The Bucky Backers™: A Following is Born

The Bucky Backers™ were formed during the May 10th 1998 Kane County Cougars/Beloit Snappers game. A group of friends gathered in Geneva, Illinois at the home of the Kane County Cougars for a graduation/birthday party for Aaron Hayes. The party was held on the VIP deck, which overlooks right field. It was thought that some fun might be had with the Snappers' right fielder, but the group needed to find out his name.

In the second inning, Bucky came up to bat for the second time. Upon hearing the name "Bucky," the group instantly decided it was a great baseball name and needed to be cheered instead of jeered. Bucky quickly came through and hit his second double in as many at bats. From that point on the group (led by Aaron) decided it would be fun to cheer for Bucky the rest of the game. A following was born.

Early on, the sign spelling out B-U-C-K-Y-! was made and the group would welcome Bucky to his spot in right field at the bottom of every inning. At first, Bucky tried to ignore the group. But it was hard to do. Their warmth and enthusiasm was too much. Eventually Bucky seemed to be won over. When Nathan dropped the B of the Bucky sign in the 7th inning, the group was devasted. But when Bucky came out at the bottom half of the inning, the Backers yelled to him to please pick up the B. Bucky ran over, scooped up the B and handed to Nathan with a smile. The fans went nuts. Bucky topped off the day by tossing a ball to the crowd after warming up in the bottom of the 9th.

At the end of the game, the newly named Bucky Backers™ asked Bucky to come over to the right field fence to talk. He motioned toward the visitors dugout so everyone raced over to the other side of the stadium. Bucky was very cordial, waiting with baseball bats for the kids and signed everything that the group asked. He was amazed at the enthusiasm in which these fans cheered for him. "I've never seen anything like this," was the comment uttered from the Backers new hero.