Pillowcases, belt buckles and chef’s hats have been among the lures that have drawn Akron RubberDucks fans to Canal Park. With minor league baseball, it’s hard to know who will be on the field from one game to the next. So while the baseball might be nice, for some, the swag is the real draw.
And with recurring events such as Paws and Claws nights (bring your dog and buy a White Claw), promotions that give fans opportunities to take home free items like “Major League” movie-themed bobbleheads, and a plethora of fireworks nights, the Double-A RubberDucks have created a reputation for whimsical, family-friendly entertainment that can convince even the baseball-averse they might enjoy a night at the ballpark.
The RubberDucks’ home schedule starts Tuesday with a six-game series against the Altoona Curve. That night’s festivities include a Main Street festival — complete with inflatables — a magnetic schedule giveaway and, of course, fireworks.
(The team is also known for its over-the-top ballpark concessions.)
The atmosphere around the RubberDucks’ games makes a day at the ballpark entertaining for even those who don’t care about balls and strikes, said Gabriel Carrillo, a Kent resident who estimates he goes to 15 to 20 RubberDucks games each season.
“My wife is not a sports girl, but she loves these games,” Carrillo said. The giveaways, he added, are “a great complement to the product that’s on the field. It gets people who are not baseball fans to come out.”
This year, his wife is particularly interested in a T-shirt celebrating marbles — first mass produced in Akron before shooting their way into the National Toy Hall of Fame as an inaugural inductee. “I lost my marbles…if found, please return me to Canal Park,” the shirt reads.
Carrillo prefers giveaways that are a little nontraditional, like the pillowcase.
This year, the team is merging the unusual with the expected. The RubberDucks are getting in on Akron’s bicentennial celebration (more on that below) with a series of three bobbleheads, among other items. They’re of Akron founder Gen. Simon Perkins, Firestone High School graduate and astronaut Judy Resnik, and Rita Dove, the Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. poet laureate who graduated from Buchtel High School.
Dove said she plans to be at the Aug. 23 game where she’ll make her bobblehead debut. She called the request to turn her into a baseball promotion “thrilling,” and noted she went to Simon Perkins Junior High School, so it was particularly affecting that she shared the honor with its namesake.
“I’ve had some thrills in my life, but never a bobblehead,” Dove said.
‘That’s so Ohio’ night, Donna Kelce bobblehead among promotions
At a time when baseball is making changes to speed up the game and the Savannah Bananas, the sport’s equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters, are selling out ballparks, it’s incumbent on minor league teams such as the RubberDucks to find the crossroads of sports and entertainment.
Christina Gunter and her team are the ones who make it happen. Gunter, the RubberDucks’ vice president of entertainment, said the team takes its “Affordable. Family. Fun.” motto to heart when they decide which promotions to bring back and what to add.
Star Wars Night and a Princess and Pirate Tea Party return this year. A slate of bicentennial-themed giveaways, like the marble T-shirt, are new.
“At our level, it’s really about the fun that happens at the ballpark,” said Jim Pfander, the RubberDucks’ general manager. “If there’s a crazy food creation, or you met a celebrity, but you forget the final score, that’s OK. It means we’ve done our job.”
It’s what makes Minor League Baseball unique, Carrillo said.
“They’re able to have these fun, themed nights,” he said. “Fans want to be entertained. It offers people something kind of cool.”
Gunter pays particular attention to movie anniversaries, local stars and pop culture trends that might engage people. During last year’s “brat summer,” one of the fireworks nights featured female powerhouse singers. This year, there will be a “That’s so Ohio” night to try to reclaim the meme, which indicates something is weird, by highlighting some things the state has to offer.
“We’re trying to show Ohio is not cringe,” she said.
This year’s giveaways include a bobblehead of Donna Kelce, the mother of football superstars Jason and Travis Kelce. A Cleveland Heights resident, she rose to fame when she wore a split jersey when her sons’ teams — the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs — played each other in the Super Bowl. A Jhonkensy Noel-themed ugly Christmas sweater hooded T-shirt in honor of the 23-year-old Guardians player who played for the RubberDucks in 2022 also made the list. And expect visits from the animated dog Bluey, 2006 Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and “The Mighty Ducks” actor Matt Doherty.
Especially early in the season, Gunter said, programs and giveaways help bring people to Canal Park when the weather is still chilly and the stakes are low.
She said planning for the next season begins before the end of the last one. Everywhere she goes, she’s looking for promotion ideas.
“The beauty of Minor League Baseball is it’s very community-centric,” Gunter said. “It leans into what makes that community great.”
RubberDucks promos are icing on the minor league cake
George Miller belongs to a number of bobblehead trading groups, but the Ravenna resident and RubberDucks season ticket holder said he’s also appreciated a bowling pin and championship ring the team has given away, in addition to other promos.
While he’s less excited about this year’s lineup — save the latest addition to the “Major League” bobblehead series, Stacy Carroll as Suzanne Dorn, the wife of Corbin Bernsen’s Roger Dorn — Miller said the team generally “really knows what to do and what the fans want” in terms of giveaways.
He, too, is a fan of the “oddball” ones.
While Miller occasionally attended games before he became a season ticket holder, he and some friends have for years been “bobblegating.” It starts around 10 or 11 a.m., allowing them to be among the first fans into the park when the gates open hours later. It’s become a summer rite of passage, he said, and one he plans to continue this year, even if he’s not sold on this season’s offerings.
“I’ve always been a baseball fan, but promos are kind of like the icing on the cake,” he said. “People come to the RubberDucks for the promos.”
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That’s particularly true for parents, Carrillo said. Whether it’s replica jerseys or movie nights, he said he always feels as though there’s something interesting going on at Canal Park. Carrillo said he’s impressed that the team has managed to differentiate all 69 home games; even more so, that the daily themes involve trivia or between-inning entertainment that encompasses more than the promotion itself.
“It doesn’t feel like anything’s a throwaway,” he said.
But when there are too many promotions, they can run together, said Phil Singh, who lives in Lakewood and attends five to 10 games a season. Singh likes the sport and the atmosphere, and “if there’s a giveaway I can take home with me, all the better,” he said.
This year, he thinks he might take his grandchildren to Dino Day. He’s interested in the Negro League Night, when the RubberDucks will don the uniforms of the Black Tyrites.
Singh’s favorite giveaways are the ones that are nostalgic or have a sense of humor, as well as those that feel collectible.
“If it has a little bit of whimsy, a wink to it, that appeals to me a little more,” he said.
Bicentennial giveaways among this season’s focus
Gunter and her team hope fans like Singh see the jokes in some of the promotions they’re focusing on to celebrate Akron’s bicentennial.
In addition to a shirt celebrating marbles, the planned T-shirt series includes “Best weather in the nation” — gray writing on a golden background — and an “I’m a sucker for Quakron” shirt featuring lollipops and the grimacing duck that’s the RubberDucks’ logo. (Dum-Dums originated with the Akron Candy Co. 101 years ago, but the suckers on this shirt are generic.) An “All hail the oatmeal king!” T-shirt is a nod to Ferdinand Schumacher, the 1850s Akron resident who founded the company that became Quaker Oats.
“It’s just part of Akron’s history and heritage and what makes it fun,” Pfander said.
On a few occasions, the RubberDucks will rename themselves. In addition to becoming the Black Tyrites, they’ll also be known for one day as the Akron Cheese Salads in a nod to the local side dish, and for two more as the Akron Galley Boys in honor of Swenson’s. Past food-based rebrandings, Pfander said, have resulted in sales of specialty jerseys in all 50 states.
The efforts by Gunter and her team are “really commendable” and show how invested the RubberDucks are in Akron’s history, said Mark Greer, the executive director of Akron 200.
Carillo said the Akron-related promotions in particular show how much the team and its ownership care about the city. The giveaways are “little ways we can show you we’re invested,” he said of the team.
“It’s a really great environment,” Carrillo said. “There’s always something still novel that makes it a unique experience every time.”