The List: Seven Stellar Promotions

With most leagues’ all-star game played, the first half of the minor league season is officially in the past. With that in mind, we’ll use this space to take a look at some of the best promotions from team’s across the country.

1. Muhammad Ali Jerseys (Richmond)

The sports world and the world at large were shaken this year when Ali, the heavyweight champion boxer and humanitarian, died. Nearly unanimously revered, Ali’s death drew countless tributes across the country.

On Tuesday at The Diamond, the Richmond Flying Squirrels will continue that trend when they don commemorative jerseys in Ali’s honor. Dreamed up in part by Squirrels owner Lou DiBella, himself a boxing enthusiast, the jerseys feature a butterfly and a bee on the front and a pair of boxing gloves on the back.

Subtle yet powerful, these jerseys belong among the best promotions of the first half. If you’d like to own one of these jerseys, you can. They’re up for auction now at the Squirrels’ team site, and proceeds from each sale go toward Parkinson’s Disease research.

2. Seinfeld Day/Fusilli Rocky (Wilmington)

Brooklyn started the Seinfeld Day trend last year, and a few other clubs jumped on the bandwagon this year. The Blue Rocks are among that group, and they added a unique twist.

To start, they brought in actor Larry Thomas, who plays the famously persnickety soup vendor. Thomas is a regular on the minor league promo circuit, and appeared at a Charlotte Knights’ game on Monday night.

To kick it up a notch, though, the Blue Rocks dreamed up a bobblehead of their moose mascot, Rocky Bluewinkle, with a Seinfeld angle. Presenting, “Fusilli Rocky.” That, of course, is the actor Thomas holding the doll.

And if you don’t get the reference, well, that’s just silly.

3. Greg Bird Bobblehead (Staten Island)

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees were the early birds, but Staten Island came home to roost this summer, too. Scranton featured the powerful Yankees first baseman hatching from an egg, in true avian form.

Staten Island, on the other hand, used a fully gestated version of Bird, with a little bit of ‘Merica thrown in for good measure. Their statuette had Bird, in full uniform, riding atop a soaring bald eagle with his bat raised high in triumph.

Charleston, Tampa and Trenton, it’s your turn. The stakes have been raised.

4. Pokeclaws Night (Lakewood)

As featured last week on this site, Pokemon Go is taking over the minor leagues. Just about every team has either held a Pokemon-themed night or has one in the offing.

The best one so far, however, is the event the Lakewood BlueClaws have scheduled for Thursday night. Trainers are, of course, encouraged to come out to FirstEnergy Stadium. But that wasn’t all. The Claws tweaked their in-game races and concession stand options to add a Pokemon twist.

If you’re gonna do it, do it big.

5. Tracktown Jerseys/Ashton Eaton Bobblehead (Eugene)

Some of my favorite minor league promotions infuse a bit of local flavor. I’m also partial to ideas that seize on a trend or current event. This year, the Eugene Emeralds managed to do both.

With this year’s Olympic trials being held at nearby historic Hayward Field and Oregon alum Ashton Eaton in the mix, the Ems’ promo staff put together a whopper of a promotion.

They wore the above jerseys all weekend long, and also gave away a bobblehead of Eaton—a five-time gold medalist in the decathlon and heptathlon—on July 2.

If you’re going to have the world’s greatest athletes in town, you might as well celebrate them.

6. Lazy River (Frisco)

Technically not a promotion, but one of the coolest new features in the minor leagues this year. It’s hot in Texas, and especially so during the doldrums of summer. This, we know.

So what did Chuck Greenberg and Co. do to counter the indefatigable fireball in the sky? They installed a river. Not a pool. A river. The team’s new Choctaw Lazy River in right-center field has been active since last month and is already one of the hottest draws in the minors.

Complete with a cabana area and an all-you-can-eat menu, groups of 200 or more people can book the Lazy River and surrounding area for the night and enjoy a ballgame in one of the game’s truly unique settings.

7. Pat Venditte Bobblehead (Staten Island)

What’s better than one bobblehead? Two bobbleheads, of course. Thanks to Pat Venditte, the ambidextrous (or is it amphibious?) hurler who made his big league debut with the A’s last season, fans in Staten Island can get their hands on two bobbleheads for the price of one.

Sort of.

Venditte famously spawned a rule in his honor way back in 2008, when he was with the SI Yanks, and the switch-pitcher faced encountered a switch-hitter. Hilarity, of course, ensued.