Minor League organizations will try anything to get the crowds in. Sometimes going to such lengths as staging a competitive baseball match, for example.

Other times they are less willing to gamble on radical ideas like the one above, so they trot out the ole’ trusty prime promotions such as Star Wars Night, Revenge of the Jedi Afternoon, Jar-Jar Binks Bobblehead Evening, and so forth.

Lately the classic bobblehead giveaways have been augmented by more cutting edge fare: garden gnomes, oven mitts, and of course the stunning snow globe.  The snow globes go ball in glove with the ‘Christmas in July’ concept, of which I was a recent witness when the Tennessee Snow Smokies took on the Chattanooga Be On the Lookout for Santas.  You think I’m lying?  Call George Middlebrooks at home and ask him.  Wait until the baby is asleep, please.

That’s right, Christmas in July. Because why have it in a season with no baseball?  Not everybody can afford to go the Honduras winter league to get that synced up double dose of America’s greatest game and most profitable holiday.

The Smokies promo team wasn’t messing around, either. There was a barbershop quartet belting out Deck The Halls and Rudolph as folks waited in a long line, their lips wet with anticipatory drool over the thought of being one of the first 1,000 to get a FREE SNOW GLOBE. Or two. Or six. Then leave without going to the game. Then putting the arched art keepsakes on E-bay.

I will say this- the barbershop quartet did an outstanding and refreshingly original take on the National Anthem.

There were other signs of the season around the park, a couple of girls getting their elf decor on, people buying more than they needed, eating more than their bodies demanded, and such. But, otherwise, it was just a great evening for baseball. Wonderfully close minor league affordable seats, good company, quality play, and salty sustenance. Also on display, lots of outstanding pitching, especially from the Lookout for Santas. The Smokies came back in the ninth to try and tie but but that sled had done sailed.  And then we all returned to our respective poles. Some of us with globes, and others who simply wished for one.