Runner-Up Night, one of last season’s most notable MiLB promotions, returns to Dr Pepper Ballpark as the Frisco RoughRiders (Class AA; Texas League) use last night’s Academy Award snafu as a platform for a repeat in 2017.
In case you missed it: last night La La Land was announced as the Academy Award winner for Best Picture, with the film’s producers coming on stage to accept their Oscars. However, producers of the award show soon realized that Moonlight was the actual award winner. And while the entire situation was handled rather gracefully by the film producers, it still led to plenty to embarrassment for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its accountant, PricewaterhouseCooper.
“We all felt La La Land‘s pain Sunday night,” RoughRiders Executive Vice President and General Manager Jason Dambach said. “While we can’t win all the time, there is no shame in finishing second, so we’ve once again decided to celebrate the runner-up. And it sure beats third place.”
The RoughRiders’ first Runner-Up Night was held last season after Steve Harvey’s Miss Universe flub, and the whole Moonlight/La La Land is a perfect chance to bring it back. According to the RoughRiders, the team is extending honorary invitations to the cast and crew of La La Land, which did win six Oscars, including Emma Stone (actress) and Damien Chazelle (direction), to serve as VIP guests during Runner-Up Night. Also receiving invitations are star Ryan Gosling and Jordan Horowitz, the film’s producer who graciously presented the Academy Award to Moonlight once the real winner was sorted out on stage, and Jimmy Kimmel to serve as the on-field host for the evening.
On a night celebrating famed second-place finishes, the RoughRiders are also inviting Presidential runner-up (and popular vote winner) Hillary Clinton, Beyoncé (Album of the Year, Grammys), Ryan Blaney (Indy 500), the Atlanta Falcons and the Cleveland Indians. The team is also honoring other famous seconds, such as Miss Columbia Ariadna Gutiérrez Arevalo (Miss Universe), Bill Murray(Second City), Meghan Linsey (The Voice), turkey sandwiches (Thanksgiving) and Thomas Edmund Dewey (Dewey defeats Truman).
Like all RoughRiders home games, fans will have the chance to participate in on-field games, but on Runner-Up Night, prizes will be awarded for second place. Other in-game festivities include a search to crown North Texas’ Second-Biggest Movie Buff, Riders players wearing tuxedoes in their headshots, Midland players in ball gowns and visiting lineups cut short with “play off” music due to length.
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