It's a Marte Bobblehead Partay! This week in Minor League Baseball promotions
It's a Marte Partay! This week in MiLB promotions
There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and most importantly, Minor League promotions. MiLB.com's Ben Hill has the inside scoop on the last of those certainties, and he'll be sharing a taste with us and you each and every week. Check out a unique upcoming promo below and read his full recap of the week's best promotions right here. You can follow Ben on Twitter @Bensbiz.
"Let's have a Marte Partay!"
So says Pittsburgh Pirates play-by-play man Greg Brown, whenever left fielder Starling Marte has accomplished a feat worth celebrating. This week, the Altoona Curve are taking that concept literally.
The Curve -- Double-A affiliate of the Pirates -- will be distributing Starling "Marte Partay" bobbleheads to the first 1500 fans in attendance at Friday's game. Marte, eschewing his normal baseball paraphernalia, is depicted wearing a team logo party hat while carrying a cake in his right hand and a gift in his left. This is the second consecutive season in which the Curve have produced an irreverent Marte-inspired item, following 2014's delayed-by-a-nautical-shipping-snafu oven mitt giveaway (the mitts were inspired by the protective shield Marte wore on his right hand late in the 2013 campaign).
"When our promo and marketing staff comes together to figure out what players to highlight with our bobbleheads and figurines, we always challenge ourselves to make it unique," said Curve general manager Rob Egan. "It makes people more interested, and becomes more of a collector's item."
On May 29, two weeks after the "Marte Partay" bobblehead, the Curve are once again offering a bobblehead inspired by a Greg Brown catchphrase. This time the honoree is reliever Tony "Elementary, My Dear" Watson, decked out in full Sherlock Holmes-inspired regalia (deerstalker cap, trench coat, magnifying glass, pipe).
If you think that's dumb, well, it gets dumber. On Aug. 28 the Curve are giving away Jordy "Lloyd Christmas" Mercer bobbleheads. Egan said that this one was inspired by ROOT TV's "Inside Pirates Baseball" show, which dedicated a segment to Mercer's uncanny resemblance to Jim Carrey.
"Well, okay, what's the next step?" said Egan, of his reaction to this revelatory piece of television journalism. "Let's make Mercer Lloyd Christmas. What's pretty cool is that after we announced the promotion he retweeted it, and we later found out that he and his son dressed up on Halloween just like in Dumb and Dumber."
We took all the candy!! #DumbandDumber pic.twitter.com/0hfaOBqBRD
— Jordy Mercer (@jordy_mercer) November 1, 2014
Oh, yes. Jordy Mercer most definitely approves.