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Marlins Want Fat Men Who Can Dance
AP
Posted: 2008-02-23 18:18:00
MIAMI (Feb. 23) - The Florida Marlins are looking for some footloose fat men. The National League team is creating an all-male, plus-size cheerleading squad to be dubbed the Manatees. Tryouts were scheduled for Sunday.


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Doug Benc, Getty Images Big Men
Get Down1 of 3 Look out Marlin Mermaids. The only Major League Baseball team with cheerleaders is looking to add a second squad. The Florida Marlins are holding open auditions for the Manatees, an all-male, all-obese cheerleading squad.
The team hopes to recruit seven to 10 tubby men to dance, cheer and jiggle during Friday and Saturday home games this season.

Real manatees, 1,200-pound mammals sometimes referred to as "sea cows," are not considered the most agile of creatures and often get caught in boat propellers.

The Marlins want their Manatees to have the same dimensions, but to be decidedly more agile. Men will be judged on how well they dance a choreographed routine.


FanHouse
Josh Alper says:

"What a glorious time to be a Marlin fan!"
»Read the postThe Marlins already have a cheerleading squad, the considerably more svelte Mermaids.

Men selected for the Manatees won't be paid. They'll get tickets to games they perform at, and the honor of dancing in front of crowds that have been smallest in major league baseball for the last two seasons.

The Marlins aren't the only pro sports team capitalizing on Americans' expanding waistlines. The Chicago Bulls basketball team have the Matadors, a big-man dance troupe that's entertained fans at home games since 2003.

And although cheerleaders might be an unfamiliar site in baseball, big men aren't, as fans have long cheered on the likes of Babe Ruth and Kirby Puckett.