When the Chicken came to town

TAMIS, the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, presented this wonderful ad from 1988.

Knoxville Blue Jays Welcome the San Diego Chicken from TAMIS on Vimeo.

Promotions are nice, but who won the game?  The K-Jays, at that time, were a farm club of the Toronto Blue Jays.  They beat Huntsville 3-1, sweeping that series.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - June 4, 1988

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - June 4, 1988

The K-Jays finished that 1988 season with a 75-69 record, but that was only good enough to be the third best team in the Southern League, Western Division and the fourth best team in the whole of the league.

That season they had 23 players who were, or would be, in the majors.  If you were there that evening you saw the following previous or future major leaguers:

• Kevin Batiste
• Francisco Cabrera
• Steve Cummings
• Junior Felix
• Webster Garrison
• Darren Hall
• Shawn Jeter
• Domingo Martinez
• Tom Quinlan
• Alex Sanchez
• Matt Stark

These two players did not make the show:

• Jimmy Kelly
• Tom Malave

1982 Strohs & WOKI Beer Night

As time allows I've been slipping some "This Day in Smokies' History" to Mick Gillispie and Justin Rocke for their radio broadcasts of the Smokies games. I thought I'd feature this one here.

The end of April, 1982, saw the Smokies Blue Jays in first place in the Western Division of the Southern League.  Promotions are always a part of minor league play, so why not partner with Strohs and radio station WOKI and celebrate baseball and beer?

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - April 27, 1982

Really, what could go wrong?  Fortunately, nothing like that.  The Blue Jays beat the Savannah Braves, 5-4.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - April 29, 1982

DH Vernon Ramie, who finished the season with a .285 BA, homered that night.  Verne never made it out of the minors.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - April 29, 1982

I guess the promotion worked, as there were 867 fans in attendance.  That's up 707 from the night before when they beat Savannah 19-5.

The Blue Jays went on to finish the regular season with a 73-71 record, just behind Nashville Sounds (77-67).