Double-A team to host ‘Brian Williams’ Pants On Fire Night’
If there’s a major story or scandal in the news, we can always count on at least one minor baseball team turning it into a wacky promotion. The Akron Rubber Ducks — the Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians — are the latest team to employ this strategy and strike while the iron is hot, announcing “Brian Williams’ Pants-on-Fire Night” for Monday, April 27, which appropriately happens to be national Tell a Story Day.
The announcement comes on the heels of NBC’s longtime national news anchor being suspended six months without pay for embellishing his account of a 2003 incident in Iraq. Williams issued an apology for his false claims — which came across as well as Roger Clemens claiming Andy Pettitte “misremembered” a conversation regarding his alleged steroid and human growth hormone use while testifying for Congress — and it wasn’t nearly enough to douse the flames.
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Now the Rubber Ducks are looking to fan those flames further with an evening of fun at the ballpark.
“Monday, April 27 is national ‘Tell a Story Day’ and we could not think of a better storyteller,” said RubberDucks General Manager Jim Pfander. “We thought this would be a fun, tongue-in-cheek night for our fans.”
Among the events scheduled:
• A fan named Brian Williams will be on hand to read embellished stories.
• A pair of Brian Williams’ pants will be burned during a “liar, liar, pants on fire” ceremony. We’re guessing those will the fan’s pants, not the anchor’s pants, since it’s unlikely he’d be interested in participating.
• Also, there will a between-inning chance for fans to audition to be the next NBC’s next news anchor on the video board. The winning video, as determined by the fans in attendance, will be sent to NBC for consideration. Though it’s more likely that too will be burned.
You can’t get one past the creative minds involved in minor league baseball. As always, they have put a tremendous amount of thought into this promotion, and we’re guessing it will make for a unique experience at Canal Park. Just so long as Mother Nature doesn’t douse the flames herself.
Tickets for the game are on sale now on the RubberDucks home page.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
