Yankees Minor-League Team Panics and Cancels 'OJ Trial' Night
By Michael Luciano
The world of minor league baseball promotions is a quirky, yet charming one. From odd jerseys that celebrate local cuisine to D-list celebrity appearances, every team has at least one odd promotion that stands out every season. The Charleston RiverDogs had a promotion that certainly stood out on the docket for 2020, but for all the wrong reasons.
The RiverDogs, a Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, planned to have an "OJ Trial Night" that had several games for fans themed around former Buffalo Bills running back OJ Simpson's murder trial, for which he was famously acquitted, with some sort of...orange juice spin? After a tsunami of backlash, the RiverDogs have called off the promotion.
Yankees minor-league team quickly cancels 'OJ Simpson Trial' night https://t.co/v5UthBCmUj pic.twitter.com/6Jz1z3oc4W
— New York Post (@nypost) March 6, 2020
“The trial of the century gets a juicy new spin. We will finally receive the verdict that everyone has been waiting for … pulp or no pulp?” the RiverDogs’ original promotional release stated. “Fans will act as our jury, voting with custom paddles to reach verdicts on various topics throughout the night." Everyone in attendance was also going to receive an "OJ Trial" T-shirt. Yes. The orange juice jokes you've been waiting 25 years to safely make!
Glossing over the fact that the OJ trial is almost 25 years old, who thought people would come to the ballpark because of OJ trial nostalgia? Furthermore, who thought that intertwining a murder case into a minor league baseball game, OJ or no OJ, would sell tickets?
After announcing a promotion that offered a “juicy spin” on the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the Charleston RiverDogs on Thursday said they have removed the idea from the 2020 calendar.https://t.co/WzhgEGRjxg
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) March 5, 2020
If you just graduated college with a degree in marketing or public relations, I think the RiverDogs might be hiring after the disastrous rollout of their 2020 promotional schedule.