A minor league baseball team acknowledged Wednesday that it staged a rejected marriage proposal during a recent game as a publicity stunt.
The Double-A New Britain Rock Cats, an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, issued a statement saying the club had two employees pretend to be a couple taking part in a between-innings trivia contest Friday.
The third question in the contest was a surprise marriage proposal to which the woman on the field replied, "I'm sorry, I can't, I'm sorry" and then fled. The man also ran off the field and into the Rock Cats dugout.
A video of the stunt has been viewed more than 600,000 times on YouTube and was the subject of several news stories, some of which questioned its authenticity.
The club confirmed the hoax in a news release on Wednesday.
"After watching a public proposal, we talked about what would happen if the answer were 'no', and how that might affect a crowd and those viewing it after on video," Mike Abramson, the team's vice president of marketing, said.
"We worked with two of our staff on the skit and executed a digital strategy to set the video on a viral path; we could not be more pleased with the outcome."
Abramson issued an apology to anyone who might have been offended.
"This endeavour was intended to entertain and remind fans you never know what you're going to see at a Rock Cats game," he said.
