Kansas City T-Bones To Have A "Michael Vick" Night

[|Zach|]

(Via Deadspin)

The team that gave you the Redneck Olympics (featuring the grueling mullet competition) finally has an event that you can attend with your dog. Since Michael Vick is incarcerated very near their home field, the Kansas City T-Bones (Independent Northern League) have decided to throw a Michael Vick Welcome to the Neighborhood Night on May 28. The best part: The T-Bones will be wearing black and white striped jerseys, and the visiting Gary SouthShore RailCats will wear bright orange jumpsuit replica jerseys. (Note to Cincinnati Bengals: Do not steal this idea).

Because I have unlimited wireless minutes before 9 a.m., I called T-Bones media guy Tommy Thrall for details.

“We were sitting around brainstorming promotional ideas, and figured we should do something with Michael Vick, since he’s so close by at Leavenworth,” Thrall said. “Someone Mapquested it, and found that Leavenworth is only 16 miles from the park. So it seemed like a natural.”

The T-Bones are still throwing around ideas, but likely to be included in Michael Vick Night are:

• Players and/or coaches being introduced while wearing shackles.

• Relief pitchers to be shuttled from the bullpen via paddy wagon.

• On-field dog parade.

• Prison siren to celebrate runs scored by home team.

• Free tickets for fans who bring a picture of themselves with their dog.

“Also, I’m sure that the park will be appropriately decorated for the prison themed night,” Thrall said. “Most of all it’s an opportunity to raise awareness about animal abuse and pet adoption.” Several shelters and adoption agencies will be on hand, and fans can even start the paperwork if they’d like to adopt a dog. The prison replica jerseys will be auctioned off after the game with the proceeds benefiting the participating pet organizations.

[Demonpenz]

pretty funny for a ruff draft

[Stryker]

What? No half time show featuring a home run derby on Vick's nuts? God this could have been spectacular!

[StcChief]

Give out the 'Mike Vick' Dog chew toys. first 500 thru gate

[Alton deFlat]

Here's their jerseys..



T-Bones give pinstripes a different slant with Michael Vick promotion

When you’re an independent, minor-league baseball team, you bank heavily on crazy promotions for big crowds.

And the T-Bones likely will score big with their Michael Vick “Welcome to the Neighborhood” promotion scheduled for May 28.

Vick, as you know, is serving a 23-month sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary in nearby Leavenworth after pleading guilty to charges related to a dogfighting ring.

The T-Bones assure us they are not making light of Vick’s crime. In fact, part of the promotion will include an auction of game uniforms to benefit local animal shelters. And there will be animal-shelter pets outside the stadium to be viewed for potential adoption.

But the T-Bones certainly are going to have some fun regarding Vick’s circumstances. For example, those uniforms to be auctioned off? They will include the T-Bones’ game jerseys from that night, which will be the old-style, black-and-white prison stripes. The visiting team, the Gary Southshore RailCats, will wear the orange jumpsuit tops.

“They couldn’t wear the whole jumpsuit,” said T-Bones promotions director Colin Aldrich, “because that would restrict movement.”

The night also will include spotlights and escapee sirens.

“People in Wyandotte County might think they’re hearing tornado sirens,” Aldrich said.

Players will be encouraged to act along and at least enter the field in shackles. Naturally, “Who Let the Dogs Out” will blare from the stadium speakers.

By the way, there were a few more ideas for the night that didn’t quite work out. One was lining the inside of the stadium with barbed wire to resemble a prison yard. Another was to have the players enter the field in a paddy wagon. There was also talk of having some attack dogs rip apart a dummy with a Vick jersey on it.

“Ultimately it became an issue of player and public safety,” Aldrich said, “so some of the ideas had to go.”

[CoMoChief]

Tommy Thrall has a great commentators voice. He can nail a Denny Matthews impersonation. He's a good friend of mine. Funny idea.

[R&GHomer]

I heard this on the Radio this morning... Pretty funny. I like the stomping of vicks nuts idea. What a complete piece of shit. I Hope he's getting prison raped as I type

[bowener]

Originally Posted by R&GHomer

I heard this on the Radio this morning... Pretty funny. I like the stomping of vicks nuts idea. What a complete piece of shit. I Hope he's getting prison raped as I type

I doubt he is... most likely he is signing a promotional offer with inmate #89345175's newly formed PR agency; all Vick has to do is tattoo inmate #89345175s gang name across his stomach and he receives 2 cigarettes a day, plus 1 stick of gum for every weight lifting session he does without his shirt on. Showers warrant no currency... but talks are in motion to have "dawgs 4 life" inked across his ass cheeks for an undisclosed amount.

[chasedude]

Saw this on the news last night, ha ha ha... nice PR ploy

[blueballs]

BASTARD ANIMAL RIGHTS PUSSIES

NFL | Minor league baseball team scraps Vick promotion
Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:59:45 -0700

The Associated Press reports the Kansas City T-Bones, a minor league baseball team, have dropped plans to hold a welcome party for jailed Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick. The T-Bones had planned to have a Michael Vick "Welcome to the Neighborhood" night May 28, complete with prison uniforms, spotlights and escape sirens. The club announced that it will drop the Vick-related events and focus only on events that promote animal safety and adoptions. T-Bones general manager Rick Muntean said, "It was not our intent to be culturally insensitive. We simply wanted to raise awareness for what we think are great causes. We recognize that the health and well-being of animals is a widely-supported cause of our fan base, so we're going to keep that our only focus."

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by R&GHomer

I heard this on the Radio this morning... Pretty funny. I like the stomping of vicks nuts idea. What a complete piece of shit. I Hope he's getting prison raped as I type

Good God.....I dont condone what he did by a longshot and im glad hes paying for his crimes but......


Its not like he killed a human being. Lets not get carried away...

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Good God.....I dont condone what he did by a longshot and im glad hes paying for his crimes but......


Its not like he killed a human being. Lets not get carried away...

QFT

[kstater]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/col...ry/584598.html
COMMENTARY
T-Bones' promotional mess points out importance of diversity
By JASON WHITLOCK
The Kansas City Star

This column will go out of its way to avoid vilifying the T-Bones and the marketing staff that came up with the offensive publicity stunt lampooning Michael Vick’s incarceration at Leavenworth.

I applaud the T-Bones for quickly acknowledging their mistake and moving to Plan B.

A baseball game played in prison stripes under the pretense of “welcoming” Vick to our neighborhood and raising awareness concerning animal cruelty was a horrendous and insensitive idea.

When Bob Kendrick, marketing director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, called me Thursday evening to inform me of the promotion and ask my thoughts, I was immediately reminded how clueless and desensitized most Americans are to the cruelty of and damage caused by incarceration.

We are the runaway world leaders when it comes to locking people up. A recent study revealed that one in 100 Americans are behind bars. The numbers are even more devastating when it comes to young African-American men, something like one in nine between ages 20 and 34.

I don’t have a problem with Michael Vick being sentenced to prison for participating in dogfighting. He’s a victim of his own illogical concept of manhood and keeping it real with his boyz.

I do, however, have a major problem with a professional sports franchise — even a minor-league one — hatching a scheme that turns Vick’s incarceration into a community-wide joke. Leave the insensitive jokes to the comedians, radio shock jocks and bloggers.

Again, I don’t want to beat up the T-Bones, but the absurdity of this entire fiasco illustrates the importance of mature, genuine diversity in the workplace.

The Vick promotion should’ve been shot down in a T-Bones brainstorming session. Someone should’ve objected strongly. And publicizing the Vick Night during the same week that Major League Baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson’s contributions to the game only magnified the T-Bones’ diversity shortcoming.

And diversity is far deeper than different color faces. Diversity is having the confidence and common sense to listen to, respect and consider the opinions of intelligent people who think different from you. A lot of times you have to seek out that kind of diversity. Big and small institutions tend to stamp out diversity of thought, which leads to what happened to the T-Bones.

The promotion was initially written about in a Star sports column as an event that would be a big hit with local fans. Thankfully, Mike Hendricks, a white columnist in the Metro section, raised questions about the appropriateness of Vick Night in the next day’s paper, trashing it as bush league. Hendricks downplayed the potential racial insensitivity. That is his right.

He may not be in tune with the crisis in the black and brown communities when it comes to America’s affinity for incarceration. A nasty byproduct of America’s drug war and where it chooses to fight that battle is a black incarceration total that makes South Africa’s old apartheid system look like Utopia.

I digress. My point is we all have our blind spots. None of us can be all-knowing. None of us can be free of bias — whether we’re white, black, brown or yellow. The best thing we can do is recognize our imperfections and choose to fight them.

Too many of us delude ourselves into believing we’re free of bias. We think a shallow, work friendship across racial lines is proof of our overall fair-mindedness. Or we think our blackness means we’re incapable of racist thoughts and actions.

We think we’re smarter than the people who hatched the T-Bones promotion.

We’re not. And if you think you are, you’re a much bigger part of the problem than the T-Bones’ executive who called off the Michael Vick Night. You can argue that he had no choice. The club’s sponsors were probably uncomfortable with the negative publicity.

I say his quick decision took courage and humility, characteristics in short supply whenever an issue brushes along America’s racial divide.

To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.

[Fish]

One question..... how is it that a "Welcome Michael Vick" night.... although insensitive to Vick and other people incarcerated... is now being perceived as racist? And what's with the Jackie Robinson link? Because that makes no sense whatsoever. The only thing Mike Vick and Jackie Robinson have in common is the color of their skin. There have been lots of Vick jokes since his crimes, but not once the whole time did Jackie Robinson's name pop into my head when thinking of Vick and his crime. Why should it?

Incarceration numbers and the color of those incarcerated are what they are. Those numbers didn't reach that level because of ill-perceived marketing ideas. While there should very well be concern with the diversity of those incarcerated, I really don't see the link here.

I agree that the idea was a little tasteless. But that has more to do with singling out one person to be the focus of a (supposedly) humorous marketing scheme. The idea should have never made it out of the board room. However, to chalk this up as a 1UP for racial diversity is a silly stretch to make.

[eazyb81]

Hilarious idea, wish they would have kept it.

Whitlock is a tool for trying to play the race card yet again. It's interesting how he thinks making fun of prisoners is synonymous with making fun of black people.