John Oliver’s Erie Moon Mammoths debut in front of a record crowd

ERIE Pa AP Besides being a fan John Oliver has had a certain affinity for minor league baseball On Saturday night the comedian and host of HBO s Last Week Tonight saw his latest crazy creation set out into the world as the Erie Moon Mammoths made their debut in front of a record crowd of at UPMC Park We re sending our furry child out into the world and you are the custodian of it Now please be careful with our child Oliver disclosed a couple hours before the Moon Mammoths took the field against the Chesapeake Oyster Catchers Oliver spotlighted Minor League Baseball promotions and alternate nicknames during Last Week Tonight on May At the end of the segment Oliver invited teams to send in proposals why they should get rebranded by the show s staff Forty-seven teams sent in pitches including the Erie SeaWolves the Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers Erie president Greg Coleman sent a list of reasons why they were the perfect candidate including The SeaWolves play baseball nowhere near the sea To have so multiple teams expressing interest was really edifying I think it kind of validates the fact that we thought there was something special about minor league baseball We thought this would be a group of people that would respond to the ludicrous idea that we had Oliver noted Erie was released as the winner on May After six weeks of research by Oliver and his staff the Moon Mammoths were unveiled on June That included the mascot named Fuzz a purple woolly mammoth wearing a space helmet Erie did stand out to us as being you know uniquely eccentric And I say that as both a compliment and an insult which is the biggest compliment there is Oliver mentioned There was something about the Moon Mammoth that spoke to us for being particularly odd It felt like it could make a baseball company s theme You could almost see the logo in your head and it felt like something to be extra surprising The fact that this came together in less than three months is a minor miracle It usually takes months for a association to have an alternate identity approved and then take the field I thought we had a good chance when I sent it in And then when we were selected it was a little surreal Coleman commented And since then working with the Last Week Tonight unit they ve been wonderful and detail oriented The Moon Mammoths name was inspired by George Moon who revealed the bone of a prehistoric mammoth while scuba diving in The remains are housed at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg Moon has become a regional celebrity since the rebranding was publicized He was at the meeting and caught the ceremonial first pitch from Oliver It s fun I m enjoying it Moon stated From all those years ago to in the present day I would never have thought anything like this would ve been attainable The newspaper did something on its th anniversary in Other than that I haven t heard much Coleman reported since the Moon Mammoths were unveiled the gang has done the equivalent of four years of online sales in three weeks The line of people waiting to get into the squad store which was located in left field stretched out to near home plate in the concourse area Karyn Drombosky and Sean Mizerski drove from Pittsburgh and were wearing homemade tusks as they waited to get into the band store It s just great We re big baseball fans We see the Pirates all the time and minor league games are fun There s so much silliness Drombosky disclosed We watch John Oliver pretty regularly We were like surprised but excited when we saw he picked the Erie club to take over In addition to throwing out the first pitch Oliver was a batboy during one inning and also led the crowd in Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch The cap and jersey that Oliver wore for the first pitch are going to the Baseball Hall of Fame Erie trailed - going into the bottom of the ninth but got within one run on Kevin McGonigle s two-run double Chesapeake s Yaqui Rivera struck out Josue Brice o with the bases loaded to end the meeting The atmosphere was great Everything worked smoothly It doesn t happen very often in minor league baseball to be able to have an event like that It was a fun night for everyone Erie manager Andrew Graham disclosed The Moon Mammoths will be back on Aug as well as Sept and Coleman declared there will be at least four Moon Mammoths games next season I love minor league baseball There is a special eccentricity to it Oliver explained It felt like a nice fit with our show because minor league baseball as you know is willing to try anything That was proven by the fact that over half the league was willing to sight unseen rebrand and put their trust in the hands of a group of people who are objectively untrustworthy That s a bad decision and it s that kind of bad decision making that I love about minor league baseball AP sports https apnews com sports Source