Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Chicks dig the long ball

My paperwork for the 2007 softball season arrived in the mail, the scent of leather and infield dust is in my nose, and pitchers and catchers are about to report to spring training. This isn't my favorite time of the year, but nothing beats the start of spring training. In an attempt to share my excitement for a new year of baseball and softball, I'm going to share my favorite baseball commercial: Nike's "Chicks dig the long ball."

The commercial is great in and of itself, but a little background is required. I am a Brewers fan, but for a long time I got away with being a Braves fan as well. They were in different leagues then, which made it easy. In my late teens, I was told by two different (and seriously misguided) strangers that they thought I looked like Tom Glavine. Before the lovely Mrs. Jib even became my girlfriend, I told her this and she was able to see the comparison. In our pre-dating courtship period, she even watched a Braves World Series game with me and successfully pretended to be interested (she looked incredible that night, too). Glavine became her favorite baseball player until he ditched the Braves for the Mets, by which time I was about 40 pounds heavier and no long bore much resemblance at all to the former hockey player. But when this commercial came out, it was a favorite of both of ours. We still drop a "Step into it!" or a "Cy Young winners over here!" during appropriately humorous times. So not only does it hold great baseball memories for me, it holds great memories of the history of the lovely Mrs. Jib and I. Enjoy.

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