Dan Epstein's Bicentennial Minute: Headlock And Wedlock Day

04/28/2014

Dan Epstein's Bicentennial Minute: Headlock And Wedlock Day

Who is this chap, and why is he being featured on a baseball blog? Well, folks — it's none other than Mr. Wrestling II, President Jimmy Carter's favorite wrestler, and ten-time Georgia Championship Wrestling heavyweight champ during the 1970s and 80s. In 1976, he made a top-of-the-card appearance at the "Headlock and Wedlock Day," one of the most memorably loopy Braves promotions in a season filled with many bizarre enticements for Atlanta baseball fans — which also happens to be the subject of my latest seamhead spin on the old "Bicentennial Minute" educational spots. Since Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76 officially hits the streets tomorrow, it seems like a good time to unleash this baby.

Please share it if you dig it — and please buy yourself (and many, many of your baseball-loving loved ones) a copy of Stars and Strikes!

Posted at 05:28 PM in Freaky Shit, Personalities, Promotions, STARS AND STRIKES Updates & Events | Permalink

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Dan Epstein

Dan Epstein is the author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s and Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76, both published by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press. He writes about baseball, music and other cultural obsessions for a variety of outlets and publications. He lives in Southern California, and is available for speaking engagements.

Big Hair and Plastic Grass

04/28/2014