Fresno Grizzlies win minors’ Best Theme Night award

The Fresno Grizzlies received the “Best Theme Night” Golden Bobblehead Award throughout all of Minor League Baseball on Thursday, beating out more than 300 submissions from 240 teams for their Taco Truck Throwdown promotion.

The fifth edition of the Throwdown drew a Chukchansi Park record crowd of 16,916. There were 37,954 tacos sold from 23 local food trucks.

The Grizzlies took the promotion to another level this season, changing the Triple-A club’s name for the day to the “Fresno Tacos,” a full-on commitment that caught the attention of media around the country including a nearly three-minute segment on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

Players wore Tacos hats and jerseys, and fans in every U.S. state snapped up merchandise. There were 2,000 hats sold online within the first three weeks.

The award, voted on by representatives across Minor League Baseball, was announced at the MiLB Promotional Seminar in Columbus, Ohio, and continues the Grizzlies’ historic year.

Off the field, the franchise also won the Pacific Coast League’s Larry MacPhail Award, given to the club that demonstrates outstanding and creative marketing and promotional efforts within its community, its ballpark (including nongame day events), in media and other promotional materials.

As a league winner, the Grizzlies are a finalist for Minor League Baseball’s overall MacPhail Award, which will be announced at the Winter Meetings in December.

On the field, the Grizzlies won a franchise-record 84 games, their first PCL title and the Triple-A national championship.

This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Fresno Grizzlies win minors’ Best Theme Night award."