Lil Cowboy goes with The Flow: Between Innings
September 20, 2016Everything you need to know about J.R. Smith’s contract status: WFNY FAQs
September 20, 2016Sometimes, tight races are just too close to call. After seven days of hashtags, homers and hanging on, the Cleveland Indians have officially named two Fans of the Year for the 2016 season. The team announced Tuesday morning that Nate Crowe, dad of three and creator of “Party at Napoli’s,” and 9-year-old Makhi Williams, known for swapping signed batting gloves with Francisco Lindor in July, will split the coveted prize.
The contest, held on Twitter, allowed fans unlimited opportunities to vote for their favorite nominees using a series of unique hashtags. Standings were available in real time throughout the contest, keeping things interesting at every twist, turn, and tweet. Also in the running for Indians Fan of the Year were Kat Heintzleman, who asked for and received a hug and homerun from first baseman Mike Napoli the day before she started chemotherapy, and Kyle Chaboudy, whose Progresive Field scoreboard selfie broke the Internet (for a little while).
After initially surging, falling behind, and coming back to tie, Crowe told WFNY he’s happy to have won—and happy that the contest is over. He spoke with us exclusively on the surprising course the contest took, the heat he took for participating, and what’s next for Party at Napoli’s—including bonding with Paul Dolan.
WFNY: Nate! Congrats! How does it feel to be named the Indians’ Fan of the Year?
HT: I love baseball in general, it’s like the feeling of being home. It’s familiar, comfortable and time doesn’t seem to exist. It really is unique to be an Indians fan. Withstanding an incredible stretch in the 90s, the franchise doesn’t have weather, championships or ultra-mega-superstars to use as attractors to their ball club. That makes the fan base, for the most part, very baseball savvy—which is fun to be a part of. While being named Indians Fan of the Year falls on the side of undeserving because of the aforementioned “savvy” people, I know as well as the other folks in the contest, it’s been an experience because of the chain of events to get there.
I take responsibility for being involved in the contest. I could’ve said no to the nomination, but I thought being nominated was not something to turn down—especially from a group of people who helped engineer a huge charity donation based one of my “crazy” ideas. I thought, “What could possibly go wrong?”
Right or wrong, I’m taking a ton of heat for participating in a contest with a 9-year-old child and a lady battling cancer. What people do not know is that I had no awareness of who else was in the contest until it was announced to the general public. Later that day, I inquired on the possibility of splitting the prize. I did ask, on multiple occasions, for others to support the other participants. Would I have participated again in the same scenario if I knew the circumstances? I would’ve politely declined.
Were you surprised to find out you had won?
I really didn’t know what to think other than “How?” Here’s an incredibly brave woman fighting cancer IN LAST PLACE, a 9-year-old boy and a guy who is known for a selfie but was a gentleman through and through. I was down by 19 percent and was happy it was nearing the end after the events that had transpired. I typed up a congratulatory tweet to Makhi (tweeted to his mother) and his family, thanked the people that voted for me and asked them to consider a donation to Cleveland Clinic Children’s.
Sure, I’ve been enjoying the Party at Napoli’s stuff all summer long, but things do run their course. There was a possibility to reach folks who somehow still don’t know the charity piece, considering the increasing amount of knock-offs being sold that provide no donation to charity. The result of the contest is much more of a credit to everybody else and the other contestants other than just me. They tweeted it, they made it trend, I tried to inject some fun when it wasn’t. Any effort I made during the contest fell well short in comparison to the others, such as the amount of tweets pouring through Makhi’s mother’s and grandfather’s accounts.
How did you find out you were up for it? Were you nominated by the Indians?
I, along with the three other contestants, were selected by the Indians and then immediately provided with instructions and waivers. A bit of a whirlwind of activity early on.
What was it like to be in the running? Tell me about the whole process.
At first it wasn’t known who else was in the competition. Each contestant received instructions to create a video, a waiver for said video and a brief description of the contest. As I noted earlier, we found out who was in it when the general public found out. With the exception of one contestant in Kansas City and two in Washington, MLB did a great job of keeping it quiet until the big announcement.
Making my candidate video was actually a lot of entertainment for those around me, chuckling as I flubbed lines and things of the like. We had the option of filming and editing our own video or using a crew from our respective club. I opted to go solo because I wanted to splice in some new edits from the apps I use. For the 0:56 clip, it took about two hours to film, layer, edit and then upload for submittal.
Fun fact: What is shown in the MLB video is neither my first nor second submittal. The first submittal had music spliced in that I had to remove (“Blue Blood” by Heinz Kiessling of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia notoriety). The music was perfect because I was going originally for a smarmy commercial type of feel: I put on a bow tie and busted out my Andrew Miller troll chuckle for added snark. Unfortunately, copyright rules said otherwise and I had to remove the music. The second version was free of music, but still had spliced-in interviews with Mike Napoli and Andre Knott. Those were also edited out. For the final version, MLB let “Sweep the Leg Lonnie,” the Heatmiser and Kip’s Cavs prediction slip through—so not all was lost.
Waiting for the contest after it was rescheduled/delayed was a bit of a test of patience. The team was losing their lead, and here I am shooting my mouth off in a video recorded weeks earlier talking about a rotation that was now struggling and a new reliever that was now underused. Not the first or last time I’ll be wrong after staking claim.
What was the biggest surprise you encountered along the way?
The biggest surprise was seeing the amount of interaction between contestants outside of their division: Soliciting votes, hearing each other’s stories and plenty of “Ooooh that’s YOU!” was happening every day.
How well did you know your fellow nominees, Kat, Kyle, and Makhi?
I didn’t know any of them personally, and I hadn’t directly talked to them initially, though I had heard each of their stories earlier in the season. While I’ve exchanged tweets with the other two contestants, I’ve come to know Kat much better and had the pleasure of speaking with her as she continues her cancer treatment. I caught her FOTY interview on a Youngstown affiliate station, and she twice mentioned Party at Napoli’s while wearing the official shirt. Quite a spirit she has and a very inspiring lady.
Seemed like you were running away with it, and then things got interesting. What happened when the competition got down to the wire?
Every single Twitter contest will have its share of bumps and bruises. Make it unlimited voting AND a Twitter-only contest and you have an “Omar Infante in the All Star Game” level of pain. Because the contest was conducted on Twitter, MLB had pre-established guidelines on tweet validity. No spam bots, scripts, or otherwise would be counted in the final vote. I’m assuming that rule came into play very late in the contest—and then adjusted the expected outcome.
So, you and nine-year-old-Makhi are co-winners? What happens now?
Yes. Based on the end result and timing of the vote tally, we will split the title as co-winners as well as splitting the prize.
I heard a rumor you’re planning on taking fellow nominee Kat to a playoff game in October. Is that true?
Plain and simple: Kat deserves to go. There’s a compelling case for any of the contestants to go. Makhi is living every 9-year-old’s dream and Kyle churned up a ton of attention with a selfie heard around the world. Kat’s story, however, was very personal for me. It doesn’t take long to find out how strong her character truly is with what life has chosen to put on her plate. A few Facebook Messenger chats and a phone conversation convinced me. Kat’s spirit embodies a number of things the charity I donated to represents, including perseverance and strength through adversity.
While we’re on the subject, what’s the latest with Party at Napoli’s? How was the actual party?
That magic number continues to shrink for the Indians, which gets us closer and closer to not just the postseason but some new threads. I’ve seen it and *fire emoji* for sure. A special edition red version of the original design was distributed to attendees to the Party itself, which was incredible.
Looked like it was an amazing turnout. You had to be thrilled with it.
A bunch of familiar faces in settings you’ve never seen them in before… with the exception of Nap manning the bar (thanks Internet). It was pretty cool experience, having a beer with Mickey Callaway and Jim Rosenhaus. My next flip cup team must include Mickey and Rosey. Tyler, Lindor, Carlos, Coco and others all took turns bartending, too. During the event, the Indians hosted a raffle that added to the charity proceeds for the evening. I witnessed one fan pay $200 as a bar tip to Nap—if Nap would call his wife and introduce himself. It was a very relaxed atmosphere mixed with jovial tones left over from Lonnie Chisenhall’s GW single earlier in the night.
And where’s the actual PAN sign now?
Proudly on display at home as more of a memento now. I might bring it to the ballpark for a special occasion like a clinch game in the postseason or loan it for a short time to the Indians (Juan Uribe did sign it… never forget) but until then, on the wall it stays.
I heard another rumor. Are you and Paul Dolan basically BFFs?
Paul Dolan (a cool customer himself) wears dad shoes BUT they are a step up from Curry IIs. As a fellow dad who can appreciate an air guitar solo from time to time… we COULD be best friends.
5 Comments
I have no idea why that Makhi kid was nominated for FOTY. Some day I need someone to explain the process for being nominated for this award.
I doubt any fan did more for their team and community than Nate Crowe did for the 2016 Cleveland Indians the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Sure, it was everything that fell out of Party At Napolis, but Nate was the spark, which is hugely important. Congrats.
Seems like it was just send in a video and hope for the best. Kids are cute and all, but raised eyebrows all around.
You had to be nominated to send in the video, so the team had to contact you first. From perusing around the nominees, it seemed to be mostly those who made the biggest social media splash this past season.
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