio? Negative. Mickey Mantle? Uh-uh. Yogi Berra? Not even close.

These men may all be legendary members of the New York Yankees family with retired numbers and all, but there’s one thing they never did: hit 3,000 hits as a Yankee. Now there’s a fella who is about to do it, if he can just connect for three more hits.

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter hit the pause button on his quest when he went on the disabled list with a strained left calf in mid-June. But it seems pretty clear that Jeter will manage three more hits over the remainder of the season, prompting USA Today to call him "one of the most marketable athletes on the planet."Continue reading...

Quick quiz of your baseball knowledge: Which National Leaguer leads all other players in his league in votes for the starting lineup of the July 12 All-Star Game in Phoenix? It’s not the injured Albert Pujols of the Cardinals.

Which same player is one of only two in professional baseball who is signed with the same team through 2020? It’s not Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies.

And which same slugger, a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, hit the eighth-most home runs (128) of any player in Major League history through his first four seasons? It’s not Prince Fielder.

The correct answer: Ryan Braun, one of the biggest-time players to make his first appearance at the new Yankee Stadium without recognition as such.

Blame that largely on the fact that Braun has played from the start in one of the league’s smallest markets on a team that has made only one playoff appearance in decades.Continue reading...

Apple is bigger than the Greek economy.

Barack Obama steps up with personal tweets.

BlackBerry parent RIM's financial woes see executives and developers exit.

BMW faces tougher competition from Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

Colgate completes acquisition of Sanex personal care brand.

Foursquare passes 10 million user mark.

Google will digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright titles for the British Library.

HopStop adds 20 cities.

IBM readies social media tracking solution.Continue reading...

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter isn’t having his finest year at the plate this season, but he is going to pass a huge offensive milestone that will boost his brand big-time in New York. 

The Yankees captain currently is ten hits away from passing 3,000, when he will enter into an elite group that includes such folks as Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Cal Ripken Jr. Only 27 major leaguers have had 3,000 hits in the majors — and Jeter will be the first Yankee to do the trick. Unbelievably, not one single Yankee great has done it. And now Jeter’s turn is coming.

Because of this, Newsday reports, the memorabilia involved with Jeter’s big moment, no matter when it comes, will be worth a boatload. The jersey he wears, the bat he uses, the dirt he touches, a bracelet that says DJ3K, you get the idea.Continue reading...

The NFL has its Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Redskins. Major League Baseball has its Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians. And the state of Wisconsin has the Osseo-Fairchild High School Chieftains.

Team names that have been deemed offensive have been finding protests against them  in many forms over the years, many have stuck by their brands. While those professional sports teams pack some powerful brandage, high school sports have their own special power on a local level, and Chieftains past and present are feeling it a little extra these days.Continue reading...

Baseballs’ beloved Hall-of-Fame slugger, Harmon Clayton Killebrew passed away Tuesday at the age of 74, leaving behind a legacy of everything good about the game of baseball — and the belief, even if undeserved, that his was the silhouette in Major League Baseball's logo.

There was some controversy about the original designer until ESPN's Paul Lukas cleared it up in 2008, giving full credit to Jerry Dior and calling his logo "a masterpiece of modern brand design" — but there has been another debate over the years whether Killebrew was the basis for the slugger in the logo, as he believed.Continue reading...