James Traficant Night At the Ball Game

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers, a minor league baseball team, hosted a James Traficant Night on Wednesday. Fans were encouraged to wear bad toupees in honor of the occasion, which we here at Happy Fun Pundit think should be remembered with other great moments in sports, such as the time that skiier racked himself as immortalized in the opening to "ABC's Wide World of Sports".

The teams got into the spirit of things on James Traficant night, shouting "Beam Me Up!" from third base and screaming that there was a vast conspiracy to prevent them from stealing home.

Controversy erupted when one of the umpires tried to shake down a player for fifty bucks in exchange for a 'safe' call. The umpire, who was wearing a frighteningly realistic replica of James Traficant's hairpiece (or perhaps a dead cat), defending himself in the ensuing investigation by rambling incoherently and alluding to a vague plot by the waterboy to have him framed.

We'll miss James Traficant. He was pure comedy gold. But as long as their are baseball fans with a penchant for wearing bad hairpieces, his memory will live on.

Posted by Dan at August 15, 2002 11:58 AM