Results tagged ‘ Kane County Cougars ’
Kane County Able to Capitalize on MLB's Skyrocketing Cougar Population
As regular readers of this esteemed blog are well aware, there is nothing I like more than writing unsolicited commendations of Minor League PR innovations in exchange for little or no recognition. That’s what I was put on this Earth to do, and who am I to argue with my cosmic destiny?
Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I direct your attention to a novel and interesting contest that was staged by the Midwest League’s Kane County Cougars. At the start of the 2008 campaign, 96 former Cougar players had appeared in the Major Leagues. I’ll let the press release take it from here:
This past March, the Cougars began a “100th Cougar Contest” in
conjunction with the organization potentially reaching the milestone
this season. Fans were encouraged to submit a guess from a preselected
ballot of nine former Cougars who were on the verge of becoming
Major
Leaguers this season.
One of these pre-selected Cougars was right-handed reliever Jeff Gray, who played for Kane County in 2006. Gray made his Major League debut with the Oakland Athletics on September 8, and in the process became Cougar #100 to make it to the bigs.
Take it away, press release:
Cougars fan Kerry Palmiter of suburban Romeoville was the randomly
selected entry winner. Palmiter submitted the correct guess earlier
this summer and will receive an authentic Cougars home jersey with
special #100 embroidery.
This is the first time I have ever heard of such an innovation, and it is definitely a good one. Focusing on alumni success in the Major Leagues encourages the team’s fans to follow former Cougars as they climb the Minor League ladder. Perhaps more importantly, it drives home the point that fans are watching future Major Leaguers each and every time they attend a Cougars game. Perhaps this is obvious, but it is a distinction that can be lost on casual fans, due to the fact that the level of play at Class A (and lower) often seems worlds away from “The Show”.
In Other News: Congratulations to the Fresno Grizzlies for winning MiLB.com’s “Promotion of the Year” for 2008. The club’s Mascot Showdown netted more than half of the 9,149 total votes cast, while the Lancaster JetHawks came in second with 23% of the vote.
Featherweight Fighters Do Battle In Kane County
According to the fine folks at Guinness World Records, the largest pillow fight ever occurred at the University of Albany in 2005, and featured 3,648 combatants.
Last season, the Kane County Cougars attempted to break this record by staging a “World’s Largest Pillowfight” promotion. They made a good show of it, but ultimately fell short as they were able to entice “just” 3,085 fans to engage in post-game cushion combat.
In a display of the indomitable spirit that characterizes those from the great Midwest, the club simply decided they needed to try a little harder this season.
“After coming so close last
season and seeing the tremendous response towards the event,
there was
no doubt in our mind that we were going to take another crack at
breaking the world record this season,” Cougars Assistant General
Manager Jeff Ney said in a press release announcing this year’s feather-filled battle royale.
And break the World Record they did, as 3,872 fans took part in a post-game pillow fight on July 19th. The aforementioned fine folks at Guinness have not officially confirmed the Cougars’ triumph over the University of Albany, but hopefully they will legitimize the proceedings in the very near future.
In the meantime, the Cougars’ website features a video of the event as well as a post-fight wrap-up. Click here.
If Guinness confirms the record and the Cougars achieve pillow fighting immortality, it will be interesting to see if they can break their own record next year. Perhaps they could generate further interest in the event by snagging an endorsement from Speaker of the House Nancy “Pillow”-si.
It’s worth a shot.
BensBiz
Recent Comments