Red Sox affiliate bans fans named Tyler, Austin during promotion
The Pawtucket Red Sox are taking the newly revived rivalry between their parent club and the New York Yankees very seriously with an "Evil Empire Weekend" promotion that will run on May 5 and 6.
Against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders - the Triple-A affiliate of the Yankees - Pawtucket will allow all fans named Joe and Kelly in for free. Even further, the Boston Red Sox Triple-A club will ban all Tylers and Austins from the premises:
PawSox will host "Evil Empire Weekend" at McCoy Stadium on May 5 and 6. Any fans named Joe or Kelly will be admitted for free to the weekend's games, while any fans self-identifying as Tylers or Austins will be banned from the premises. #RivalryRenewed https://t.co/LQYnGQSzJ6 pic.twitter.com/XtllPNvgYz
— PawSox (@PawSox) April 19, 2018
In addition, "fans who confess to being named Aaron, Gary, Aroldis, Didi, CC, Jacoby, Masahiro, Giancarlo (or Mike) will be charged double the price of a regular ticket," per the team's release. Although, "all Yankees fans will, of course, be warmly welcomed."
Whether any of these stipulations are enforced remains to be seen, however.
Even further, a dunk tank "with a pitiable Yankee fan" will give a chance for PawSox fans to test their "Kelly-esque" accuracy.
The promotion stems from a brawl between the two parent clubs that resulted in Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly and Yankees batter Tyler Austin being handed six-game and five-game suspensions, respectively. The benches-clearing incident started with an aggressive slide into second base from Austin. Four innings later, Kelly plunked Austin in the fourth pitch of the at-bat, causing Austin to storm the mound.