A rough patch: the Astros’ new sponsorship deal with Oxy is doubly ugly

Houston are the latest MLB team to secure a uniform advertising deal as their players become walking billboards for Occidental Petroleum

As soon as it was announced that MLB teams would be allowed to include advertisements on their uniforms, a race seemingly began to see who would land the most dubious sponsor. While results are still coming in, the Houston Astros are leading the pack after signing a deal with Occidental Petroleum. Yes, the reigning world champions, not exactly popular to start with, will be walking billboards for a fossil fuel company as the climate crisis rages.

Officially, the league prefers if you call this type of deal a patch sponsorship," which sounds folksy and informal. That term feels more than a little euphemistic, so maybe it's more helpful to take the cue of journalist Paul Lukas, who believes the simpler term uniform ads" is more to the point.