Thirsty Thursday is the Mother of all promotional nights. In fact, it is certainly not unique to baseball or sports marketing. Bars, restaurants, even nursing homes have Thirsty Thursday. But, Minor League baseball marketers seems to have turned it into a thing in and of itself. It dominates the landscape of Minor League Promotions like Devil's Tower.
The only seeming limitation to Thirsty Thursday are local ordinances. For example, in my original home state of Rhode Island, there are very restrictive laws about drink prices and "Happy Hour" specials. Outside of this virtually all team offers a drink and/or food special on Thursday.
Why Thursday? Probably because it rhymes. But, also because it is leading into the weekend's usually larger promotions. And finally, it is pretty easy, especially since you can probably get distributors to offer discount prices on the beers/liquors themselves.
Though, the lesson of Disco Night at Old Comisky in 1979 should always be remembered when mixing other promos with happy hour.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Early Spring and Baseball Is Coming
Spring has sprung here in Cincinnati, where your inveterate host is stationed for the foreseeable future. Spring brings us to the inevitable thoughts of baseball, and hot dogs, and high skies, and pop-flys; strike outs, dugouts, and blowouts; double plays and backwards K's; Take Me Out to the Ballgame, The Hall of Fame, and learning the new guys' names. The Poet-Commissioner A. Bart Giamatti said it best and this is an excellent place for his words :
" It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops."
A love-song in prose, to a game nonetheless. Luckily, we stand today on the precipice of "the spring, when everything else begins again," and wonder what surprises and glories time has in store for us this year.
" It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops."
A love-song in prose, to a game nonetheless. Luckily, we stand today on the precipice of "the spring, when everything else begins again," and wonder what surprises and glories time has in store for us this year.
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