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I don't know how they do sport promotions in the
rest of the English speaking world, but in the States there is the custom
of occasionally handing out gifts to fans attending sporting events. On
special days, kids-under-eighteen-accompanied-by-an-adult would receive
either a cap (on Cap Day), a towel (on Towel Day), a ball (on Ball Day),
or some other trinket with the home team's logo (and often a sponsor such
as Gatorade) emblazoned. I still have my full size, regulation little
league baseball bat the Yankees gave me thirty or so years ago on Bat
Day. Has Roy White's (remember him?) signature. Imagine 20,000 young teens
running around the south Bronx with baseball bats.
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What other giveaways are popular at the ball
park? Sometimes at a college football game or the Olympics, they
give everyone in a section a group of cards. When revealed in their
proper order, various pictures and words appear. These "card stunts"
make nifty lo-tech special effects. They are fun for the card flippers
and entertaining to the viewer. How wonderful to see such instant
results from having such a large group cooperating on a specific
task.
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What if, instead of bats, towels, or cards,
80,000 mirrors were handed out?
That's right. The Rose Bowl during a sunny
southern California afternoon. Wouldn't it be sporting chasing the
opposing quarterback with your little beam? How about a little glare
in the batter's eye? Or, perhaps put a little fire on the visiting
pitcher's fastball. Now which twelve year-old boy who has played
with a magnifying
glass in the sun, burning his initials in the picnic table,
hasn't been tempted to chase an ant around, hoping to focus the
bright beam at the right place at the right time. Most of the little
buggers get away-until you got a little practice.
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With a little practice and cooperation, the
crowd could light the Olympic torch.
The concept could also serve a more civic
purpose. In biblical times, when capital punishment was called
for, stoning was the compromise whereby the condemned could
be executed, yet there would be no individual guilty of violating
the sixth commandment. The people would be the executor. Very
democratic. On Mirror Day (June 21 at noon?), have all the condemned
set loose in a football stadium until the concentrated glare
from 80,000 suns completes their sentence. Cruel? Perhaps. Inhuman?
Depends on how you define human. Fun? You bet-if you still have
a little of that twelve year old inside you.
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