Whether or not Dick’s Sporting Goods is enough to get your heart pounding with excitement, you have to give them some credit for creative marketing events. Passing by the South Public Plaza next to Madison Square Park and the Flatiron Building, my ears were bombarded with Metallica’s classic “Enter Sandman,” (soon to be succeeded by the Steve Miller Band’s “Rock’n Me” blaring from a pair of speakers next to a stage. A crowd of pedestrians were gathered in front of it, attentively observing an energetic host and a beaming cheerleader. Nearby was a booth bearing their logo. At the curb, a woman, presumably affiliated with Dick’s Sporting Goods, sat in a yellow kayak, inviting passersby to pose for pictures on the boat.

I listened as the host regaled the audience with stories of famous baseball players such as Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. Before long, he announced that the time of reckoning was near: in a few moments, the lucky winners of a raffle that I was unlucky to miss out on would be announced. And the rest, my friends, is history. Watch our brief video below to get a whiff of the excitement and find out what prizes those lucky winners came away with. I’ll confess that I wasn’t expecting much; maybe a free gift card or something similarly uninspired. How wrong I was. By now, your blood pressure has probably skyrocketed. If you’re not one for delayed gratification, well, that’s why fast-forward was invented.