Postal Service, UPS hope game delivers big hit

COLUMBUS - Organizers are promising to deliver a hit during the Blue vs. Brown softball game this weekend.

Local employees of the U.S. Postal Service and UPS will be pitted against each other at 2 p.m. Sunday at Bradshaw Park, 19th Street and 48th Avenue. Admission is free, but freewill donations will be accepted for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

"We challenged them to the game a month ago," postal carrier Steve Geilenkirchen of Columbus said. "We're going to try and make it fun."

The Blue vs. Brown game coincides with the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon to raise money for the search for a cure of the disease that causes progressive muscle weakness in young and old alike.

Geilenkirchen encourages other businesses to dare their competitors to raise more money than them for the campaign.

UPS driver Dennis Kudron said the game is a chance to bring the community together for a worthy cause.

Not surprisingly, Geilenkirchen predicts the postal workers will win the game without much effort.

"We get way more exercise than they do," he said.

But according to Kudron, the Browns are the sure bet.

"I don't know how they can (win). They just carry letters. We carry boxes," he said.

Because the game is hoped to become an annual event, a traveling trophy will be presented to the winning team. Kudron said he plans to mount it on his brown UPS delivery truck.

In addition to donations being taken at the ballpark, participants also will be able to purchase raffle tickets to help fund the search for a cure for muscular dystrophy.

More than 30 donated prizes will be raffled off during the fifth-inning stretch, including Nebraska football tickets.

To buy raffle tickets in advance, contact any postal or UPS employee for more information.