ALBANY, N.Y. — Yankees star relief pitcher Mariano Rivera and Mets slugger David Wright bolster the lineup for the newest "I Love NY" advertising campaign to encourage summer tourism in New York.
They're among the Yankees and Mets who are featured in short TV ads to run on the Yankees' YES Network and SportsNet New York, which carries the Mets' games.
The ads will include Yankees manager Joe Girardi and relief pitcher David Robertson as well as Mets' second baseman Daniel Murphy and pitcher Matt Harvey.
The ads seek to entice New Yorkers and out-of-state tourist to plan summer vacations that include Mets and Yankees games and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
But the spots also promote New York attractions from Niagara Falls and the Adirondack and Catskills mountains to the beaches of Long Island.
Wright, the Mets third baseman, urged tourists to visit New York's vineyards, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and lakes while Girardi extolled the virtues of "more than 38 dazzling waterfalls" and 5,500 national historic sites. Murphy urged tourists to visit beaches, hiking trails and attend more than 70 festivals and balloon rallies.
The 15-second spots end with tag line: "And you thought you knew New York."
The ads will run through July and August on the cable television networks as well as at the Mets' Citi Field and at Yankee Stadium on the scoreboards. The ads direct tourists to the iloveny.com website for tourism information.
The spots are paid for from the state economic development budget. The teams and players weren't paid.
