HOW NORMAL BASEBALL SCREWED STEPHEN COLBERT

Thank you to the Deadspin.com community, Twitter users, and Emptees, for helping us break this story nationwide.

After the press coverage we received today, our supporters still have some VERY specific questions for the people in charge of the NormalBaseball.com poll. Perhaps somebody out there can do some REAL investigative journalism and find answers to the following:

UPDATE (4/24/09): There is a NEW NAMING POLL up at NormalBaseball.com! Head over there, fill out the 20 required fields, and write in COAL BEARS! Local paper, The Pantagraph, has written another informative article recapping the whole scandal.

UPDATE (4/24/09): The name "Nighthawks" has been removed from the running upon the discovery that 'Night Hawk' is a position in the Ku Klux Klan. We at NormalCoalBears.com are confident that Parker, the 8th grader responsible for the submission, had nothing but good intentions when submitting the name. The Pantagraph states that the axed suggestion is being replaced by two new names (don't ask us why), the "Normal Fellers" and "Camelbacks."

UPDATE (4/23/09): We now have t-shirts available through Full Metal T-Shirt. We make no money off of these, so they're only $15 with shipping included. Full Metal T-Shirt gave us a great discount for such a small amount of shirts, so let's make it worth their time! Oh yeah, and NBCWashington.com (as in D.C.) ran the story!

UPDATE (4/23/09): Normal, IL local paper Pantagraph picked up the story and got the folks in charge to admit that they're going to start the vote over. Check out the article here. WJBC is also singing a different tune than they did yesterday, but they're still fighting against the Coal Bears. Check out this ineffective attempt to appeal to those who are on the fence. Nothing but respect to Parker, the interviewed 8th grader who has more credibility than the guy who interviewed him right now. Congrats on your Confirmation, dude, and we wish the Nighthawks good luck in what will hopefully be a fair poll!

UPDATE (4/22/09): Mike Thiessen was on WJBC radio today. They thought he was denying all of the allegations we made, but the only thing he said specifically was that he "wasn't aware" of any deal made with the Normal Nutz. The MOST INTERESTING and Colbert-worthy part is posted on the WJBC website, where he goes on a rant about cell phones made by NASA and... London Clearinghouses? Listen below.

Or you can listen to the full interview here.

04/21/09:

Something is strangely abnormal in the town of Normal, Illinois. A contest inviting fans to "name Normal's new [semi-professional] baseball team" was called into question after it was discovered that the voting may have been rigged in favor of a corporate-sponsored team name, despite the popularity of a Stephen Colbert-themed option.

On March 22, the not-yet-named team's website indicated that three "finalist" names would be selected from "more than 1,300 [fan-selected] names" by "a panel of team owners, community leaders and officials from the Town of Normal and Heartland Community College" - Source. When the voting launched, however, there were four names selected as finalists: Normal Nutz, Normal NightHawks, Normal CornBelters, and Normal Coal Bears. The last of these choices is an homage to cable tv host Colbert [pronounced "coal-bear"], known for getting his name associated with everything from newly-discovered species to parts of NASA's International Space Station.

"This will be McLean County's team and we can think of no better way to select a name than to let our future fans pick it," said Steve Malliet, president of Normal Professional Baseball. "We have been thrilled at the support we have already received through major corporate sponsorships and fan interest. The overall excitement level of the people in McLean County and all around Central Illinois has been outstanding." - Source

Based on a tip by Normal resident Ben Matthews (April 22, Facebook.com), however, records were found to indicate that the domain www.NormalNutz.com was already registered as early as March 20 by Mike Thiessen, consultant for the Normal baseball team. - Screenshot

Early voting seemed to indicate that "Coal Bears," an obvious reference to cable television icon and brilliant comedian Stephen Colbert, was the clear favorite, with a 95% of the vote as of April 20, a post on the Colbert Nation website may have been responsible for putting the name so far in the lead. The next day, however, voting numbers had shifted dramatically in a suspicious direction. CornBelters who had held 1% of the vote fell to 0%, Normal Nutz who held 1% of the vote became the favorite with 55% of the vote, Coal Bears fell from 95% to 41%, and NightHawks fell from 3% to 1%. As of 1:00 a.m. on April 22, the numbers shifted again: Coal Bears 24%, CornBelters 0%, Nighthawks 0%, Nutz 75%.

Let's do some math... Normal is a very small town, so we can be pretty safe in assuming that on the first day of voting we received approximately 100 total votes. 95 for Colbert, 1 for Nutz, and 4 split between the other two choices. In order for a shift this dramatic to take place there would have had to have been 351 votes for the Nutz whilst NOBODY voted for the Coal Bears. We all know that the Colbert Nation would not let such a travesty occur. If 3 people had voted for The Coal Bears in that time, it would have taken over 1,000 votes for the Nutz to offset the number. Doesn't seem right to us. (UPDATE: Members of Colbert Nation are reporting to have registered up to 500 votes, meaning the Nutz would need to receive over 5,000 votes while Coal Bears receive 3. Seems even more unlikely.)

Speculation as to the legitimacy of the voting contest continues to run rampant. Normal Nutz is the only team name with a connection to a local corporation in the Normal area, Beer Nuts, though no official deal between the company and the team has been made public. The Coal Bears, admitted the team's organizers, was a favorite due to the enormous popularity of Steven Colbert and gave the contest some free publicity. Team representatives have not commented at this time.

News on the scandal is being kept up-to-date at http://www.NormalCoalBears.com and through the Bloomington-Normal Twitter account @BloNo.