Minor league baseball teams will try all sorts of stunts to get attention, mostly because blogs and news outlets like to write about these wacky stunts. (Guilty as charged.) One team recently gave away a prepaid funeral to one lucky fan. That’s nice and all, but the winner was a man diagnosed a few months ago with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and was chosen by essay contest. Essay contest?

The funeral prize package from the Lehigh Valley IronPigs includes a memorial service, headstone, casket, and flowers, valued at around $10,000. “For a person who is not looking at their own mortality, yes it would be morbid,” he told CBS Philadelphia.

Being diagnosed with a terminal disease that often progresses quickly, it’s understandable that he would be worried about his final expenses, but the truth is that all of us are looking at our mortality: most people just choose not to think about it. You don’t have to win a free funeral at a baseball game to have a casual discussion with your loved ones about what kind of service you want or your beliefs regarding organ donation, or to make sure that you have enough life insurance in place to cover the simple send-off or elaborate barbecue blowout complete with bacon casket that you have in mind.

IronPigs Announce Funeral Giveaway Winner [CBS]

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