Have you ever seen someone riding an inflatable turkey hit a homerun in a Division-I NCAA baseball stadium?
If not, you missed out on the San Diego State baseball team’s annual Halloween game, where yes, senior outfielder and relief pitcher Steven Pallares, wearing an inflatable turkey rider costume hit a blast over the left-center field offense.
There were no cutting corners on the costumes for these gentlemen. Fans got a look at all kinds of unique costumes from Abraham Lincoln to the “Gingerbread Man” and Forrest Gump.
Head coach Mark Martinez, who dressed up as Luigi, had a hard time picking a favorite. He believed there might not have been a better costume than junior pitcher Mark Seyler’s who dressed up as an incarcerated Justin Bieber.
“I think the Justin Bieber jail costume was pretty good, but it’s tough to argue against a guy who hit a home run in an inflatable ostrich suit,” Martinez said of Pallares’ turkey costume.
The game is meant all for fun and a way to get fans involved with the program. Admission was free and players were passing out candy to fans mid-game.
However, junior pitcher Bubba Derby explained that the game does serve a purpose to the team on the field.
“It’s definitely fun for us because it’s a long fall, and we’re out here grinding everyday practicing really hard,” Derby said. “To have something like this to kind of just take the edge off and play freely is really great.”
While there was a wide array of costumes, none may have caught more attention than a group of players which included sophomore outfielder Tyler Adkison, senior pitcher Mitch Bluman, sophomore infielder Ryan Alvarez, junior pitcher Zack Oakley and sophomore infielder Andrew Brown, who dressed up as the Channel 4 News Team from the movie “Anchorman.”
“I had the idea about a year ago, and all the guys I live with kind of spur of the moment with to the thrift store, and it came out really nicely,” Bluman said, dressed up as Ron Burgundy.
The news team broadcasted the game live from the third base dugout. According to Bluman you can catch them out on the town in their anchorman suits this Halloween.
After last year’s game caught national coverage with ESPN and MLB Network, there was a bar set by Martinez as he challenged his team in the summer to come up with something creative for the game.
The team met the challenge by orchestrating a flash mob to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to end the game that included the dance team, cheerleaders, and volleyball team.
“It was a long process, Cooper Sholder (Director of Baseball Operations) did a great job putting everything together, we had practice out here like three or four times, it was very cool,” Martinez said. “I don’t know if we outdid last year, but it was a great way to do a grand finale.”
The team had plenty of musical options to choose from, but selecting a Michael Jackson song was only appropriate to honor a fallen Aztec.
“We picked Michael Jackson in honor of Tony (Gwynn), he was a huge Michael Jackson fan,” Martinez said. “For a solid year we had Michael Jackson playing in our pre-game batting practice, so we thought that it would be a good way to give him a shout-out.”
Martinez may not be sure if his team exceeded expectations on themselves from last year, but after giving a tribute to their former head coach who was an SDSU icon through a flash mob to cap off the game, the Aztecs make a pretty strong case.
