I've often wondered while listening to the Blue Jays this season (and given the season they had, I wasn't listening a lot) how many ways there are to sell those "brought to you by" mini-spots in the middle of the game. They already sell the name of the broadcast booth, the out of town scoreboard, the "how can they win" segment and I think they have a "call to the bullpen" sponsor. 

But it turns out The Fan  and Sportsnet have nothing on some other broadcast rights holders. Take this great article from the L.A. Times, about how - in their quest to sell every possible piece of a game - it's now been taken to almost satirical extremes. 

Like on the Dodgers broadcast: 

"It starts with a cleaning service when introducing the umpiring crew (and the sound effect of a broom whisking off home plate). There are also ones for a Dodgers home run (“that trip around the diamond” brought to you by a local jeweler), a caught-stealing play (a security alarm system) or someone sliding into a base (the OUE SkySlide in downtown L.A.)."

Oh and did we mention that somewhere in there there's a game going on? 

"...I’ve always thought about doing a mock baseball game where every single event in a game is sponsored by someone — ‘That’s ball two, brought to you by …’ ” said Nick Nickson, the Kings’ Hall of Fame radio play-by-play man."

But it's not just baseball and, as the article makes clear, they've ruined many a poignant sports moment.

Radio and TV broadcasts take advertiser tie-ins to new heights