Chicks Dig the Long Ball?

I'm not about to beat a dead horse and talk about how reliant the Cardinals have been this year on the home run. Others have talked about it. A lot of others.

Anyone else remember this commercial from around 12 years ago?



Now, I'll admit, this commercial makes me smile, partially out of nostalgia, and partially because it's a funny commercial. But is it true? Would I be breaking some sort of 'chick code' if I told you it wasn't? In all honesty, I like home runs as much as the next person (I was the happiest girl at Miller Park when Stavinoha silenced the crowd and hit that home run to take the lead a few weeks back), but my smile doesn't get any bigger than when I'm watching a Cards game and see Brendan, Skip, or Flip swipe a base and make it around to plate the run.

I was in absolute heaven in Milwaukee a couple weeks ago when I saw a hit-and-run that involved Jaime Garcia going first to third on a Skip Schumaker hit, then watch him dance around the 3rd base line and frustrate Brewer pitcher Yovani Gallardo to no end until Albert Pujols singled him home. First of all, Garcia is quickly becoming a favorite of mine to watch, and will definitely be the rookie I follow this year (last year, for those interested, it was Blake Hawksworth). Second, Garcia is a pitcher. Pitchers don't do hit-and-runs, they don't distract the other pitcher with their basepath antics, and they don't (as rookies anyway) go up against multiple teams' aces and come out without a loss or two.

But I'm off topic (happens a lot). The point is - small ball rocks. It's often said that the quickest way to kill a rally is to hit a home run, and I completely agree. A glance at Sunday night's game against the Mets shows a Cardinal 5th looking a bit like this:

I'm supposed to say, 'Yay! Colby blasted one to tie the game!' but look at what happened afterward. Two flyball outs later and the inning is over with the score still tied. Bummer. What would have happened if Colby had hit a double? We might have only scored two at the time, but it would probably have changed how John Maine pitched to Yadier Molina and David Freese as well. From that vantage point, I'd rather see a double and take my chances with the hits continuing and a bigger inning.

I dig small ball. Give me some stolen bases and string a rally together with solid contact and base hits up the middle, and I am a happy girl!

Normally on Thursdays I think we're going to run a weekly photo dump, with all the week's chick comment worthy photos (okay, guys might like some of them too) in a nice tidy bow. This week I would've given you this shot of Joe Mather's great sneak attack play against the Mets when he snagged the runner at second after faking that the ball wasn't coming. But you'll just have to wait for next week for the fun to begin.