Plumbers and mustaches all in one night

Fans that enjoy bizarre minor league promotions had a pretty good day on Wednesday when Bowie's Gorgeous Grandma Night grabbed MinorLeagueDugout.com's Promotion of the Day award over some pretty stiff competition.

South Bend combined two odd promos into one, offering Mustache Appreciation Night and Hug Your Plumber Night. Thanks to New York’s Jason Giambi mustache-induced offensive tear, mustaches have become popular promo fodder across the minor leagues. South Bend starting pitcher Josh Collmenter (photo) is having similar success since he grew a mustache.

In an effort to mimic Collmenter’s success, several other members of the Silver Hawks stopped shaving their upper lips. Fans then judged which of those players grew the best mustache.

Any fan that came to the ballpark that night sporting a mustache received a free ticket. Those without growth received stick-on mustaches as they entered the park. The whole night received the approval of the American Mustache Institute – which apparently really exists and has a theme song. They sent a video endorsement that was played on the video board.

Incidentally, Reno is also holding a mustache contest, only theirs involves fans. The contest started July 1 and ends July 31.

Back in South Bend, the Silver Hawks gave plungers to the first 1,000 fans to kick off the Plumber portion of the night. Fans also had the opportunity to pay a dollar to hug a plumber. And there were plenty of toilet-related songs played between innings.

Over in St. Paul, the Saints celebrated the 25th anniversary of George Brett’s pine tar incident on Wednesday by holding Major Meltdown Night. St. Paul gave away bats that already had too much pine tar on them and one local anger management clinic gave away a free pass to one of their seminars.

The Saints didn’t stop at Brett’s breakdown. They highlighted Robbie Alomar’s excellence in expectorating with a between-inning seed-spitting contest and offered a Bobby Knight chair-tossing contest.

The PA announcer even offered a meltdown of his own.