Enter below to win a chance to take batting practice thrown by “El Guapo” himself, enjoy a pre-game meal with Rich Garces at the stadium, and watch the game with three guests of your choice.
“The El Guapo Experience” grand prize includes:
Four (4) tickets to the Saturday, August 4th Nashua Pride vs. Brockton Rox game at Holman Stadium in Nashua, NH
A chance to take batting practice thrown by “El Guapo” before the game (subject to availability)
A pre-game meal with Rich Garces at the stadium
A pregame meal and batting practice off El Guapo. This, friends, is the good life.
Finally, Star Wars geeks and Minor League baseball nerds, together in one enclosed space! What’s gonna happen? (Whatever it is, it most likely will not involve girls). The West Michigan Whitecaps (Class-A Midwest League) endeavor to find out for sure on Saturday with Star Wars Night, when more than 30 costumed characters from the double-trilogy converge to rock Fifth Third Ballpark with their unique brand of sweaty exuberance.
Not only will fans get a chance to be frisked by a real storm trooper (”these are not the beers you’re looking for”), but the Whitecaps will be showing The Empire Strikes Back after the game, and a clone trooper will play the National Anthem on guitar. Plus, Whitecaps players will be wearing special Star Wars-inspired uniforms (shown in all their grandeur after the jump).
Also after the jump: Allen Iverson plays softball, Jesus vs. Cheap, Unlimited Beer, and a mascot poetry jam. Enjoy.
The West Michigan Whitecaps get their geek on for Star Wars Night on Saturday, when they will wear these spiffy unis, which will be auctioned off to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Other promotions this week:
• Allied Waste Ice Cream Helmets. Friday, July 13. Yuma Scorpions (Independent Golden League). Because nothing goes better together on a hot summer day than ice cream and solid waste.
• Allen Iverson Softball Classic. Saturday, July 14. Bowie Baysox (Class-AA Eastern League). Star-studded softball action with Carmelo Anthony, Vivica A. Fox, Floyd Mayweather, Dre Bly, Vince Young, Gilbert Arenas, Luke Perry, and many more!
• Bronx Is Burning Autographs. Sunday, July 15. Connecticut Defenders (Class-AA Eastern League). No, Oliver Platt will not be there; just the author of the book from which the ESPN extravaganza was based. Feel free to ask questions about The Three Musketeers anyway.
• Faith Night/Thirsty Thursday. Thursday, July 19. Ft. Wayne Wizards (Class-A Midwest League). I’ve always wondered what would happen when a Christian Concert is combined with cheap beer. Should be entertaining. Plus, the Veggie Tales will make an appearance, earning the entire production the coveted “nightmare fuel” tag.
• Mascots Just Don’t Understand Iambic Pentameter. There’s a reason that not a single baseball mascot has ever written an enduring work of contemporary poetry. Champ, here — the mascot for the Vermont Lake Monsters (Class-A New York Penn League) — gives it his best shot, but the construction is just hopeless. Plus, there’s really no excuse for attempting to rhyme “field” and “unreal.” See for yourself, from this entry on Champ’s own blog:
It’s Opening Day,
The wait is through,
See you at Centennial Field.
Where your Lake Monsters will play,
Somedays even two,
T’will at times seem almost unreal.
Men with dreams of The Show,
Will soon enough know,
The power of playing in Vermont,
And as the season goes,
The hitting and throws,
Glorious headlines printed in large font.
Another year has arrived,
The winter, we survived,
Now is the time to succeed.
Together if we try,
Through September we’ll fly,
The playoffs? You gotta believe!
• Player Of The Week. Matt Elliot, pitcher, Mobile BayBears (Class-AA Southern League). After giving up a run against the Montgomery Biscuits to tie the game in the eighth, Elliot visited the bathroom behind the visitor’s dugout and accidently locked himself in. By the time he got out (elapsed time 47 minutes), the BayBears had gone to another pitcher and lost, 5-4.
We want your minor league tips! Send any photos, first-person accounts or mascot poetry to RickChand@GMail.com. And thanks!
Under normal circumstances, we couldn’t imagine a way that we would ever buy our father a birthday present — August 6, everybody; postmark Bryan Leitch, Mattoon, Illinois! — that’s a piece of Chicago Cubs memorabilia. But this might just be an exception.
We can’t quite make out all the signatures, so we can’t tell if Michael Barrett was still around when everybody brought out their blue magic markers. But if he was, we’re pretty sure this has been used.
Cubs fans, beware: There’s a possibility that Lou Piniella could end up working for Mark Cuban. That would be a calm partnership and in no way combustible.
Several reports claim that Cuban has formally filed application papers to buy the Cubs. This certainly isn’t good new for Pirates fans, who have been hoping Cuban would save their franchise for years now; Cuban was clearly aiming higher.
As a Cardinals fan, we hope Cuban doesn’t get the team because, you know, he might actually try to make them, you know, win. But man, imagine this guy hanging out in the world’s largest and most historic frat bar that is Wrigley Field. It’s not every day you get to do kegstands with the owner.
We didn’t get a chance to get into this yesterday, but we really need to give a full-throated, stand-up salute to Julio Franco, who very well might have played his final game.
The Mets designated Franco for assignment yesterday, and in the worst cut of all, it was for that whipper-snapper Lastings Milledge. Franco’s gonna be 49 years old next month, and his agent says he plans on continuing to play, if he can find someone to sign him. (The Cardinals will probably sign him just to avoid having to bring up Ankiel.)
If this is all for Franco, though, man, we’re really going to miss him in every way. To honor him, we direct you to the great Progressive Boink tribute. We’re lost without him.
The second half of the season has already begun to delight me: I got to laugh myself silly over Bay Area broadcaster Ted Robinson’s speculation that Alex Rodriguez would be signing with the Giants for 2008. Sure, the Giants would love a second shot at one of their players breaking the all-time career HR record, this time doing it without cattle steroids. But now all they need are seven Muni buses filled with cash, and the assurance that the team will look the other way when A-Rod visits the Clift Hotel to pick up blondes-who-are-not-his-wife. I know that it doesn’t bother me … Bonds will most likely be gone by next season, so that frees up some cash.
Anyhow, Rodriguez hit his 31st homer of the season in the Yankees’ 7-3 win over Tampa Bay on Thursday (baseball’s back, kids!). And while technically not cheating, it did come against the Devil Rays, so I’m not counting it toward his career totals. Sorry for any inconvenience. Meanwhile, Eric Byrnes’ dog disagrees with Robinson, saying that Rodriguez will go to the Diamondbacks. But then he says that about everyone.
• Adrian! I Did It! Look, it’s the first day back, and I don’t really have the energy to explain the weirdness that occurred with Adrian Beltre on the basepaths in this game between the Mariners and Tigers. So you’ll have to figure it out yourselves.
• Still Waiting For That No-Hitter, Though. Somewhat hard to believe that in their 46-year-old and storied history, the Mets have never had back-to-back homers to lead off a game. But on Thursday, Jose Reyes and Ruben Gotay ended the shame with consecutive home runs as New York beat Cincinnati 3-2.
• White Sox Win! Orioles Don’t! Were you aware that Jim Thome is rapidly closing in on 500 homers? Why was I not informed?
If you’ve seen our previous coverage on EA’s Skate, you probably know that we consider it to be the greatest thing since the George Foreman grill changed the way we looked at the culinary world, forever. Our play date pals over at GameTrailers cornered the ever-so-modest producer of Skate, Jason Balmer, to see how the game is progressing. After seeing their footage, we’re completely floored as to how incredible it’s looking these days.
Through the typical musings of Tony Hawk, Jason casually mentions that the game will see a September release and that a demo will be made available. Exactly when, you ask? We’ve asked EA for a comment on the matter and we’ll let you know as soon as we hear back. As a consolation prize, please enjoy the E3 2007 trailer of Skate after the break. You’ll be very glad that you did.
If you, like one sad East Coast blogger, have been stinging from your dear friends at Joystiq leaving you behind as they party like Andrew W.K. at E3, then the flow of delicious demos on Xbox Live has been your balm. A salve, if you will. The healing continues today with The Bigs, 2K’s arcade baseball entry, available in Canada and the U.S.
We here at team East Coast have come to treasure these times we have together, Joystiq readers. You tell us about the new demo that you played, we listen and chuckle. Then, inevitably the talk turns to the rest of the Joystiq team and you ask if they’re ever coming home, and we stare out the nearest West-facing window as we say “That’s our prayer, child. That’s our prayer.” …. So, umm, The Bigs! What did you think?
You want a gift that keeps on giving? The Boston Globe is currently running what might be the greatest contest since “Whack J.D. Drew Day.”
Under normal circumstances, we couldn’t imagine a way that we would ever buy our father a birthday present — August 6, everybody; postmark Bryan Leitch, Mattoon, Illinois! — that’s a piece of 
Cubs fans, beware: There’s a possibility that Lou Piniella could end up working for 
We didn’t get a chance to get into this yesterday, but we really need to give a full-throated, stand-up salute to 
The second half of the season has already begun to delight me: I got to laugh myself silly over Bay Area broadcaster Ted Robinson’s speculation that 
