The 401-K Challenge Cup is a new addition to this year's Principal Financial Group's Family Fun Fest — a traveling celebration of minor league baseball that will visit 56 minor league baseball teams across the U.S. this spring and summer. The tour started in early April at a Charlotte Knights game in Charlotte, N.C.
The fest is a daylong celebration of baseball, including a traveling minor league baseball museum and a fan festival midway with more than 20 baseball-themed attractions.
The 401-K Challenge Cup will be awarded to the first team to record 401 strikeouts at home. A fan of the winning team will receive a $5,000 prize.
The connection between K's in baseball — where they stand for strikeouts — and 401(k) plans is important to Dan Houston, senior vice president of Principal and a huge baseball fan.
"Retirement funding and baseball are similar," he said. "In baseball, there is a defined length of time to win the game. You don't want to go into extra innings." In real life, he said, going into extra innings "means people who have to work past their planned retirement age because they don't have enough money."
