BACK, BACK, BACK, BACK, BACK.......FROM PITTSBURGH

Enough of Chris Berman already. Who still enjoys his schtick? It seems his ESPN exposure is increasing proportionally with my increasing dislike of him. I don't know whether or not the majority of people feel this way...but I do know I'm not the only one. Anyway, that's my only comment on the Home Run Derby.

Tonight, I'm going to keep things light. Tuesday I'll talk about PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and then Thursday we'll delve into some statistics (lots of statistics), but tonight I'm going to take a light approach to baseball. And more specifically, commercials during baseball games.

I spend a lot of time watching baseball. As a result, I see a lot of commercials. A lot of the commercials bug me, but there are some good ones out there. What follows are some of my favorites, and also some of my least favorites. (This is one of them water cooler articles - this'll have all three of you buzzing tomorrow about which commercials are good, which are bad, and which ones I left out. If you feel strongly one way or the other, e-mail me.)

MILLER LITE: You gotta start with the beer commercials - there are a couple of Miller Lite ones that I really like these days. The first is the commercial where it's raining, and the people think it's raining beer....until they walk into the bar that's serving Miller Lite. I like that one..."IT'S RAINING BEEEEEER!!"

I also like the Miller Lite commercial where the slogan is THE TRUTH HURTS. It's the one where the lady tells her son that "Mr. (whoever) is actually your real father." And the son says, "Right on, dad. Welcome aboard." Then he loses it when Mr. (whoever) tells him Miller Lite tastes better than Bud Light. Just entertaining.

CAPITAL ONE: The new Capital One adds are very good - showing the pillagers out of work, because so many people are using Capital One cards. The pillagers need to find new jobs, so they become barbers, hot dog vendors, dog walkers, etc. Very funny. There are actually a couple of these commercials out there now, one funnier than the other....so it actually keeps you watching to see if there's something in it you might have missed before.

CAR COMMERCIALS WITH THE EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT: These commercials bother the heck out of me. The GMC one is the one that ticks me off the most right now, where they have all the different people who work in different capacities for the company telling us they're "happy that we can share in the discount that they've gotten all along." Where do they get off!?!? How generous of them...like it was their friggin' decision to give us the "Employee Discount". And the fact that this idea was started by one car company, then so blatantly ripped off by every other car company in existence is just wrong to me. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...but this is flat-out shameless. And why can't they offer this employee discount price all the time? As an aside, the ad campaign must be working...because car sales are apparently at an all-time high for this time of year, and the employee discount is being credited for that. Shows what I know - I'm going to go back to charging Miller Lite on my Capital One credit card now.

There is an awesome SOUTHWEST AIRLINES commercial out there now which I've only seen during Orioles games and a couple of Nationals broadcasts...and I can't wait to see it during national broadcasts...or at least Mets or Red Sox games. Maybe it already has - maybe I just haven't seen it. It advertises Southwest's new "ding" service, where your computer gives a Southwest Airlines "ding" when a new, cheap airfare is being e-mailed to you. In it, a guy is talking to another guy a few cubicles away from his desk, and you hear the ding. He goes barreling over the cubicles to get to his desk. It's laugh-out-loud funny. Really. By the way, I'm alone a lot of the time when I watch these games. Can you tell?

FOX SPORTS NET has a good baseball ad for all of its teams (for example, in New York it's the Mets, in Milwaukee, the Brewers, in California, there are separate commercials for the A's, Giants, Dodgers, etc.). It's the "We're all in this together" theme - where a chain of fans is involved either in stealing signs or throwing a home run ball back onto the field. I like the stealing the signs one better, if only because it's more realistic.

And finally, XM SATELLITE RADIO's rivals, "Why Can't We Be Friends" commercial. From the beginning of the season I've loved this commercial...I hope it lasts to the end of the season. Because it's played a lot. I like when the longer version comes on...I just don't understand why they used a Phillies fan with the Mets fan.

That's about all I have for the commercials. Seriously - let me know if I missed one that you really like.

THE KID'S KIDS: With a 5-3 win over the Gulf Coast Marlins, the Gulf Coast Mets are now 11-3 on the season, with a 4 game lead in their division. Might be time to bring Hall of Famer Gary Carter up to the majors.

Coming tomorrow: Mike Piazza and Carlos Beltran* in the All-Star Game, plus johnnymets.blogspot.com takes Pittsburgh!