DAVENPORT, IOWA (August 5, 2019) — The Quad Cities River Bandits are, for the first time in franchise history, temporarily rebranding. For three nights this week, the team will be known as the Quad Cities Treasure Hunters. The uniforms they will be wearing for a three-game series August 7-9 against the Clinton LumberKings have been selected by Minor League Baseball as a candidate for the Golden Bobblehead Award for “Best Special Jersey.” The winner will be determined by online voting.
The contest will take place over two rounds, with Round 1 starting with 57 jerseys split between five groups (drawn at random). Fans will vote on their two favorites from each grouping. The top vote getter from each group will move onto the final round, where fans will select their favorite. The five finalists will be on display at this year’s MiLB Innovators Summit in El Paso, Texas, with the winner announced during the event in late September.
“The Treasure Hunters is a fun way to keep kids interested in Minor League Baseball,” said team owner Dave Heller. “Where else in the world can you find a jersey or a cap featuring a robot carrying a spear riding a narwhal underwater? Even better, the Treasure Hunters theme is tied into the game with the Quad Cities biggest scavenger hunt of the year this Friday, sponsored by Goodwill. Then, afterward, we’ll auction off the players’ jerseys and raise money for charity. I hope everyone will go online and vote for the Treasure Hunters!”
The first round of voting opened at 8:00AM CT on Monday, August 5 and will run until Friday, August 9 at 7PM. Fans can vote by visitingwww.MiLB.com/SpecialtyJerseyGBH.
ABOUT THE BANDITS: The 2019 season marks the River Bandits’ seventh year as the Class-A affiliate of the Houston Astros and the twelfth anniversary season of regaining the River Bandits moniker, which was voted a top-8 nickname in all of Minor League Baseball in 2015. The River Bandits anchor the Quad Cities sports-market, which The Sports Business Journal in their latest rankings named one of the top-two minor-league sports-market in the country. Each year, the River Bandits donate three annual all-tuition-paid college scholarships, a value of approximately $85,000, as part of the Bandit Scholars Program, which has been in place since 2009. Charitable contributions surpassed $600,000 in 2018, including a $100,000 cash donation to Genesis Health Systems; in 2015 and again in 2017, Ballpark Digest awarded the Bandits its “Best Charity Campaign” of the year, making the River Bandits the only team to win that coveted award twice.
