NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The popular bobblehead dolls that have featured sports heroes are moving into the biblical realm with a minor league baseball team’s giveaway of Old Testament heroes Moses, Samson and Noah for a “Faith Night” series this season.
The Nashville Sounds, AAA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, last year laid claim to the first Christian-based sales program in professional baseball in order to attract church groups to various games.
Donelson Air Conditioning, a Nashville-area company, is sponsoring the bobbleheads.
“We saw the bobblehead promotion as a creative way to reach our target market of church leaders and members while at the same time supporting the Sounds in a worthwhile, family event,” Dean Fulton, general manager of Donelson Air Conditioning, said.
At the June 4 Faith Night, the first 2,000 fans to enter Greer Stadium in Nashville will receive a caricature-type representation of Moses carrying the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Fans at the July 30 Faith Night will receive a bobblehead of the muscular Samson wearing a “God’s Gym” T-shirt, while fans at the Aug. 27 Faith Night will receive a Noah bobblehead holding a closed umbrella.
“The church groups are going crazy over these things,” Brent High, the Sounds’ church and youth programs director, said in a June 1 news release. “We’ve had some churches double the number of people they brought last year, and they attribute it to the bobbleheads.”
Nearly 350 church groups attended Sounds games in Nashville last season, and the number is anticipated to increase to nearly 600 this year, according to the news release.
The seven planned Faith Nights this season are intended to draw families, church groups and others to the ballpark. The June 4 game will feature post-game fireworks and a pre-game concert by Denver & The Mile-High Orchestra, a big band-styled Christian music group. Other Faith Nights will feature concerts by Christian artists Natalie Grant, Plus One, Shaun Groves, Nate Sallie, Silers Bald, Across the Sky and Todd Agnew.
But in contrast to Friday Faith Nights, the Sounds also promote Thirsty Thursdays, with $1 draught beer through the first five innings.
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For more information, visit www.nashvillesounds.com. (BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: BIBLICAL BOBBLEHEADS.
