It’s been 50 years and umpire Nestor Chylak is still not in a kissing mood…

It wasn’t a great time back then in Cleveland. The city was gasping for air—literally as the Cuyahoga River burned—business, industry, jobs, and therefore residents fled the city en-masse. Just about the only thing left in the city was their truly terrible baseball team, today known as the Guardians (and like the city of Cleveland itself, in a much better state of affairs today than then.) Less than ten thousand fans—in a stadium that could seat over 74,000—would turn up to see their awful team lose, and the attendance figures were only going down: irrespective to win percentage. Something had to be done to bring in fans, or the team would have to be sold and leave the city as well…

Management came up with a promotion: they contracted Stroh’s brewery of Detroit to offer twelve ounce cups of their Bohemian-style Pilsner for only ten cents, with a limit on six cups per purchase. With no limit on the number of purchases…
Over 25 thousand thirsty Clevelanders—over double the highest attendance of the season so far—showed to the Tuesday night game versus the Texas Rangers—themselves recently relocated from Washington DC—and their ten cent cups of beer. With a rivalry brewing both on and off the field with the Rangers, this would go about as well as you can imagine…

Join Cleveland Center as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of the wildest baseball games of all time. While we don’t envision the takeoff queue to wrap around the outfield like the beer line, if traffic gets as bad as the demand for beer got, we won’t call the game forfeit in the bottom of the 9th.  Gates open 7:30PM EST
p.s: please return any stolen bases found to the CLE ATCT. Thank you.

This fan-favorite Friday Night Ops returns for its 7th annual edition! Cleveland, Chicago, and Minneapolis centers again team up to feature their largest and busiest airports. Cruise beneath the northern lights as our best controllers guide you through the unpredictable late winter weather over and around the Great Lakes for an on-time departure and/or arrival to the biggest cities in the upper Midwest!

RIT students freeze only a quarter mile at a time, but they can use the tunnels to stay warm; planes at Rochester's Douglass Airport are stuck outside all the time so they have to rely on deicing fluid. Join us at Freezefest (KROC) to experience this homage to the local frozen tech giant while we paint the apron orange in tribute to the winter warriors. Go Tigers!

The headwinds are strong, the leaves are brown
Everyone is flying back to their hometown
There's no nonstop route in from the coasts,
Come lay over with your Midwestern hosts
Our biggest hubs are staffed to the brim,
For you to fly out, fly through, fly in
No need for a sleigh, no need for a horse,
Join your fellow traveller in the crowded concourse,
Trading 757s for CRJs, there's not long to stay,
Waiting at the gate before a delay,
So let the best of ZOB, ZMP, and ZME get you up and away,
Over the river and through the woods, home for Thanksgiving Day

Join the Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Memphis ARTCCs as we prepare to send you home for Thanksgiving with 4 hours of nonstop coverage featuring KDTW, KMSP, and KMEM from 2359z to 0400z. We hope to see you all there!!

2. Never come back. Once you've left you won't want to return. We'll be prepping KCLE, KCAK, KCMH, and KCVG for your departure from 23-03z.

Join the Cleveland ARTCC as they dish out the flaming hottest offer of the summer! Buffalo's main runway is out of service, so our controllers are giving 5O% off runways and free clearance delivery, only between 1700-2000z (1PM to 4PM EST)! For a limited time only! Don't miss out on the spicy single runway action!

Hey everyone!! Thanks to all who flew last night and for the fun that was had! As promised here's the winners:

1. Bowdy Searle
2. Nabeel Vali

I'll be sending out the messages/e-mails shortly. Thanks again!!!

Hey everyone! We are now less than a week away from the event!!

Just to give everyone a heads up, here's the details on the giveaway and how you can enter in for a chance to win the iniScene KBUF for Microsoft Flight Simulator!

Cleveland ARTCC will be giving away four copies of iniScene KBUF. Two going to pilots, two going to controllers. For pilots, the rules are simple:

1. You must fly between any of the fields featured (KPTK, KLAN, KMKG, KAZO) during the event time (24z-04z)
2. In your pilot remarks, put #SpreadGoodCheer

On the day of the event, I'll be posting a form for entry, so once you've completed your flight(s) just fill out the form and you'll be all set . Please note this is one entry per person, so multiple flights, while encouraged, won't count towards extra entries.

Then, on Sunday (the day after the event), I'll notify the winners who will have 24 hours to respond and claim their prize. If someone doesn't respond, I'll go down to the next person on the list.

For controllers, more information will be posted soon .

Thank you all and have a great holiday season!!!