A recent LGBTQ+ promotion by Tampa Bay's Single-A affiliate passed with flying colors.
The Charleston RiverDogs threw it back to the '80s and '90s during their annual Rainbows Pride Night on Aug. 16 at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Ballpark. Some real rainbows even came out during the 1-0 victory over Down East as the game wound up being called early for rain.
“You feel it,” RiverDogs president and GM Dave Echols said. “You can sense the vibe from both sides of the promotion, so it's worked well for us.”
From 1985 to 1993, Charleston's Minor League team was known as the Rainbows, after the "Rainbow Row" of historic homes in Downtown Charleston. For the first eight years of that span, the Rainbows were affiliated with the Padres. The Rainbows era was highlighted by the 1988 team's South Atlantic League Southern Division title.
One year after the Rangers came to town, they changed the club's name to the RiverDogs. And following stints by the Devil Rays and Yankees, Tampa Bay renewed its affiliation with Charleston in 2021.
A replica of the Rainbows era's retro uniform, the cap depicts a rainbow arching over an outline of South Carolina, complete with a star for Charleston's location. The underline under the jersey’s wordmark is decked out in rainbow, as are stripes running along the cuffs.
But even before the RiverDogs aligned the promotion with Pride Night, retro night had been a longstanding tradition in Charleston.
"It's been something that we've been doing for quite some time, and it's certainly a well-recognized promotion on both fronts," Echols said. "You have the pride community and you have the historical throwback version that appeals to a lot of our fans."
As part of the festivities, there was an auction for the team's game-worn jerseys with a portion of the funds donated to Charleston Pride.
And in the end, it only seemed fitting that the game was called after four-and-a-half innings due to rain. It didn't both No. 16 Rays prospect Ian Seymour much. The southpaw collected five strikeouts in four hitless frames.
“I'm pretty sure we saw some rainbows a few times during that week,” Echols said. “I think it was a little bit of tongue-in-cheek apropos that that would happen.”