Orioles manager Buck Showalter is pretty popular around here, but his garden gnome likeness is a full-on sensation. The Orioles offered a free Buck garden gnome to the first 25,000 fans at Game 2 of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians on Sunday, and folks were lined up around the block to get their hands on one.
Some of that had to be the successful social media hype, christened #SHOWthegnome. Some of it had to be Showalter’s charming antagonism toward the whole gnome concept. And then of course there’s plain O’s fanaticism.
Fans wore gnome hats:
#SHOWtheGnome while you stretch! #Birdland pic.twitter.com/iHIYCuRt7A
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) June 29, 2015
The gnome even got a pie in the face from Adam Jones.
And they’ve been going for more than $50 apiece on eBay.
You’d almost believe that the gnome was more exciting than the Orioles’ two-game shutout against Cleveland.
