Chris Angel Murphy

The ‘Send Swish’ Campaign Sends a Regular Guy Who’s a Millionaire Yankee and Future Husband of Gossip Girl to Anaheim

Thanks to the “Send Swish” campaign, Nick Swisher, the everyman who happens to play for the biggest team in all of professional sports, and who is engaged to Gossip Girl star Joanna Garcia, will take center stage tonight as he enters his first, and maybe only, Home Run Derby in Anaheim, California.

Swisher was not even elected or selected to the All Star game in the first ’round’; but was the fans choice as the ‘extra guy’ after a good amount of campaigning by Swisher and the New York Yankees. The campaign was called “Send Swish” and a series of messages on the Yankees’ Yes Network helped drive the vote total and Nick Swisher is now an All Star for the first time in his career.

Nick Swisher is generally not the kind of player that would be thought of as an All Star. He’s a lifetime .250 hitter with a career 148 home runs across six and a half seasons. The “Send Swish” campaign tacitly acknowledged that this might be his first and only appearance in the midsummer classic.

While his inclusion is somewhat surprising, it’s not that Swisher isn’t having a very good year. He’s hitting .298 with 15 home runs and 49 RBI; all excellent numbers at the halfway mark of the season. He gives tough at bats and plays a solid right field; he has worked hard at improving his defense and the results have shown.

Shortly after he was selected by fan vote for the All Star Game, Swisher’s agent received a call from Major League Baseball asking if he would be willing to participate in the home run derby. Tonight he will compete with sluggers such as David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera…and knowing Swisher’s penchant for the big moment, he probably has a puncher’s chance to win the 2010 Home Run Derby. It would be just his way to surprise everyone.

It could be argued, though, that Swisher is having an even better year off the field than he is having on it. He recently got engaged to Garcia, and well, it’s pretty obvious that he outkicked his coverage as much with that as he has by making the all star game and Home Run Derby.