The birth of the rally fries

[susandennis]

In early June, at a Mariners game, a fan made a fabulous catch of a foul ball but in the process, the fries in his lap went flying.  The new announcer (the really really good one) was so impressed with his catch that he had the broadcast announcer take the guy some replacement fries.  The guy had a perfect reaction to his new found fortune, and the announcers enjoyed the heck out of the whole thing. It was great fun.

At the very next game, a fan came with a very cool sign requesting fries from Mike Blowers (the announcer) and the TV camera found him and Mike sent the guy fries and a new tradition was born.  In every park now there are wonderful signs of all kinds begging for what have been termed rally fries.  I can only remember one game - an afternoon game in Texas - that did not have a sign asking Mike for rally fries.  Everywhere else, there are the signs. 

It's wonderful.  The fries are awarded sometimes in the 5th inning sometimes in the 6th sometimes in the 7th.  They go to the best sign or the cutest kid or the most clever whatever.  That's what's so cool about it.  It's so random and it's so fun. 

The Minnesota Twins announcer has one of those on screen crayons and he, apparently has a tradition of circling fans.  So we had a Minnesota fan with a Circle Me sign. 

Ann (neighbor) just popped in here on the way to the game.  She wanted to show me her sign.  She absolutely would not stand still or pose for more than a second so the picture sucks but I love that she made the sign to take. 
Mac is the Mariner manager.

Comments

[thalamic.livejournal.com]

Nice story. :)

[tbone.livejournal.com]

Awesome. We probably saw a dozen Rally Fries signs when we went to Monday night's game. I'm really glad my dad explained this to me beforehand, as I would have had no clue.

[mixter11nm.livejournal.com]

Do you have season tickets? There is nothing better than being a fan at home field. Wait, I take that back. One of the best times I had was at Camden Yards when the Yanks played the Orioles. About 8 years ago, I took hubby and our kids for a weekend to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Had tickets for the Saturday game. I would guess that almost half the fans were Yankee fans. It was fun being a fan of the guests and still feeling like you were in the home field.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Heh. For the Red Sox-Orioles series at Camden Yards this past weekend, it was estimated that the Sox fans were in the majority by a substantial amount. This apparently upset one of the Orioles broadcasters so much that he made disparaging remarks about Fenway Park on the air.