Travel ball coach shocked to be Pepsi MAX finalist - Sun-Sentinel
As one of four finalists in the Pepsi MAX Field of Dreams promotion, Marc Kramer would like to win the national contest.
For the Wellington resident, such a victory would come at a cost.
"My biggest fear would be facing Randy Johnson's fastball and the best thing would be if we could pull off a miracle and win," laughed Kramer, who is one step closer to bringing a dream team of major-league baseball greats to his hometown. "I haven't started training yet. I have to win the contest first."
Competing against three other baseball enthusiasts, Kramer is vying for the chance to play the ultimate fan dream game with 10 of his friends against a team of legendary players including Johnson, Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench and Cal Ripken Jr.
Kramer, 46, who is an assistant coach for the Wellington Colts 11-Under travel baseball team, said he wasn't certain he was a finalist when he first received the news.
"I honestly couldn't believe it," Kramer said. "I got an e-mail from them and I deleted it because I thought it was a scam and my wife said, 'no, I entered you in that contest.' Then Pepsi called me the next day and told me, and Major League Baseball (MLB) shot video of me last week at my (Colts) practice."
The video of Kramer is expected to be up this week and he and the other three contestants will be featured in a one-hour ESPN special at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 25. Kramer's 11-year-old son, Tyler, saw the commercial and convinced his mom, Francesca, to enter Marc in the contest.
Recently, baseball fans across the country had the chance to log on to MLB.com/PepsiMAX to cast their vote for their favorite players in each of nine positions. There were more than 2.5 million entries, and Kramer's wife voted just two times.
"The Village of Wellington is all jazzed up because the local civic pride of this would be great with all of my friends out there against these great players," Kramer said. "They would come to wherever the site is and I get to pick 10 people to play with me against this team, and the other prize would be to throw out the first pitch in the World Series."
Kramer, who last played competitive baseball in high school, has several players in mind that he would select as teammates. He would save one or two spots to serve as a fundraiser for his son's travel team.
The game would be played in either March or April depending on scheduling.
Others comprising the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams Team roster are Frank Thomas, Rod Carew, Mike Schmidt, Ken Griffey Jr., Dennis Eckersley and Edgar Martinez.
Fans can watch videos of the four finalists and vote for Kramer to host the PepsiMAX Field of Dreams Team at mlb.com/pepsimax. Fans can vote up to 50 times per day through Oct. 5. The winner will be announced by Nov. 1.
Kramer is the oldest contestant remaining, representing the South. His favorite baseball player of all-time is Carl Yastrzemski.
22 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGBbdY3X3NpOohVvYLTNm-LwEf1mQ&url=http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/wellington/fl-wf-colts-0921-20110921,0,5875168.story
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