Grateful, Not Dead: Jerry Garcia Sells Tickets for San Francisco Giants

Former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill liked to say that "all politics is local." Much of sports marketing also is local, which goes a long way toward explaining the success of Jerry Garcia Tribute Night at the San Francisco Giants game Monday night.

The event at AT&T Park commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Grateful Dead band leader's death. Giants special events manager Faham Zakariaei told CNBC before the game that the tribute would be responsible for sales of 12,000 tickets. Total attendance was 41,943.

It may seem a bit incongruous that baseball, one of the country's most conservative industries, would celebrate a counterculture hero to fill its coffers. But in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Dead was founded, the band is a lot more culture than counterculture.

Details of the tribute are at once hilarious, touching and shrewd. All living band members were involved. Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Jeff Pehrson sang the national anthem, reprising the performance of Garcia himself, Weir and deceased band member Vince Welnick at a Giants game in 1993. Band members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann led more than 7,000 kazoo-wielding fans in playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch.

For $20-$50 Dead fans received tickets to a special section of the park. The first 9,000 of them were treated to Jerry Garcia bobblehead dolls. The dolls were sponsored by Ben & Jerry's ice cream, which has a popular Cherry Garcia flavor. Once the Giants ran out of dolls, they gave fans a hat emblazoned with both the Giants and Grateful Dead logos. The hats and a Jerry Gracia Giants shirt also were sold separately. As of last week the Giants already had sold 6,000 of them combined, according to CNBC.

Those who were willing to ante up $175 got to meet members of the band and the Garcia family, hear a Dead cover band and gorge themselves at all-you-can-eat and drink stands. That experience sold out at 400 tickets. Lest the Giants be accused of excessive greed, some of the night's proceeds went to charity.

Given the love affair between the Bay Area and the Dead -- even the San Francisco Fire Department embraces the band -- it makes perfect sense for the Giants to tie themselves to Garcia. Obviously it would make a lot less sense for, say, the Texas Rangers or Cincinnati Reds. The point is that it helps when teams orient their marketing to local tastes.

Some teams have been quite clever about it. For several years, the Lowell, MA Spinners, a minor league baseball team, has hosted "Politically Correct" night followed by "Politically Incorrect" night." The festivities included a giveaway of maps to the first 500 fans on politically correct night, but only to the first 500 male fans on politically incorrect night, because we all know that men won't ask for directions.

Of course Lowell, MA isn't the only city that would appreciate a satire of political correctness. But the fact that it's a college town (University of Massachusetts) only 30 miles from Boston certainly makes it a logical choice for such a promotion.

Of course, not every idea works out so well. The Chicago White Sox sponsored "Disco Demolition Night" in 1979, seeking to capitalize on some of its rooters' hatred for disco music. Fans who brought disco albums were given admission to a doubleheader for 98 cents. After the records were blown up on the field between games, fans rioted, the police had to take the field to restore order, and the second game was cancelled.

What a long, strange trip it's been.