First Chuck: 1:10 PM CDT (new anthem each week!)
The Tube: Twins.TV
The Dial: Treasure Island Baseball Network
Spies ‘R Us: Brew Crew Ball
This coming week, film fans will be treated to the first Star Wars movie—The Mandalorian & Grogu—on the big screen since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. After three seasons on Disney+, the continuing adventures of Din Djarin and his “Baby Yoda” sidekick will now play out at the cinema. This is the way.
Despite no explicit hardball references in the films, Star Wars and baseball have made good bedfellows for the past two decades. According to internet lore, the first Star Wars baseball promotion was
perpetuated by the Lake Elsinore Storm—Single-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. The event—which saw their mascot Thunder dress up as Darth Vader—exactly coincided with the release of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (May 19, 2005).
From those humble beginnings has sprung a cottage industry of baseball and Star Wars synergy, usually on or around the unofficial “Star Wars Day” of May the Fourth (get it?!) each year. Any manner of character can be seen roving the premises and scoreboards/sound effects have a distinctly “galaxy far, far away” feel to them.
It would likely take at least two hands to count the number of “Star Wars Nights” I’ve been to at Target Field or even other ballparks. Here is a pic from one such excursion in 2015, featuring the “expert” (hahaha) security protection from some Empire Stormtroopers.
I also have a few Star Wars-branded Twins bobbleheads—“Plouffe Skywalker” & Nelson “Boom-saber” Cruz:
Considering that many believe Star Wars became a toy-selling endeavor as much as an artistic one starting with the Ewoks in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, this would seem to track.
Though more commonly associated with the New York Yankees, many in Twins Territory probably put the Evil Empire moniker on today’s opponent—the Milwaukee Brewers—simply by din of association with former MLB commissioner Bud Selig. Let’s see if our band of rebels can prevail before we start scouring cinemas for seats.
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