‘UnPHILtered’: Fort Wayne baseball team’s pitch gives nod to Hoosier tenderloins
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WISH) — A Minor League Baseball team is going whole-hog in embracing Indiana’s love of tenderloin sandwiches.
The Fort Wayne team announced Friday it’ll switch its Johnny TinCap jerseys and caps for shirts and hats displaying pork goodness during selected home games at Parkview Field in the upcoming season.
The TinCaps also will be renamed temporarily to the Hoosier State Tenderloins for the games.
Tenderloins are said to have originated in 1908 at Nick’s Kitchen in Huntington, a city about a half-hour drive southwest of Fort Wayne.
Players will wear the jerseys displaying tenderloins when they host the Great Lakes Loons of Midland, Michigan, from Aug. 3-6.
“Just as a classic tenderloin is too large for the bun, we’re planning to go big for these games as the Hoosier State Tenderloins,” said a statement from Michael Limmer, the TinCaps vice president of marketing and promotions.
Stripes below the jersey, the team says, include the name of Indiana’s 92 counties.
Tenderloins will be sold at the games.
In the General Assembly underway in Indianapolis, state lawmakers have made no progress on a Senate bill to designate the tenderloin as the official Indiana sandwich. Gov. Eric Holcomb touted the measure in January during his State of the State address.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated at the end of December that Indiana’s hog and pig population of more than 4.3 million ranked fifth among U.S. states after, in order, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina and Illinois.
The TinCaps name is a nod to to Johnny Appleseed, who introduced apple trees to parts of North America in the early 1800s.
Pre-orders are open now for official Hoosier State Tenderloins gear.