St. Paul Has Fun Tackling This Viking

The St. Paul Saints, who open their independent league baseball schedule May 16, are back at it with their zany promotions.

Last year, they gave away seat cushions with the likeness of Bud Selig, Major League Baseball’s commissioner, on one side and Don Fehr, the players’ union chief, on the other.

This year, on Aug. 16, they’re planning Randy Moss Hood Ornament Night. The ornament will be a generic football player -- no Viking purple, no Moss No. 84 -- but the link is clear.

It’s a reference to an incident last September in which a car Moss was driving bumped a traffic-control agent, knocking her to the street. The Viking receiver pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor driving charges, and the ornament is “tongue-in-cheek,” Saint media relations director Dave Wright told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Also in the promotional lineup: Cow Appreciation Night (June 10), Guaranteed Loss Night (July 2), Christmas Tree Giveaway (July 9) and St. Paul -- as in the saint -- Bobblehead Night (July 14).

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Cool or cruel? St. Paul’s marketing department has some competition. On June 3, the Bisbee-Douglass Copper Kings of the Arizona-Mexico League will hold Ted Williams Night.

First 500 fans get a Popsicle.

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Trivia time: What player-manager on this date in 1925 hit three home runs, a double and two singles in a game?

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Just kidding: The Class-A Quad City River Bandits have called off “Larry Eustachy’s Iowa State Night at the Ballpark” -- featuring a kissing booth and $1 beer -- which had been planned for Wednesday night.

Eustachy’s job as Iowa State’s men’s basketball coach is in jeopardy after photos of him holding a can of beer and cuddling with young women at a post-defeat party in Columbia, Mo., were circulated.

Club officials said they canceled the promotion after Eustachy revealed he is an alcoholic.

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Calling Martha: The Arena Football League’s Orlando Predators have replaced two billboards at the request of league Commissioner David Baker, who, in a letter, scolded the team for crossing the line of good taste by showing a professional model bending over as if to hike a football with the slogan, “Get Behind Your Team.”

The Predators also stirred controversy three years ago with billboards showing the cleavage of another model and the words, “Fake Left -- Fake Right.”

Team President Brett Bouchy wasn’t happy with the league’s decision, but he complied. Then, a few days later, the Predators passed out 10,000 posters of the “Get Behind” model at a game that also featured a halftime competition to pick “Miss Predator.”

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Trivia answer: Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers, in a game against the St. Louis Browns.

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And finally: In an article in the French sports daily L’Equipe’s magazine, Richard Williams says he won’t salute the flag because of racism in the United States and added that the level of women’s competition is so poor his daughters should “take a break [from tennis] for one or two years” -- for Serena to study and for Venus to pursue business interests.

That’s what he would do, he said, “If I was in their place.”

Feel free to pretend, Mr. Williams. And take a long break.