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A sea change is coming for the Erie SeaWolves. The Tigers' Double-A affiliate will be the lucky recipient of a full, fun transformation courtesy of “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver, who made the announcement on Sunday’s show.
In case you are unaware of what the heck we’re talking about here, a quick recap: Oliver recently did a Minor League Baseball segment on his show in which he offered to rebrand a Minor League team out of the goodness of his heart, so long as his staff received full autonomy to do as they wished with no interference from the club. Nearly 50 teams reached out with submissions, and the SeaWolves of Erie, Pa., were ultimately selected.
The team was pretty upfront about its need for a refresh. The main reason? They are named the SeaWolves but play baseball on the southern shore of a lake.
“That’s a problem, Erie. We can help you fix that,” Oliver said on the show.
How he means to do that is, of course, a minor mystery, and the team president of the SeaWolves told our own Ben Hill that he is entirely in the dark. Speaking of Ben, there’s no better ambassador for the Minors and nobody better to tell us (and John Oliver) what great stuff there is to work with over in Erie. So I reached out to him for his take on why the SeaWolves are ready for this makeover.
First and foremost, they’ve been open to change before, embracing the chilly lake effect as the SnowWolves or spooking the competition with their Howl-O-Ween alternates.
“They are shape-shifters by nature,” Ben said. “The SeaWolves are veterans of the sartorial merry-go-round and will be able to handle whatever John Oliver throws at them.”
Take one of their extremely esoteric promo nights from back in 2021 as an example. The team celebrated the 25th anniversary of the movie “That Thing You Do,” about a band called The Wonders that hails from Erie, by playing a game as The Wonders and bringing members of the fictional group to the ballpark.
And what would a Minor League game be without the ballpark eats? The Smith’s sausage stand is a ballpark staple, and when a previous version of it first opened in 2008 as Smith’s Sausage Shack, it released a trippy marketing video to the tune of “Love Shack.” So go ahead, John Oliver; do your wurst.
-- Scott Chiusano
