Promo Watch: Silly business in Charleston
"It was a terrible idea that everyone loved."That sentiment could apply to a lot of Minor League promotions. In this case, it's from Charleston RiverDogs' director of operations Philip Guiry talking about Saturday's "Silly String Night."The Class A affiliate of the New York Yankees attempted to break the Guinness World
"It was a terrible idea that everyone loved."
That sentiment could apply to a lot of Minor League promotions. In this case, it's from Charleston RiverDogs' director of operations Philip Guiry talking about Saturday's "Silly String Night."
The Class A affiliate of the New York Yankees attempted to break the Guinness World Record in the esteemed category of "largest Silly String fight."
To that end, the RiverDogs' distributed 4,025 cans of the aerosol streamer to fans attending that evening's ballgame against Asheville. In the middle of the seventh inning, the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" doubled as the attempt at the record.
"We were hoping to string it out a little longer, shoot [the Silly String] at the end of the ballgame, but the fans in sections 101 and 102 started prematurely," Guiry said. "[Tourists starter
"I think that's a good juxtaposition. What Minor League Baseball is and what Minor League Baseball is: A desire to make it to the bigs on one side of the wall, and Silly String on the other."
Guiry said the idea for a massive Silly String fight was sparked by family tradition.
"In my family, if it's your birthday, then you'll get shot with Silly String. Like, you know it's coming but you just don't know from where," he said. "It's fun, right? It's right in the name. So [director of promotions] Nate [Kurant] started looking into it and some basketball team did a World Record of, like, 600 cans. Six hundred? Okay, we'll do 4,000. And it was awesome until it was over."
The resulting clean-up job was immense, and Guiry clearly had no one to blame but himself.
"My hope was that we'd get blowers out after the game, and it would go blowing away in the wind and we'd collect peanut shells and seeds along the way," he said. "Then we'd just have a giant ball of trash that we could then throw away.
He continued, "That's not how it happened….The clean-up crew was with me until midnight, and after they left I pulled out the pressure washer and washed until 6:30 [a.m.]. I took a two-hour nap at my desk, and then went back out to clean it up. We had a Citadel [University] game [taking place at the ballpark] at noon."
Nonetheless, Guiry hopes to be able to do this all again someday -- with a few modifications.
"When the Silly String hits the floor, it looks like a Jackson Pollock painting," he said. "So I think next time we do it again with 8,000 cans, and don't clean it up. Then we'll go from playing at Joseph P. Riley [Jr.] Ballpark to Jackson Pollock Ballpark. We can call it The Jack."
Coming Attractions
Enough with the looking back. It's now time to look forward, toward this week's coming Minor League promo highlights.
April 26: On "Soap Opera Night," the Portland Sea Dogs welcome Steve Burton to the ballpark. Burton has starred in General Hospital and, most recently, The Young and the Restless.
April 27: The Fort Wayne TinCaps are hosting "Brushes, Bottles and Baseball." What does this mean? The team will tell you what it means: "The TinCaps are offering a special ticket for fans to hand-paint two custom glasses during the ballgame! Instructors will be on hand to help."
April 28: The Bowie Baysox are taking multi-tasking to a new level by staging a tribute to music icon Prince as well as an homage to Pi, the mathematical constant, and pie -- the dessert. As if that wasn't enough, the team's Diamond View Restaurant is serving up a Medieval Beer Dinner.
The Toledo Mud Hens' annual "Bacon and Eggs Series" features the home team wearing egg-themed jerseys while the opposing Lehigh Valley IronPigs suit up as the popular meat.
April 29: It's "Ladies Night" in Hickory, North Carolina, so the Crawdads are welcoming beefcake Bachelorette contestant Luke Pell to the ballpark.
Jim Abbott made his Major League debut with the California Angels in 1989 despite him never having played a Minor League game. That's not's stopping the Inland Empire 66ers, the Angels' Class A Advanced affiliate, from giving away Jim Abbott bobbleheads on "Disability Awareness Night." Though he was born without a right hand, Abbott may best be known for throwing a no-hitter in 1993 for the Yankees against Cleveland.
The Omaha Storm Chasers are immortalizing the post-game celebration antics of Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez, via their "Salvy Splash" bobblehead giveaway.
April 30: The Florida Fire Frogs are celebrating "Minecraft Day" by building "Osceola County Stadium with cubes from the game Minecraft." The first 300 children in attendance receive a Fire Frogs "cubed shirt."
May 1-2: Once again, my promo dossier is light when it comes to Monday and Tuesday games. Once again, please tell me what it is that I am missing.
Benjamin Hill is a reporter for MiLB.com and writes Ben's Biz Blog. Follow Ben on Twitter @bensbiz.