Major League Baseball

Durham Bulls hold 'Star Wars Night' with C-3PO theme

Published May. 16, 2015 7:51 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

DURHAM, N.C. -- The Durham Bulls have always been one of the more forward-thinking organizations in minor league baseball. And even though Star Wars Night has practically become cliche at this point, it's still an extremely popular event at the ballpark.

The Durham Bulls hosted Star Wars night and for the second year in a row, they auctioned off Star Wars-themed jerseys. The proceeds of that auction went to the Autism Society of North Carolina charity. 

Last year's event brought in the fourth-biggest crowd in Durham Bulls Athletic Park history, and the place was packed to the gills yet again (10,882) on a seasonably warm spring late afternoon and early evening. The time of the game -- 5 p.m. -- allowed families to bring children out and stay for the entire game instead of having to leave early to put the tired tykes to bed.

Children, of course, had fun in the meantime.

Food lines were jampacked in the concourse, but not quite as packed as the line to meet and take pictures with the costumed Star Wars characters on hand like Princess Leia, Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers.

Last year's jerseys were R2-D2-themed, and this year, C-3PO was what the style was based on -- from head to toe.

The yellow jerseys were in the style of C-3PO's restraining bolt in the stomach area, but other than that, they weren't too elaborate. They were accented, though, by custom-made gold hats with black brims, plus gold pants and socks with custom designs to look like C-3PO's actual legs.

The Durham Bulls' Twitter account even took on the identity of the nerdier droid.

There weren't a lot of costumed fans on hand. It wasn't quite like being at Comic Con. There were a lot of cooler Star Wars t-shirts, and maybe even a light saber or two (light sabers were on sale at the Durham Bulls' team store), but not a lot of craziness. A touch here and there, just to keep with the festivities.

The team store had its own Bulls-themed Star Wars t-shirts for sale, too -- "Bulls Trooper", a "Fight We Will" Bulls shirt with Yoda on the front, last year's R2-D2 jerseys and custom "Dark Side" and "Rebel Alliance" baseball jerseys (in red and gray, respectively).

There was between-innings fun, too. The Bulls always have Crash, Annie and Nuke mascots race each other. This time, the three of them were Crash Skywalker, Nuke Solo and Princess Annie, who had her hair in Leia buns. Nuke took a big lead before the Stormtroopers on hand detained him and Crash Skywalker pulled away for a close victory.

They even showed the trailer for the new Star Wars movie at one point, to the delight of the crowd.

Ultimately, as it ended up, R2-D2 was probably better luck because the Bulls could not sustain a hot start and fell 3-2 to Scranton this time around. But C-3PO and his droid BFF will likely continue to wander a galaxy far, far away, bickering in their ever-charming way.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball