The Baracklyn Cyclones Join the Minor Leagues

Is this the minor league promotion of the year?

By PATRICE EVANS

Updated 8:40 AM EST, Tue, Jan 13, 2009

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Barack Obama is already more than our soon-to-be 44th President of the United States; he's a burgeoning niche sector of the commercial marketplace. Companies in all lines of work are hawking Obama-associated wares, and now the Brooklyn Cyclones -- minor league affiliate of the Mets -- are joining the fray in a strong way: by changing the name of "baseball's most legendary borough" from Brooklyn to "Baracklyn" for a day.

Groan if you want, but the Cyclones are going the distance to prove that "Yes They Can!" get New Yorkers excited for a late-June minor league baseball game in January.

In addition to alternate red, white, and blue jerseys with the new team name, there will be an assortment of Obama-inspired flights of marketing whimsy including:

Barack bobbleheads for the first 2,500 fans.
An "Economic Stimulus Package" that rolls back prices to 2001 rates.
Universal Health Care ... in the form of free Band-Aids to the first 100 fans.
And a variety of prizes/bonuses for attendees luckily named "Barack", "Joe" (as in the plumber), "McCain", or "Palin"

Brooklyn Becomes Baracklyn

Awesome! Now all they have to do is throw in a free puppy for the first two black girls under the age of eleven named "Malia Ann" and "Natasha" and they should have people lining up from New Jersey to Flatbush.

Kudos to the Cyclones for turning that legendary Brooklyn ingenuity into a promotion worthy of a Golden Globe nomination. For those interested, the Economic Stimulus Package kicks in on Inauguration Day, January 20th.