Cut. The mom and kid are actors. Uggla usually is not.
It felt like Hollywood, except we were in Lake Worth, Uggla said.
The shoot is part of a rare advertising campaign in professional sports - it puts a playful spin on a club s frustrations with erratic attendance.
Full houses at the 2003 World Series have given way to sparse crowds ranked at or near the bottom of the league in recent years.
The Marlins finished last in baseball with an average attendance of 14,384 last season, filling 39.6 percent of available baseball seating at Dolphin Stadium.
Club owner Jeffrey Loria has slashed the payroll to baseball s lowest the past two years, yet the rookie-laden Marlins still managed to win 78 games last season and remain in the playoff race until mid-September.
To confront the attendance trend, the Marlins put three of their young stars in commercials filmed in Palm Beach and Martin counties last week. Uggla and pitchers Scott Olsen and Josh Johnson accost fans in stores and even their own living rooms to ask why they are not at the ballpark.
When we got together in the off-season, we looked at so many trends that were at high levels, said Sean Flynn, the team s vice president of marketing.
TV ratings are high, radio numbers are good, print coverage and radio chatter are substantial. The missing thing is getting more people out to the stadium. The tone of this campaign is, Hey, it s great you re shopping, but we didn t see you at the stadium.
The Marlins, like their Florida neighbors, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, fight the sport s toughest battles with attendance. They play in a state where Major League Baseball has arrived only in the past generation, and fans have no shortage of other things to do.
Many teams season-ticket commercials play off fans longtime relationships with their hometown teams - like, Buy tickets and bring your kids to watch games here at the stadium, just like your parents did for you, said Ted Curtis, professor of sports management at Lynn University in Boca Raton.
We don t have that yet here with the Marlins, so a more up-close, personal approach with these particular players might just work.
Give the Marlins credit for trying something new, he said.
We ll see if this playful aggressiveness works, Curtis said.
At the very least, it s just about the one ticket-selling strategy left that the Marlins haven t yet tried.
Johnson is struggling with spring arm trouble, but he probably did not do much nerve damage knocking on the window of a home in southern Martin County for one of the commercials. A production company hired by the Marlins chose the locations because of their suitability for filming, not because hosts had any particular connection with the club.
Where were you last night? Johnson asks a startled couple, played by actors, who are watching TV in their living room. Cooking show s more important than a ballgame?
Johnson has filmed some offbeat features for FSN Florida, but otherwise has never acted, not even in a school play.
It s kind of funny, Johnson said. I saw guys doing commercials when I was growing up and wondered what it would be like.
Now I m doing it.
His preparation time for his lines? Probably about 10 minutes, he said.
He had plenty of time to hone his delivery because the takes stretched over multiple hours.
In a third commercial, Olsen grabs the clothing of shoppers and questions their priorities in what is supposed to be a retail store. It was actually shot at Gold s Gym in Jupiter.
The team is not saying how much the campaign costs, but Flynn said it is part of a broader strategy to get the turnstiles moving. Special promotions at 13 Saturday games will feature live concerts and fireworks.
There s a big audience to reach, including some of the people playing the roles of wayward fans.
The South Florida-based actress playing the mother in Uggla s commercial, for example, has never been to a Marlins game. The kid playing the son had a little trouble pronouncing Uggla s name, which he is supposed to utter in stunned recognition.
Remember, it s UGG-lah, not OOG-lah, the second baseman reminded him before filming.
On the first take, the boy said, Dan OOG-lah! He also said OOG-lah on takes 18, 19 and 20. That led to a quiet, upbeat conference with the director.
That s cool, because he booted a few too, Uggla said.
It didn t take me long to memorize it, but I messed up every third line, Uggla said. Except maybe for a dimly-lit, 6-foot-7 Johnson, none of the players is particularly scary.
At one point, the director had to instruct the baby-faced Uggla to be more imposing as he confronted the fans.
How do you mean? Uggla said.
I didn t go to college.
The director said, You know, like, You BETTER be there tomorrow.
The unorthodox commercials will air on South Florida stations and around the state on the team s cable partners.
The Marlins may or may not be in the playoff hunt in 2007, but in the world of advertising, they are hunting down individual fans.
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