Leo Burnett Co. recently shot a TV spot in Arizona for Nintendo's latest Ken Griffey video game, Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest, scheduled to hit retail May 10, backed by a $3.5 million TV and print campaign.

The campaign, which breaks in early May, is a continuation of its "basement boys" campaign, in which the vidgame-addicted basement dwellers have spent so much time playing the new Griffey title that they imagine they are Griffey and ignore the real Junior when he knocks on their door.

The game is positioned as more of arcade game for a younger audience than the ultra-realism offered by competitors such as Sony's 989 Studios or EA Sports.TV buys include ESPN and MTV; print includes ESPN Magazine, SI and Rolling Stone.

Asics is replacing Nike as footwear/apparel sponsor of the New York Marathon. Under the five-year agreement, Asics will market a NYC marathon apparel line here and overseas, receive signage at the start and finish lines and along the course and get its brand on the men finishing tape and get its apparel on the 13,000plus volunteers that staff the marathon. The deal returns the niche running brand to a sponsorship it held from 1988 to 1994.

Nike had the slot for the past four years. But don't think that this means Nike, a master ambush marketer, is through with the marathon. "We certainly think they are still going to borrow some of our equity," said Scott Lange, CMO of the New York Road Runners Club, which markets the marathon.

Or as one Nike marketer put it, "We're hoping to have a runner with a Nike swoosh breaking the Ascis tape."

U.S. women's soccer team star Mia Hamm has signed a deal with Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream that will get her likeness splashed across 3 million packages of Edy's and Dreyer's ice cream this summer. A sweeps will offer a soccer clinic with Mia as grand prize. Hamm, expected to lead the U.S. team to victory in this summer's Women's World Cup, will also get exposure via TV ads for Gatorade, Nike, Mattel and a regional promotion with Diet Coke, all slated to run around the U.S.-hosted tourney, June 19-July 10. Bober Associates, N.Y., handles Hamm.

ESPN ubermarketer Judy Fearing is moving up the Disney food-chain and out to Burbank as svp-global marketing for Disney Consumer Products. Fearing will oversee marketing of all products except TV, film, video and interactive. Fearing, who's been ESPN for 41/2 years, will report to DCP evp Susan Butterworth.

Overtime: Newsweek has signed on as "official newsmagazine" of the San Francisco-based America One yachting syndicate, competing to represent the U.S. in the forthcoming Americas Cup in New Zealand. Newsweek will exchange more than $1.5 million worth of ad pages in exchange for America's Cup hospitality and travel packages that the magazine will use to woo advertisers ... Chuck Kremers, who was leading Toys 'R' Us into sports sponsorships starting with a recent Major League Baseball deal (Brandweek, Jan. 25), is on his way out as vp-U.S. advertising at Toys 'R' Us after nine months at the Paramus, N.J. retailer, industry sources said. In that time, Kremers has seen the company hire a number a new president and a new chief marketing officer who are stressing item/price advertising versus sponsorship and promotion. Kremers held similar marketing slots at Service Merchandise, True Value and Comp USA.