SC team making US Senate candidate action figures

[July 16, 2010]  CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) -- Alvin Greene action figures are here -- thanks to a South Carolina minor league baseball team. The Charleston RiverDogs will give out statues of the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate at Saturday's game. Greene, who shocked the political establishment by winning the primary without campaigning, has suggested manufacturing action figures of himself could spur economic growth in a state with chronically high unemployment.

The statues are actually male Statue of Liberty figures the team planned to give away as a different promotion based on a Georgia group's plan to build a mate for New York's Lady Liberty on the South Carolina coast. But after hearing Greene's idea, the RiverDogs decided to put a picture of his face on the statues instead.

"Who better epitomizes the American dream that anything is possible than Mr. Greene?" said RiverDogs General Manager Dave Echols.

Greene said Thursday the team didn't talk to him before creating the promotion, but he doesn't mind.

"As long as it looks good and is in good nature, I'm OK," Greene said by phone from his home near Manning.

The team also plans to have a press ready to make T-shirts modeled on the "Greene Family Reunion" shirt from 1993 the candidate was photographed in the day after his shocking primary win.

The RiverDogs are a Class A affiliate of the New York Yankees known for wacky promotions, thanks in part to president Mike Veeck, whose father was famous major league baseball promoter Bill Veeck.

The team set a record for having no fans in the stands on Nobody Night. They tried to have Vasectomy Night on Father's Day 13 years ago, but canceled it when some fans complained it was too crass.

[Associated Press; By PETE IACOBELLI]

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