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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last week, while testifying at the Ed O\u2019Bannon trial, NCAA president Mark Emmert lobbed a (largely false)&amp;nbsp;insult at minor league sports:\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To convert college sports into professional sports would be tantamount to converting it into minor league sports. And we know that in the U.S. minor league sports aren\u2019t very successful either for fan support or for the fan experience.\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Hardball Talk\u2019s Craig Calcaterra pointed out,&amp;nbsp;this criticism was fairly ridiculous: \u201CJust on the surface that is dumb, in that Minor League Baseball \u2014 though it has experienced ups and downs in its history \u2014 has been in a pretty damn sustained upswing for a couple of decades now. An upswing any way you slice it, really. Revenues. Profits. Attendance. New ballparks. Merchandise sales.\u201D Pat O\u2019Connor, the president and CEO of Minor League Baseball also weighed-in, offering Emmert an open invitation to attend a minor league baseball game so that&amp;nbsp;he may see for himself&amp;nbsp;\u201Cjust how much fan support we have and how the fan experience is like none other in the sports world.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong &gt;Also on Extra Mustard: The 15 Best Minor League Promo Nights Happening in June&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But perhaps the best response to Emmert\u2019s comments is coming from the Lake Country Captains, Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, who have decided to host&amp;nbsp;\u201CMark Emmert Appreciation Night\u201D on July 2. Here are some of the activities planned for the evening:\r\n\r\n\r\n\tPresumably in acknowledgement of the questionable academic standards that student athletes face at some universities, all fans who attend the game and do nothing but stay until the third inning will receive credit towards a future Captains game of their choice. They will receive this benefit, as the Captains release puts it, \u201Cjust for showing up.\u201D\r\n\tThe NCAA&amp;nbsp;just recently ruled to allow athletes&amp;nbsp;to have unlimited meals, so the Captains will give four college students an All-You-Can-Eat wristband and tickets to a future game.\r\n\tFans will be allowed to \u201Ctransfer\u201D seats, after a one inning waiting period,&amp;nbsp;of course.\r\n\tAmong the prizes distributed will be \u201Cone and done\u201D player basketball cards and copies of college football and basketball video games \u2014 both of which&amp;nbsp;are sore subjects for the NCAA.\r\n\tCopies of&amp;nbsp;&lt;em &gt;Undue Process \u2013 The NCAA\u2019s Injustice For All&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;will be distributed to select attendees.\r\n\tFans who take part in in-game promotions will not be awarded any prizes for their efforts, but one of them will be crowned that evening\u2019s BCS (Big\r\n\tCaptains Superstar) Champion via a subjective vote taken by members of the media and a computerized scoring algorithm.\r\n\tAnd&amp;nbsp;this is probably the best one: \u201CFans who wear their \u2018generic\u2019 college jersey that may or may not correspond to a famous athlete who may attend the same college may be awarded by a visit from a Captains Booster who greets them with a $100 handshake.\u201D\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Captains have extended an invitation to Emmert, but no word on whether he plans on attending yet.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[Fox Sports]\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2014/06/23/minor-league-baseball-team-host-mark-emmert-appreciation-night>