April 18, 2007

The Kiteman and the first pitch: Veterans Stadium, Opening Day, 1972. : (via Fark)

read story | posted by mr_crash_davis to Baseball at 2:47 PM CDT (3 comments total)

Thanks for the story link! Gave me some good chuckles.

Comment icon posted by BigTallChris at 3:09 PM CDT on April 18

I like that. No way I see anything like that being even attempted these days - too risky, no insurance, yadda, yadda. Too much detail/busy work. It would take weeks to arrange and involve a committee. Sure, there would be plenty of donuts, but that's a paltry sum for one's spontaneity and creativity.

But it's certainly no more dangerous than handing that Cincinnati Mayor Nuke LaLoosh a ball. That thing could just as easily land in the bullpen, too. He could hit himself in the back of the head.. By surprise.

I am still laughing at that. Eric Davis looked at that guy and his expression said "You know how white people are always saying how we're genetically more athletic. You're fucking that up."

Comment icon posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 3:57 PM CDT on April 18

Giles pisses me off sometimes, but I'm looking forward to reading this book. Here's more on Giles' promotions from Phillies.com...

Second to Kiteman was Aug. 13, 1972, when Karl Wallenda walked a tightrope across the top of the Vet between games of a double-header. Wallenda, who performed a hand stand midway across, repeated the stunt six years later.

Now here are some of the "horrible mistakes" as Giles calls them and all involved animals and all occurred in the mid-'70s -- no one is sure when.

"One of the worst was the ostrich race. Some guy convinced me that these ostriches could run around the perimeter of the ballpark (with a harness) attached. So I told Harry Kalas and Richie Asburn that there's no fear. They started to go wild and Richie and Harry were scared to death. So was I. They jumped off very quickly. One of the ostriches jumped into the stands. It was awful. Harry and Richie were going to have a race, but it never happened because the ostriches couldn't behave.

"Then I had the highest jumping Easter bunny planned for an Easter Sunday. I put my sales guy in a bunny outfit and got a hot-air balloon. The theory was that the hot air would take the rabbit and would end up somewhere in New Jersey. The balloon would get up about 10 feet and crash down. Finally my bunny told the balloon operator that he wasn't going to do it because he was scared.

"We had a duck race where about 20 ducks were supposed to race from second and third. The usherettes were supposed to coax them with little crumbs. As soon as we got the ducks out there, they all ran into the dugout."

So, they booed the Easter Bunny stunt. Wonder why the myth, "Phillies fans booed the Easter Bunny" never got started.

Comment icon posted by SummersEve at 4:33 PM CDT on April 18

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