Batting cleanup on the Stephen Colbert – Charleston RiverDogs story

By now, I’ve no doubt that you heroes have read NFZ’s coverage of Stephen’s too-brief flirtation with the world of minor league baseball (just a few examples here), but I thought I’d leave you with these last few items, as they seemed post-worthy.

This is from Minor League Dugout, with some great details, previously unreported here:

Stephen Colbert throws out the first pint, RiverDogs hit minor league baseball promotional jackpot
By Chuck King

CHARLESTON, S.C. – While many minor league baseball clubs capitalized on July 7th’s numerical significance (07/07/07) with casino night promotions, Charleston hit the jackpot with an appearance from Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert.

. . .

His ice cream toss landed just shy of its mark, forcing Greenfield to scoop the pint out of the dirt.

“It came in just chest high and just died,” Colbert laughed.

Obviously amused by the RiverDogs wacky promotional idea, Greenfield questioned whether Colbert had the ability to make it as a professional ice cream tosser.

“Although it was a great pitch, he has no future as a pitcher,” Greenfield said. “I believe his best playing days are behind him.”

Nearly a year ago Colbert received what he called “the craziest phone call of my life” from Ben and Jerry’s telling him they’d like to make an ice cream in his name.

AmeriCone Dream is a vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate-covered waffle cone and caramel.

“It’s sweeter than the Bill of Rights, it’s colder than Valley Forge and it has twice as much caramel as the Louisiana Purchase,” said Colbert, slipping into his “Colbert Report” character. “It’s the best flavor of all time – way better than Willie Nelson’s flavor.”

. . .

Colbert was also scheduled to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame – he threatened to do something from Yentil [sic], instead – but that plan was thwarted by a first inning rain delay that ultimately postponed the game.

During the delay, fans with homemade “Colbert” shirts and others with “Colbert” spelled out on their chests serenaded Colbert from below his box with their version of Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

Colbert was also slated to join the radio broadcast for an inning. When the game was called, Colbert went to the radio booth for a one-on-one interview scheduled to be aired between games of Sunday’s doubleheader. During the interview he apparently did real play-by-play of an imaginary game.

Full text of post here

While Stephen’s rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the traditional seventh-inning stretch may have been a no-go, we did find footage of his fans’ version of the song. Here’s a peek at the YouTube video of his conducting prowess:

There were actually a few more quotes from Minor League Dugout’s blogspot that I should mention:

Charleston benefits from the quotable Stephen Colbert

A television reporter asked Colbert if he ever considered doing any real reporting.
Colbert: My theory of reporting is that I take the real reporting and I just say it again and people assume that I’m making a joke.
Reporter: And why is that?
Colbert: Because the real reporting is such as joke.

On the contributions he made to developing AmeriCone Dream:
Colbert: I had no input, other than I put it in me.

On the 2009 presidential debates:
Colbert: Have you seen the debates? They’re riveting. I’m on the edge of my coma.

On why he wasn’t participating in the Global Warming concerts:
Colbert: We’re saving the world through the ice cream. We’re combating global warming with freezer cases.

Question: MinorLeagueDugout.com named your appearance here as the Promotion of the Day.
Colbert (excitedly): Oh, really?
Question: MinorLeagueDugout, great minor league baseball Web site or..,
Colbert: The greatest Web site – you got me to say it.

Jerry Greenfield on whether he was going to try to do something wacky during the game:
Greenfield: I think it’s hard to follow up Stephen Colbert throwing a pint of ice cream.

Check out the full post here