THE PLACE: Lake Elsinore, California.
THE EVENT: The Lake Elsinore Storm vs. High Desert Mavericks.
THE PROMOTION: Tom Cruise Bobblehead Night.
We couldn’t make that up. Lake Elsinore’s minor-league baseball team paid tribute to popular and possibly insane actor Tom Cruise during a California League game last week. Besides a giveaway of Cruise bobblehead dolls — depicting the star in full Oprah couch-jumping mode — the storm celebrated the “silent birth” of Tom and Katie Holmes’ baby, Suri, with a “silent inning,” during which no batters will be announced and no music played.
The Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is an ardent follower, specifies that no music and no talking take place during human birth.
Other activities planned by the San Diego Padres’ Class A affiliate included a couch-jumping contest, a Scientology information session and sign-up booth, and a retrospective of Cruise’s movie career. And, of course, the Storm’s opponent on this special night happened to be the Mavericks.
“It was originally going to be a ‘Top Gun‘ anniversary promotion and it just sort of evolved from there,” said Jeff Joseph, a spokesman for the Storm.
Cruise’s Top Gun character was named Maverick in the film, for those of you who have been living under a rock for the past two decades. Late calls to Cruise’s publicist were not returned. Which is a shame, because those would have been some good prank calls!