A Sea Of Red

4. Pre-planned Funeral Night, Aug. 16, 2003
The Hagerstown Suns gave away a full pre-paid funeral valued at $6,500 to one (un)lucky fan. The package included embalming, a casket and funeral home use, as well as a death certificate. Two-thousand fans entered the contest.

That's just wrong.

I bet people were just dying to get in.

I remember hearing about Nobody Night. The youth group from my parents' church was there for that one. Or not there, as the case may be.

TDDance234 wrote:4. Pre-planned Funeral Night, Aug. 16, 2003
The Hagerstown Suns gave away a full pre-paid funeral valued at $6,500 to one (un)lucky fan. The package included embalming, a casket and funeral home use, as well as a death certificate. Two-thousand fans entered the contest.

I bet they were buried in applications.

At least 2 of those promotions mention the Charleston club in West Virginia. When I was in college, I took my dad there to Walt Powell Park to see what was then called the "San Diego Chicken" on one of their promotion nights.

Uh, Jim. The Charleston River Dogs are in South Carolina.

we've had the Chicken here in Lynchburg a ton of times....i was the little chicklet for a few

The Charleston team Jim is referencing was the Charleston Charlies and they were the Triple-A affiliate of the Pirates back in the era he was referencing if my memory serves me correct.

Correct, Sly. That's where I saw Dave Parker play in AAA, but the references in the article may very well be to the ballpark in Charleston, SC (not WV). I don't know what the team in Charleston, WV is called anymore, but I know it dropped from AAA to single A.

The team in Charleston now is the Power (I hate the new name.) They just built a new ballpark downtown which is very very nice, and from what I understand one of the nicer parks in Single A baseball. They are currently 21-7 and first place in their division in the South Atlantic League.

Thanks, PB. I'll have to take my dad to a game there this summer.

You really should it's a really nice minor league baseball experience, and the new ballpark is a lot nicer than some of the minor league stadiums i've been to in Florida where they do the grapefruit league games.

To piggyback on the casket promo:

If only the Hillcats could be that creative on any of them...I especially liked the "HEY BEER MAN" signs