Pierogie Race
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mascot race
Mascot race
A mascot race is a promotional sports entertainment competition of runners dressed in costumes. It is often a between-innings entertainment at baseball games. Usually the racers are mascots related to local culture or the products of a sponsor...
between innings during a Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
game that features four contestants racing in giant pierogi
Pierogi
Pierogi are dumplings of unleavened dough - first boiled, then they are baked or fried usually in butter with onions - traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit...
costumes: Jalapeño Hannah (green hat), Cheese Chester (yellow), Sauerkraut Saul (red) and Oliver Onion (purple). It is considered a form of sports entertainment
Sports entertainment
Sports entertainment is a type of spectacle which presents an ostensibly competitive event using a high level of theatrical flourish and extravagant presentation, with the purpose of entertaining an audience...
.
The pierogies travel once a year to Miller Park to take on the Milwaukee Brewers
Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are a professional baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently playing in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
' racing sausages
Sausage Race
The Sausage Race is a race of sausage mascots held before the bottom of the sixth inning at every home game of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Sausage Race is a promotion for the Klement's Sausage Company, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whose sausages are served at Miller Park, the home of the Brewers...
(the inspiration for the Pirates' version of the promotion) when the Pirates play the Brewers, as well as to Nationals Park to take on the Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals
The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of the National League of Major League Baseball . The team moved into the newly built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium...
' racing U.S. Presidents
Presidents Race
The Presidents Race is a promotional event held at every Washington Nationals home game at Nationals Park during the fourth inning...
when the Pirates play the Nationals. Conversely, both the Brewers and Nationals bring their respective characters to PNC Park
PNC Park
PNC Park is a baseball park located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the city's Major League Baseball franchise. It opened during the 2001 Major League Baseball season, after the controlled implosion of the Pirates' previous home, Three Rivers Stadium...
when they play in Pittsburgh.
1999-2008
The promotion started in 1999 at Three Rivers StadiumThree Rivers Stadium
Three Rivers Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1970 to 2000. It was home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the city's Major League Baseball franchise and National Football League franchise respectively.Built as a replacement to...
, then the Pirates' home park, and at the time featured only three characters: Sauerkraut Saul, Cheese Chester, and the blue-capped Potato Pete. It quickly became a fan favorite, and beanbags in the likeness of the different characters are given to children at certain ballgames as a promotion. Jalapeño Hannah was added soon after the promotion began. A year or two after the Pirates moved to PNC Park
PNC Park
PNC Park is a baseball park located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the city's Major League Baseball franchise. It opened during the 2001 Major League Baseball season, after the controlled implosion of the Pirates' previous home, Three Rivers Stadium...
, Oliver Onion was added and Potato Pete dropped, though Potato Pete continues to make occasional appearances.
In previous years, the race mainly took place as an animated sequence on the video board, showing the pierogies running through different sections of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, and an announcer speaking English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to cover the race. The race culminated in the contestants running into the ballpark from right field, toward the visitors' dugout. Occasionally, the Pirate Parrot
Pirate Parrot
The Pirate Parrot is a costumed mascot of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball. He was introduced in 1979 in response to the popularity of the Phillie Phanatic introduced one year earlier, as the Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies had a fierce intrastate rivalry at the time.-History:The...
influenced the outcome of the race by distracting or knocking over contestants. A winner is determined and the leaderboard updated after the race. Often, a humorous disclaimer such as "No pierogies were harmed in the race" follows the leaderboard. A champion is crowned at the end of every season. At times, the Pirates will have faster runners wear costumes of pierogies that are behind in the races in order to keep the season-long competition "close", in effect making the races somewhat fixed
Match fixing
In organised sports, match fixing, game fixing, race fixing, or sports fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident is referred to as...
. The event is sponsored by Mrs. T's Pierogies
Mrs. T's Pierogies
Mrs. T's Pierogies is the leading mass market brand of pierogies in the United States. It is a product of Ateeco, Inc. based in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania....
.
2009-present
The animated sequence was dropped completely at the beginning of the 2009 season. Now, the race begins near where the tarp is rolled up on the third-base side, and the pierogies race around the warning track until the Clemente Wall in right-field. The race has lost many of the occasions of the Pirate Parrot influencing the ending; the races are generally won by normal means, although strange incidents do occur.In 2008 and 2009, the pierogies appeared twice at Washington D.C.'s Nationals Park in the nightly Presidents Race
Presidents Race
The Presidents Race is a promotional event held at every Washington Nationals home game at Nationals Park during the fourth inning...
. The first night in 2008, the four pierogies were chased by President Teddy
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, wielding a large aluminum foil fork and knife. The second night the pierogies faced off with the presidents in a relay race. The relay race was repeated in 2009, with Potato Pete TKO
Knockout
A knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...
-ing Teddy Roosevelt with a flying tackle, which was replayed over and over on sport shows. The Presidents appeared again at PNC Park during the Pirates series against the Nationals in April 2011, racing against the pierogies.
In 2010, the Pirates fired one of the pierogi racers after he made critical comments of the team on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, a story that received national headlines. Andrew Kurtz, 24, of New Brighton, Pennsylvania
New Brighton, Pennsylvania
New Brighton is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Beaver River northwest of Pittsburgh. There are deposits of coal and clay in the vicinity. In the past, articles produced here included pottery, bricks, sewer pipe, glass, flour, twine, lead kegs,...
, had criticized the team's decision to give then-manager John Russell and Pirates GM Neal Huntington
Neal Huntington
Neal Alden Huntington is the 12th person to serve as General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball organization...
contract extensions in the midst of a 12-game losing streak. The Pirates later rehired Kurtz after the team discovered that his boss in charge of the race didn't follow proper disciplinary action within the organization. Russel himself would be fired after the Bucs finished a Major League-worst 57-105 record for 2010
2010 Pittsburgh Pirates season
The 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates season was the 129th season of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise; the 124th in Major League Baseball . The 2010 season was the Pirates' MLB-record 18th consecutive losing season...
.