Newark Bears Baseball Holds Bird Flu Awareness Promotion

Newark, New Jersey, like a great many settlements in the area, suffers from being too close to Manhattan for its own good. Manhattan glitters diamond-like (at least at night when one can’t see the dirt and graffiti) while Newark, Jersey City and Yonkers are the black velvet background. However, Newark has a baseball team called the Bears, minor league to be sure, but a fine team. Management, though, may need to revisit its marketing plans. Last Friday, the team hosted “Bird Flu Awareness Night.”

Minor league baseball, for those unfamiliar with it, remains a far purer version of the game than that seen in the majors, if not as well executed. No multi-millionaires on the field, the players earn a lower-middle class salary, and they travel by bus. They play for a shot at the Big Show (as the majors are called), and if there is a talent deficit, there is rarely a deficit in heart. Moreover, the stadia are smaller, the crowds more intimate. It’s baseball before the corporations came. One feels the Gary Cooper side of American culture at a minor league ballpark rather than the Sylvester Stallone end of it. The kinder, gentler nation that never really existed can be found there.

Yet as a business, minor league ball is a pain. The TV rights that make the American and National Leagues what they are don’t sell. The big league parent club can call up the rising star right as the pennant race gets interesting. And putting backsides in seats is a constant challenge. Enter the whimsical “Bird Flu Awareness Night.” The press release announcing it was written by someone who’s going places.

The Newark Bears Professional Baseball Club will cautiously welcome the Camden Riversharks at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium on Friday, May 26 as they host Bird Flu Awareness Night. Present anything 'chicken' related – a rubber chicken, a can of chicken soup, etc. - at the Newark Bears Box Office and receive FREE admission.

With a mild form of the Avian Flu influenza found in a bird market in Camden County recently, the Bears have taken precautions to insure the health of their fans. A special section will be quarantined for all Rivershark fans making the trip north from Camden, and all fans that walk through the gates will receive a surgical mask presented by Saint Barnabas Health Care System/Clara Maass Medical Center. Clara Maass Medical Center will also present the Post-Game Fireworks Spectacular, as part of the Bears’ Fireworks Fridays series. In addition, a pre-game chicken wing eating contest will take place on the concourse presented by Planet Wings.

'The Newark Bears want to assure all fans in northern New Jersey that the organization has taken the necessary measures in a potentially fowl situation,' said Bears’ General Manager John Brandt.