Cracker Jack Vendor: Early 1950's Prize
In April Cracker Jack marked the opening of the 2000 baseball season with its "Catch the Baseball Bug" promotion and the launch of a new product, Nothing But Nuts -- butter toffee coated peanuts which fit right in at baseball parks. ("Buy me some peanuts from Cracker Jack . . . ." )
Nothing But Nuts
But it addition, on Thursday, March 30, 2000, Cracker Jack sponsored the first-ever "Cracker Jack Vendor of the Year" competition, won by Robert McKay, a vendor at Yankee Stadium for 24 years, after a highly charged competition held in New York City. The competition pitted 10 stadium vendors from baseball cities nationwide against each other, vying for the ultimate Cracker Jack prize, a Volkswagen Cracker Jack Baseball Beetle and a lifetime supply of Cracker Jack products.
The ten competitors, selected with the assistance of Volume Services America, were chosen for their enthusiastic selling style and techniques at baseball events in their hometowns, and included vendors from Kansas City, Minnesota, Seattle, and Tampa and two from New York, San Diego, and San Francisco. Volume Services provides concessions, merchandise, and facility design and management services for sports, convention centers, and entertainment vendors.
The vendors competed in six events:
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To honor these unsung heroes of the game, Cracker Jack chose slugger Reggie Jackson, a 1998 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee famous for his 1977 World Series performance, to host and judge the competition. "In a salute to all the talented men and women who work so hard to put Cracker Jack into the hands of thousands of baseball fans across the country, we will honor the best of the best with the Cracker Jack Vendor of the Year award," said Jackson.
Reggie Jackson Congratulates Winner John McKay
Jackson awarded the grand prize VW Baseball Beetle to McKay. It features a white exterior with red stitch-like detail, a baseball gear shift, baseball bat emergency brake, Rawlings leather interior, and a special sound system that plays "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "Charge!"
In addition to working as a vendor at Yankee Stadium since the 1976 season, McKay, 43, is an actor who has appeared in Law and Order, Godzilla, and a number of TV commercials. At the "House that Ruth Built," he has sold everything from Cracker Jack, peanuts, and beer to sushi, California rolls, baseball programs, and "big fingers." He has served several celebrities at Yankee Stadium, including Jason Patrick, Maurie Povich, and (most memorably) Tommie Lee and Pamela Anderson. He says he never gets tired of watching fans track down foul balls and home runs, and he always asks fans to "watch his back" for foul balls as he waits on them so he can get out of the way.
Cracker Jack Remote Controlled Volkswagen
Of course, Cracker Jack consumers didn't have to be stadium vendors to be baseball prize winners. Not only was the grand prize of the baseball promotion also a Cracker Jack VW Turbo, which made "personal appearances" at Cracker Jack-sponsored retail outlet promotional events, but 9,600 remote controlled replicas were offered as prizes in the give-away. And everyone who found a specially marked bag of Cracker Jack with a baseball-themed whistle or telescope "prize inside" was a winner. The plastic prizes were in the shape of baseballs, caps, gloves, and even baseball diamonds. The baseball bat telescopes (on the left in the photo below) were not used as in-package prizes, but rather were distributed at special promotional events, such as retail store openings and Major League season openers.
Other Cracker Jack VW's were created to tour the country for promotional events. In fact, one was present at the Cracker Jack Collectors Association convention held in Dallas in June 2000.
Cracker Jack Baseball Prizes
