Jim Rome Tour Stops
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Jim Rome's Tour Stops (also referred to as The Jim Rome World Tour) is a series of limited access live shows, often held in arenas, or other outdoor venues, which features sports-related guests and activities. The tour originates from from The Jim Rome Show radio program, which is featured on over 200 affiliate radio stations in the United States and Canada. Generally, Rome holds a few Tour Stops each year, but one has not been held since Cleveland 2004 because of a more demanding TV and radio schedule. Show listeners, referred to as the "Clones," consider the Tour Stops a way of celebrating the popularity of the show, and a means of meeting other fans of the program.
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[edit] Tour Stop activities
Tickets to a Tour Stop are normally free, but must be acquired from the local affiliate. Some Tour Stops have reportedly had over 10,000 in attendance. One of the Tour Stops' main attractions is sports figures from local teams. Tour Stops are treated like actual sporting events, with fans tailgating beforehand, and mingling with friends. Rock music and a lot of classic "smack-talk" are the flavor of the day. Tour Stops are not broadcast on the radio, but Rome typically plays clips from the activities and guests on the next regular program.
[edit] Awarding Tour Stops
Rome typically awards Tour Stops to cities whose affiliate radio stations are especially loyal and supportive. Listeners in each affiliate city are urged to "bang their monkey" (i.e., actively request or petition their affiliate's program director) to get a Tour Stop. Many Clones are known to travel to a Tour Stop from across the country instead of waiting for one in their town. A running joke with the show is that Clones in Rochester (one of Rome's original four affiliate cities) have begged for a Tour Stop since the show's beginning. Although Rome says that someday "Crapchester" may get a Tour Stop, he usually teases the city by saying they have won a Tour Stop - only to take it back and give it to another city.
[edit] Famous moments
- The San Diego Tour Stop in 1996 is remembered quite fondly by Rome and his early legion of Clones. It was the first Tour Stop to take place in a stadium (the outfield pavilion of Jack Murphy Stadium), thus becoming the largest Tour Stop, with almost 4,000 people (since broken). The Tour Stop was also noteworthy as it took place mere hours before a Padres-Rockies game, thus allowing Rome to have many Padres as his guests including Tony Gwynn, Ken Caminiti, Bruce Bochy and Scott Sanders. Perhaps most famously, this was the scene of the infamous "Marvin Freeman Soundbite." Early in the show there were no players from either team on the field. Rome's audience was mainly Padre fans and LA Dodger fans, who, when not listening to the show, stayed busy by hurling the usual taunts at each other. Then the first Rockie's player, a pitcher, trotted onto the field, with a Rockie's coach. As soon as the audience, with all the Padre and Dodger fans shouting each other down, saw the first Rockie take to the field, they stopped their infighting and started chanting "CHEATER, CHEATER" referring to the Rockies home park advantage and alleged juiced stats. As the Tour Stop was taking place close to the visiting bullpen, a few Rockies pitchers decided to have a little fun by throwing baseballs at the crowd, and Rome in particular. Rome invited one of the culprits, pitcher Marvin Freeman, up onto the stage. Upon getting to the interview area, Freeman screamed "WAHHH" into the microphone, making a baby sound, and simply left without conducting the interview. Rome points to this as the most extreme case of "Jungle Karma," as Freeman was blasted by the Padres on national TV a few days later, released by the Rockies soon after, and was out of baseball by 1997. Previously, Freeman had been the ace of the Rockies pitching staff from 1994 to early 1996. Like many of the early Tour Stops, the show was broadcast live on The Jim Rome Show. This was discontinued after a "mini-riot" broke out at a Tour Stop in Universal City, Calif. Rome vowed never to do another Tour Stop in Southern California because of this incident.
- After an early tour stop in NoCal, Rome pledged never to return after an incident with the host affiliate. On the radio, it was erroneously announced that the show was sold out, even though the tickets were distributed free. The announcement allegedly caused confusion and hurt the attendance.
- At Tour Stop 31, famous clone Silk in Huntington Beach was seen signing autographs.
- During the 2003 Detroit Tour Stop, Michigan State head coach John L. Smith addressed the crowd and took a jab at the Michigan fans, since Michigan's coach Lloyd Carr was not present at the tour stop: "How many of you are Michigan fans? Where's your coach?" Smith has not beaten Michigan, and since then, each time Michigan has defeated Michigan State, Wolverines fans will reply with: "Where's our coach? Winning the game!"
- In 2000, while the Chargers were still winless, Rome started a rant about how someday, an NFL team will finally go 0-16, dubbed his "dream season." Rome promised that if an NFL team manages to go winless, something not done since the Buccaneers in 1976, and something never done since adopting a 16-game season, that city will be awarded a Tour Stop. Since 2000, the 2001 Detroit Lions, the 2002 Cincinnati Bengals, the 2004 San Francisco 49ers and the 2005 Houston Texans all have "tried but failed" to achieve this "dream season," much to Rome's dismay.
[edit] Tour Stop location history
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Jim Rome official website
- Unofficial website
- Stucknut.com, Unofficial fan forum
- The Jungle Comes to Madison: Anatomy of a Jim Rome Tour Stop unofficial site with pictures from the Madison tour stop and multi-chapter monograph about the Madison tour stop and Jim Rome in general.
