Minor League baseball teams are famous for their crazy promotions. They may be corny. They may be kitschy, but one thing that publicity stunts in minor league baseball have in common is fun. They don’t have the big stars (nor the big ticket prices), so they have a long history of coming up with giving fans good reason to turn out for a game.
In 1936 in Chattanooga, TN, big-league-pitcher-turned-vaudevillian-turned-minor-league-promoter Joe Engel announced his intention to raffle off a $10,000 house during a Lookouts game. Joe Engel Field seated 12,000 people at the time; 26,000 turned out for the game. Minor league baseball teams have been trying to out-stunt each other ever since.
One of the craziest stunts I’ve heard of happened in 2002 when fans of the Charleston, S.C., RiverDogs arrived at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park to find the stadium gates padlocked. They remained locked until the bottom of the 5th inning. It was “Nobody Night” and the owner was determined to keep fans from entering so that the official attendance would be “0”. The parking lot was packed with eager fans.
It seems that now minor league basketball teams are learning from the success of baseball promotions to attract fans. Utah Flash owner Brandt Andersen is out front on this new phenomenon. The Flash are an NBA Development League team based in Orem, Utah. Aside from curiosity about a few Jazz players who have been sent down to the minors to gain experience, it can be pretty tough to compete for fans with the Utah Jazz, who play just 40 miles away in Salt Lake City.
Last week, Andersen made headlines by twittering Stephon Marbury to offer him a job with The Flash. To date, Starbury hasn’t replied but Andersen was just getting stated with the Starbury offer.
Andersen has invited Michael Jordan to take on Bryon Russell in a one-on-one challenge in Utah County. As many of you may recall, during his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Jordan recalled that hearing Russell claim to be bummed out that he never got a chance to shut him down helped motivate him in his comeback.
Two years later, Jordan hit the famous jumper over Russell to cap the Bulls' back-to-back championship victories against the Utah Jazz in 1997 and '98. It was to be Jordan’s last shot in the NBA and all true fans know that he got away with pushing off.
Pardon this Jazz fan for taking a little aside here, but here’s what Russell said of the push off: “You can speed [the replay] up or slow it down, it's still [a push-off]. My momentum was going that way, but a helping hand is always [a factor]. I just think no referee had the [guts] to make the call. It was all about Michael Jordan back then. Who would make that call in my favor? He was the face of the NBA. A few refs told me [later], "I'd have called a foul." I said, "Who you foolin'?"
Sorry, I digress. It’s only been 11 years; you can’t expect me to be over it yet, but back to the Hall of Fame. Jordan finished his egotistical story by saying "Believe me, if I ever see him in shorts, I'm coming at him."
Well MJ, as you once told Russell, “You about to get your chance.”
The proposed game would happen at the McKay Events Center during the Flash's home opener on Dec. 7. The first player to score 21 point in this man-on-man showdown wins $100,000 for the charity of his choice.
Andersen said, "This would be a good P.R. move for (Jordan) following his speech. Back up those words that anytime you see B-Russ with his shorts on you are 'coming at him.’”
"B-Russ wants some vindication and M.J. puts that fire we have always seen to the test by lacing them up one more time in a casual 'all for charity' event. The match-up between these guys created one of the greatest moments in basketball history and was memorialized at Michael's Hall of Fame induction speech. Let's lace them up just one more time."
Holding the matchup in Utah makes sense. It brings B-Russ back to where he spent 9 years of his career with the team the took a chance on a 2nd round draft pick and it gives Jordan an opportunity to visit his vacation home in Park City, besides bringing him back to the scene of his famous final push off NBA shot.
"It would be sacrilegious to have this take place anywhere outside of Utah." Andersen added. Of course it wouldn’t hurt to put a few butts in seats either, unless of course, Starbury has already sold the place out.
At the end of your speech you threatened to make an NBA comeback at 50, so how about it MJ? This would just be a baby step on the comeback trail. Do you have one last NBA challenge left in you or are you content to spend the rest of your days talking about how great you once were? And you know you pushed off.
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Mr. Culture
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Comments
Then again, I did recently make it to 21 myself and neither of them could possibly be in as bad a shape as me. Sure, I was playing my wife but she's 11 years younger than me. That was a month ago and I'm still trying to catch my breath.
Scanner, that was a good one. There are tons of good promotion stories.
F'n drives me crazy when a ref goes deaf and blind for some of these guys. Helps you see why I don't watch sports any more... too hard on my blood pressure.
Having fun, Cap?
SP
Yep, no doubt about it, Life. Worse was the disallowed 3 for the Jazz at the end of the half that the replay clearly shows beat the buzzer. Then at the end of the third, they gave the Bull's a 2 that clearly did NOT beat the buzzer. That's 5 points, a Jazz win and off to Game 7 for all the marbles. Tough to beat your opposition and the refs.
but i like this story. i dont know what the hell a push-off is, but now i am curious to find out.
Thanks, jean. if you good Jordan push off I'll be you can see the video when Jordan pushes B-Russ away to make room to shoot.
I remember the Bees too, Ralph. When I was in Little League, I had a rather memorable time when our team went to a Bees game. I may have to blog about that one day.
Stupid asswad!! PFFFFFT!!!
:-)