Holy Toledo Mud Hens!

photo courtesy
Toledo Mud Hens

The Toledo Mud Hens decided to celebrate “May the 4th be with you” (also known as Star Wars Day) and it’s sequel “Revenge of the 5th” by hosting a pair of Star Wars themed baseball games; including the team wearing special “Chewbacca” style baseball jerseys both days.  When news of the Mud Hens’ Star Wars baseball jerseys hit the web, opinions among baseball fans ranged from “awesome” to “wtf?” -- and you thought Star Wars costumers were picky?  The “Chewbacca” jerseys were drawing national attention to this past weekend’s home series at Fifth Third Field, where the Great Lakes Base and Ohio Garrison would be right in the middle of it!

After trooping at various Free Comic Book Day events in the morning, groups from both Rebel Legion and 501st converged on downtown Toledo by mid-afternoon.  Several of us had trooped at a much smaller event with the Mud Hens last year, so we already had a good idea of how the ballpark was setup.  Once we got geared up, we got divided into teams to cover various areas and levels of Fifth Third Field.  As a Jedi, I got assigned to “Team Chewie” -- which let me tell ya, we tease Lumpy about being a “rock star” when he’s wearing his Chewbacca costume.  However, I will be the first to admit that when you’re standing next to a 7ft tall icon of the Star Wars universe, sometimes ya just have to let Mick be Mick -- as Lumpy had a line of fans running all the way down the 3rd Base side of the ballpark. Later, our resident Wookiee took to the field to deliver the game ball to the Mud Hen’s starting pitcher.

Once the game got underway, Teams “Vader” “Chewie” and “Leia” spread out around the ballpark.  There was a photo booth setup behind home plate, but “I don’t think the Empire had wookiees in mind when they designed them, Chewie” -- so we just stepped over to the side and people were coming up for pictures all night.  As the lone Jedi that evening, I spent most of the evening dueling with kids that had lightsabers.  We were not the only ones in Star Wars costumes; many kids came to the game dressed as their favorite characters – including some homemade costumes that even impressed us!  

Unfortunately, “the Force” was not with the Mud Hens... as they lost (in 13 innings) by a score of 2-1.

For the second game in Mud Hens’ “Star Wars” home stand, we may have decided to go a bit off-script and do the things we know work at sporting events that we troop.  “Revenge of the Fifth” also happens to be Cinco de Mayo, so when Darth Vader decided he was going to wear a sombrero… how (exactly) do you tell a Sith Lord he can’t do that?  We spent more time on the concourse with fans, we posed for more pictures then even the night before and watched Leia and Chewie on the "KISS-CAM."  Later between innings, the Mud Hens’ staffers got this idea for us to go onto the field during “Harlem Shake” ... not my idea of a good time, but we survived.

The Mud Hens took a beating from the Knights by a score of 4-1.  Afterwards, we gathered the Great Lakes Base and Ohio Garrison at home plate for a group picture -- which (for the record) is the footage that aired on CNN, ESPN and NBC News’ coverage of the Mud Hens weekend!

Mud Hens marked the completion of a rare accomplishment for any Rebel Legion or 501st member, the “FOUR-PEAT” -- trooping 4 events in less then 36 hours! Three of us managed to pull off a FOUR-PEAT this past weekend, which help make “May the 4 th be with you” weekend something to remember for a long time.