As I wrote about a couple of times in recent months (February & November), I’ve written about cheerleaders in baseball. I’ve never considered myself a “purist” or “traditionalist”, who object to any change. Several things added have been good (wild card leaps to mind). But the one thing that I think doesn’t belong in baseball is cheerleaders. It just doesn’t “seem right”. I like mascots for sure, but cheerleaders seem like a bad idea.
Now having said that, a lot of the women in the first two articles I wrote on this subject look quite hot. Let me remind you of that first. Here is a picture of a “Marlins Mermaid”, one of the women who do the cheerleader thing for the Florida Marlins..
OK, now that I’ve shown you that, I need to apologize in advance for what I’m going to show you next. You see, I saw this come over the sports wire a week ago or so, and wanted to mention it to you.
This is a picture of tryouts for the “Florida Manatees”. This is a secondary set of cheerleaders that the Marlins will trot out in 2008. As much as I don’t like cheerleaders in baseball, what’s with this? It can’t be that serious – basically it’s a bunch of fat guys (well, mostly) getting out there and dancing. Can it be any better than Gene Gene the Dancing Machine from the Gong Show? (That ought to date me). I cannot imagine it will be taken seriously. This just seems to be a complete mockery and a total joke. I’m sure it won’t be PRESENTED that way, but I suspect that’s how it will be perceived.
I called Chuck Morgan when I saw this, and I could see him shaking his head through the phone. The scary thing that Chuck Morgan mentioned to me was the rule in baseball that if someone is successful in something, others will copy. It’s bad enough it’s on the Marlins, but if it spreads elsewhere, I just have this to say:
The idea of putting cheerleaders on the field is truly disturbing (more disturbing than the Mermaids picture you posted seen after a few drinks…).
The last time I attended an NFL game, the guy I was dating spent the entire 2nd half of the game trying to get the attention of this one cheerleader he went to high school with. It was annoying (and embarrassing) and in the end I could not enjoy the game.
If they do put them out there, I look forward to one of them getting pelted with a foul ball.