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Last month executives at shoemaker Adidas AG got a shock when they read the latest blog entry from their star endorser, pro basketball player Gilbert Arenas. He had seen the design of his second Adidas signature shoe -- which had yet to be revealed to the public -- and he wasn't impressed.

"I'm sitting there looking at the shoe like 'I hope you guys aren't serious. Because I'm not going to wear this shoe. ... Nobody is going to wear this shoe," said the blog post from the Washington Wizards guard. He said parts of it reminded him of a "ballerina."


Gilbert Arenas with his Adidas shoe.
Adidas executives learned that day what an increasing number of marketers have found -- that pitchmen armed with a blog can be tricky. Blog posts are typically candid and breezy, not the kind of safe, stock answers that athletes are often advised to give in postgame interviews, says David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute in Los Angeles. Blogs "can either help elevate the status of the companies or it can wreak havoc on the brands they work with," he says.

Mr. Arenas is one of several star athletes writing blogs -- or in his case, phoning an National Basketball Association staffer who faithfully transcribes his thoughts for the NBA Web site every 10 days or so. Other sports bloggers include Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and injured NBA rookie Greg Oden.

Several have seen their online comments turn into public-relations debacles. For example, earlier this year Mr. Schilling fueled an outcry when he used his blog to dress down Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne for suggesting that Mr. Schilling's bloody sock in the 2004 playoffs -- which became a symbol of his determination despite a foot injury -- was a fake. (Mr. Thorne backed off the charge.)

In addition, J.D. Durbin, a Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, apologized for making sexually explicit comments on his MySpace page and Texas Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson apologized for posting a picture of a black man with a watermelon on a teammate's page.

The foot-in-mouth epidemic caused the sports blog deadspin.com this spring to plead: "Honestly, athletes: Stop using the Internets. [sic] It can only cause you pain."

Mr. Arenas has made his share of blunders online. He blogged about the scolding he got from NBA officials for making a $10 bet with a fan at a Washington Wizards-Portland Trail Blazers game in March. Soon after, the league removed the post from Mr. Arenas's blog. Mr. Arenas and the league said that he has agreed not to post on topics like gambling on NBA games.

Mr. Arenas has also complimented certain sneaker styles by Nike Inc. and Starbury, the line endorsed by the New York Knicks' Stephon Marbury -- despite his own endorsement deal with sneaker competitor Adidas.


Mr. Arenas joins the NFL's Vince Young, right, in a Spalding TV spot.
His criticism of Adidas' new signature shoe created an even bigger issue. Adidas, which wasn't ready to talk about the design, wasn't happy with Mr. Arenas's criticism, according to Adidas spokesman Travis Gonzolez. But "we all took a step back. We said, 'It's Gil being Gil and there's not a lot we can say.' We don't want to affect what he writes," says Mr. Gonzolez.

In the end, Adidas says it benefited from Mr. Arenas's commentary. The company reworked the design with Mr. Arenas, who blogged "I think people are going to like the colors, but they're also going to like the shoe." Starting in November, Adidas is releasing 20 different versions of the shoe, which is dubbed the GilIIZero after one of Mr. Arenas's nicknames, "Agent Zero."

Mr. Arenas started blogging last year, one of a handful of NBA players asked by the league to post their musings on its Web site, part of a four-year-old effort to get fans closer to players.

An All-Star player known in basketball circles for his quirky sense of humor, the 25-year-old Mr. Arenas says he initially saw the blog as a way to show fans a "lighter" side of his personality. On March 18, for instance, he blogged about the birth of his son, Alijah Amani Arenas. "We're trying to get him sponsored by AAA now and get his diapers paid for," he blogged.

Other postings dish about everything from him dropping his baby daughter (he says she's OK) to arguments with his girlfriend. Mr. Arenas has also blogged about his salary.

Fans have responded. "Agent Zero: The Blog File" has drawn about three million page views since it started in October 2006, according to the NBA. That makes it the most popular athlete blog on the NBA's Web site, says the NBA. Mr. Arenas is the only one of the group from last year still posting, though he'll be joined this season by new NBA player bloggers -- the Utah Jazz's Morris Almond and the Chicago Bulls' Luol Deng.

The blog has brought Mr. Arenas a heightened profile that has helped him win new endorsement deals. In recent months, Mr. Arenas has extended an existing contract with Adidas, signed a deal to be on the cover of "NBA Live 08" from Electronic Arts Inc.'s EA Sports, and signed a four-year deal with basketball maker Spalding, a unit of Atlanta-based Russell Corp. Mr. Arenas also endorses Coca-Cola Co.'s Vitaminwater.

Both Spalding and EA said they decided to work with Mr. Arenas in part because they believed his blog would appeal to younger consumers. As Mr. Arenas puts it, companies think "kids latch onto this guy, so we need him with us," he says. "That's from blogging and the response from kids."

While Mr. Arenas's early posts focused on basketball, he has lately been dropping more references to his marketers. A post about a Spalding promotion, where the winner of an essay contest would win a backboard, rim and balls, was great free advertising for the company, says Spalding vice president of marketing Dan Touhey.

"That's what this consumer that we're all trying to tap into wants. ... They want to hear from the horse's mouth what's going on," Mr. Touhey says. Spalding is featuring Mr. Arenas in a TV, print and online campaign starting Nov. 1. Mr. Arenas has also posted about how excited he was to be on the cover of NBA Live 08.

Still, Adidas's experience with the blog has been bumpy. Aside from the posting about the new shoe design, Mr. Arenas used the blog to alert fans to a forthcoming "golden ticket" promotion with Adidas and EA Sports that would give winners a free shoe. But the promotion never happened. Neither did a collaboration with Adidas and Benihana Inc. that Mr. Arenas featured in his blog.

Adidas's Mr. Gonzolez says that while the golden ticket and Benihana promotions were discussed, no one later informed Mr. Arenas that the ideas were scrapped. Adidas executives eventually asked Mr. Arenas to clear information about coming shoe releases with them before he posts on his blog.

These incidents have given Mr. Arenas's marketing partners pause; they say they realize they can't control what he says and that he might criticize them. Jordan Edelstein, marketing director at EA Sports, says the company debated Mr. Arenas's blogging style before the company chose him for the cover of the game.

"We knew if there was something he didn't like, he would say so -- probably to everyone," Mr. Edelstein says. Ultimately the company decided that Mr. Arenas's honesty was a plus: "That's why his fans respond to him. ... We felt it was worth the risk."

Still, Adidas, EA and Spalding each say that whether an athlete blogs, and how they can work together with the blog, will be a part of future endorsement negotiations.

For his part, Mr. Arenas believes that readers are interested in unfiltered information. "For some reason everyone wants to be this golden boy, like you can't make a mistake," he says. "I don't think my blog would have been successful if I wasn't as real as I am and as willing to let people into my life."

All over Philadelphia, grumpy workers are moping inside their tiny, dusty cubicles, upset about missing all the wild action that comes with October baseball in a city that's been left out of the playoff mix for 14 years.

Thanks to Major League Baseball's greed, the Phillies were placed in a lousy afternoon slot for the team's first playoff appearance in well over a decade, which means productivity at local companies will be at an all-time low on Wednesday as Philadelphia takes on the Colorado Rockies in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at 3 p.m.


But don't fret. The most useful tool for many workers without a TV or radio in sight or earshot is right in front of them -- a computer.

Just because people are stuck at work doesn't mean they have to miss out on the action, because really, it's all about looking busy (and getting away with it -- seriously, you'd be amazed at what a pencil behind the ear will do to impress a boss).Here are some useful tips on how to follow this afternoon's Phillies game in a work setting and without a television or radio.

We'll start with pre-gaming, which should begin Wednesday morning and absolutely no later than noon. Pre-gaming at the workplace is much different than at the ballpark for obvious reasons -- with one major difference being that Jack Daniels and Miller Lite beverages must be replaced with sub-par office coffee or vending machine Coke.

There are plenty of things to find out before a game starts, like previews, weather and predictions. Plus, knowledge of a few sneaky tips to get away with slacking is a necessity, too.

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There's a lot that goes into pre-game preparation, too, so let's figure that bosses will get no productivity from noon Wednesday until about about the same time on Thursday (when people will be e-mailing and yapping around the water cooler about the hopefully stellar performance that took place at Citizens Bank Park the day before).

Before diving into Phils research, workers should mess up their work spaces a little bit so they look busy, call their banks or a customer service hot line so it appears they appear to be on hold during an important call and open up Excel documents that they can readily click on if higher-ups walk by. Remember, the key is to have at least one pie chart on hand at all times for a quick cover up.

One wikiHow article gives even more useful tips, too, like become friends with an IT worker who could monitor your Web visits (but don't delete Internet history -- that just makes workers look suspicious); install a program that allows two desktops to appear on a computer; enter sites through a Google search instead of typing the direct URL; and last, but not least, the article recommends drinking tons of water. Not only does it combat certain kinds of cancer and do wonders for complexions, it also gives workers a chance to congregate in the bathroom and share the latest scattered news on the game.

Enough preparation jibber jabber, it's time to get to work.

Before the first pitch is even thrown, it's important to learn about the elements: Wind speed and direction, precipitation, temperature. All of this can greatly affect the outcome of a game. There's some talent in here people should enjoy watching. I hope they won't be waiting for the playoffs next year to get us on TV."

| Outfielder Matt Holliday, on the Rockies' relative obscurity heading into October.

Player of the game

Colorado Rockies starter Jeff Francis used a mix of off-speed pitches to keep a potent Phillies lineup off-balance in a 4-2 victory Wednesday.

Francis gave up two runs and four hits in six innings and struck out eight. The win improved his record to 9-0 in day games this season.

Play of the game

With all the big boppers in both lineups, the go-ahead run didn't even score on a hit.

Rookie Troy Tulowitzki battled back from an 0-2 count and drew a bases-loaded walk for the Rockies' third run in the second inning.