Nike Hopes To Woo Women With 4-Part Series

Did you know that in the United States, women buy more golf equipment than men?

Or that in the last 20 years, female participation in high school athletics has increased 720 percent?

Sports, of course, are no longer exclusively a male domain. As a result, one sportinggoods corporation - Nike, whose research came up with the statistics above - wants to change its image.

“In the last 12 or 18 months, Nike looked in the mirror,” said Nike spokesman Robin Carr-Locke. “We saw that Nike was looked at as a men’s company. We had that Michael Jordan image.”

As part of an aggressive campaign, Nike is sponsoring a four-part series on women in sports titled “A Passion to Play.” ABC Sports will air a 1-hour segment for four straight Sundays.

The series begins Sunday (2 p.m. PDT) with a look at gymnast Nadia Comaneci and figure skater Katarina Witt. Lesley Visser will host the show, which delves into how two women from communist backgrounds view their new lives in the Western world.

The second segment, hosted by former collegiate basketball star Robin Roberts, will chronicle African-American women from tennis pioneer Althea Gibson to Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the heptathlete believed by some to be the world’s best female athlete.

Julie Moran, an accomplished three-sport participant in high school, will host the third segment, which examines female adventurers such as rock climbers and kayakers.

The final segment, hosted by former Olympic swimmer Donna de Varona, is about motherhood and sports.

“I think I’ve spent a lifetime working for this moment,” said de Varona, who in 1960 competed in the Olympics at age 13. “These are firsts in TV. We’re doing things I’m proud and excited about.”

The sports landscape is certainly changing, and Carr-Locke said Nike would rather be out in front of the wave than be dragged along behind it.

“We take a lot of responsibility in shaping people’s conception of sports,” she said. “We feel women’s sports can’t be ignored.”

Nike has launched an effort to sign a dozen women to shoe contracts, including 800-meter runner Meredith Laney, an Olympic hopeful, and 1994 Boston marathon champion Uta Pippig.

The company already has Joyner-Kersee under contract, along with basketball players Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley and Cheryl Swoopes.

Jordan, as in “Air Jordan,” is currently the only athlete that Nike has named a product for, but soon the company will put an “Air Swoopes” shoe on the market.

A spin on baseball

Early next week, ESPN will air a promo that is sure to make you laugh even if you still hate the baseball owners and players because of the strike.

It starts with a beautiful woman standing at a distance. Then the voice of actor Billy Crystal, an ardent baseball fan, chimes in.

“What living and breathing guys haven’t experienced this before?” Crystal says, and the camera zooms in closer on the woman.

“Must be love,” Crystal says. “Couldn’t be happier. Absolutely devoted and … boom! What went wrong?”

Now there’s almost nothing but the woman’s face on the screen.

“It’s over,” Crystal moans. “Never again, because I’ll never feel the same way again. And you know what? Time passes, and you feel different.”

The woman’s face dissolves into the face of former Phillie John Kruk, untidy and unshaven, his cheek bulging with tobacco.

“And boom!” Crystal says. “You’re back together. So kiss and make up.”

Kruk purses his lips.

“Opening day,” Crystal says. “Don’t miss it, because you’ll hate yourself if you do. Maybe not today. But someday.”