Squirrels offering to send Nutzy to St. Louis for World Series

The Richmond Flying Squirrels have offered to send their mascot, Nutzy, to St. Louis for the World Series to take part in the ‘Rally Squirrel’ mania that has become part of the Cardinals run to the 2011 Fall Classic. The team is willing to pay all travel costs and expenses.

“I know we’re a Giants affiliate and while we’d definitely want to see San Francisco in the World Series with a chance to defend its title, we’re also Squirrels,” said Flying Squirrels Vice President and COO Todd “Parney” Parnell. “We’ve been following the ‘Rally Squirrel’ craze in St. Louis, and if the Cardinals want to have the king of all Rally Squirrels, Nutzy is the guy. I don’t know if the Cardinals will need Nutzy’s help at all, but we wanted to make them aware that he is on stand-by and that we’ll do our part to make sure a National League team wins the World Series for a second straight year.”

The Rally Squirrel phenomenon began during Game 4 of the National League Division Series at Busch Stadium. Skip Schumaker was at the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning for St. Louis with the Cardinals leading the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2. Philadelphia right-hander Roy Oswalt’s 1-1 pitch to Schumaker was immediately followed by a squirrel darting from the St. Louis dugout across home plate. The pitch was ruled a ball by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez as Oswalt pleaded for a “no pitch.” An inning later, David Freese hit a two-run homer and the Cardinals went on to win the game 5-3, forcing a deciding Game 5 in Philadelphia which St. Louis won 1-0.

Prior to Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cardinals distributed 40,000 rally towels with an image of the Rally Squirrel on them. Rally Squirrel hats, t-shirts, and trading cards are on sale and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch even held a “name the rally squirrel” contest on Facebook with the name “Buschy” being selected as the winner.

The Flying Squirrels will host a World Series Party for Game 1 on Wednesday night at the Torque Club at Richmond International Raceway. The event begins at 7:00 PM and is open to Flying Squirrels corporate partners and season ticket holders as well as members of the media. To RSVP for the event, corporate partners and season ticket holders should contact Flying Squirrels Assistant Director of Corporate Sales Mike Murphy by phone at (804) 359-3866 ext. 313 or by email at mike.murphy@squirrelsbaseball.com.

Season tickets for the 2012 season of Flying Squirrels are currently available. For more information or to purchase tickets, call the Flying Squirrels at (804) 359-FUNN (3866), log on to SquirrelsBaseball.com or visit the Flying Squirrels’ box office at The Diamond.

Richmond Squirrels