For their home opener on Thursday, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Class AA; Eastern League) donned red caps that were selected by the fans in the bipartisan uniform voting.
In early March, the Fisher Cats announced plans for a blue and red bipartisan uniform to be worn for their home opener on April 14. While the jersey design, a nod to the 100th anniversary of the first New Hampshire primary, was complete at the time of announcement, the Fisher Cats asked fans to vote online for one of two hats—a red with the Republican Party elephant, or a blue with featuring the Democratic Party donkey—to round out the uniform.
The red hat was bestowed the honor of being featured on Opening Day, but the Fisher Cats have assured that the blue cap will receive proper attention. It will be worn for the April 20 morning educational day game, building off of a fairly elaborate Opening Day promotion.
The bipartisan jerseys are half red and half blue and feature ‘Fisher Cats’ in script across the chest and white numerals on the back. The blue sleeve is adorned with the donkey emblem while the red sleeve features the elephant logo.
Fans had the opportunity to celebrate New Hampshire’s political history and importance by voting for which hat the team will wear with the jerseys on Opening Day. Voting closed at noon on April 1.
Additional hat votes were cast when fans purchased the hat they support or when they purchased tickets to Opening Day. Fans with tickets to Opening Day also received a ballot allowing them to determine Opening Day experiences including the following:
Music: The fan-vote went to…Country music!
Video clips: The fan-vote went to…Sports Highlights
Cotton Candy Color: The fan-vote went to…blue!
Mascot game: Fungo battled a fan in an…air guitar contest.
Creative hot dog toppings: The fan-vote went to…pineapple.
Emcee costume: Uncle Sam ran the show!
The Opening Day fan voting was just one of the Fisher Cats’ voting initiatives. To accompany their nationwide vote on which hat the team will wear on Opening Day, the team asked students and teachers from schools attending the educational day morning games (April 20, May 5, and June 8) to vote on which hat the team wears during educational day morning game. The votes are in for the first educational day game on April 20, and on that day the Fisher Cats will wear the Blue Donkey Hat.
As an aside, it should be noted that while Thursday’s game was the first in which the Fisher Cats were the home team, they had already played a series at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium. The three-game series against the Hartford Yard Goats from April 11-13 was to have been played in Hartford, but was moved to Northeast Delta Dental Stadium because of construction delays to Dunkin’ Donuts Park.
Image of April 14 starting pitcher Luis Santos courtesy New Hampshire Fisher Cats.