Most random pitchmen

I was watching the Twins-Astros game and there was another Frank Thomas Nugenix ad.

With Andy van fucking Slyke.

I haven’t thought about Andy van Slyke in probably 30 years. The Pirates got torn down and I feel like he faded into oblivion.

They had to put a chyron up saying it was Andy van Slyke. No one knew what he looked like since he was probably last seen in public in 1997.

How many retired baseball players have to say no for Nugenix to even think about calling up a guy who’s lived in a cave for a couple decades?

It made me think of what other people who have been way off the radar popped up in an ad. I can’t think of anyone as random as AvfS.

 

Rick Moranis popping up after decades of retirement in that cell service ad with Ryan Reynolds.

 

He's most famous for being on-deck when Jack Clark hit the homer off Tom Niedenfuer as the Cardinals beat the Dodgers.

 

Doug Flutie is a little strange. It's 20 years since he played and he was never a huge national star.

I don't get why some of the older actors do ads. Bryan Cox is almost 80 and probably made a few million on Succession. Tom Selleck makes a few hundred thousand a week and is doing shitty ads for old people.

 

Nugenix gives you a boner when your 50 or older.

Guess who were popular athletes 30 years ago?

 

My all-time favorite pro wrestling heel. His team with Mad Dog Vachon was golden, particularly the interviews.

Verne Gagne was known to be a miser, so I don't know how much bank the Baron made from wrestling. According to Wikipedia he worked as a substitute teacher on his off days (can you imagine him subbing a middle school or junior high class?) and owned a souvenir shop near Lake Itasca after retiring.

 

Erik Estrada pitching real estate developments in flyover country remains my gold standard in this category.

 

He's obviously past his peak sell-by date, but I think Doug Flutie was a household name for at least 20 years. The hail Mary vs. Miami lives on forever. He won the Heisman, famously flamed out in the NFL and had a great comeback story, Flutie Flakes ... there's an entire generation who knows who he is.

 

What, you've never gotten a Pirates/Cards square in Immaculate Grid?