There's a slow-motion shot of him from behind as his No. 57 rotates on a powerful fulcrum and yet another tomato is struck. There's a regular-speed shot of him pummeling the 57th and final tomato. Then, Heinze holds up the bottle and squeezes a stream of ketchup into his mouth, like it was Gatorade. Last shot is a still of a bottle of Heinz ketchup. The camera focuses tightly on the famous 57 on the label and then pulls back and fades out.
Numbers are powerful things.
Someday, there may be such a commercial. For now, the H.J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh isn't doing a lot of television advertising and hasn't considered hockey players. That was the word recently given to Heinze's agent. Not that Heinze took No. 57 because he wanted to be a ketchup purveyor. When I was 9 or 10 and he figured I could play a little bit, he said, 'You know, if you ever make it to the show you've got to wear No. 57.