Mercy on the mascots

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This article was published 08/09/2017 (2953 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Life can be stressful in the high-pressure world of professional sports, especially for mascots.

Not only do you have to whip the fans into a state of frenzy and survive inside a sweltering furry suit, you have to keep your head on a swivel in case you’re attacked by drunken supporters of a rival team.

That apparently was the case during last weekend’s Labour Day Classic in Regina when a Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan reportedly tried to “rip off” the head of Gainer the Gopher, the iconic mascot of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

It wasn’t the only ugly incident, as Riders receiver Duron Carter complained he was spit on by a Bombers fan after the pre-game introductions before the Riders’ 38-24 victory. The two teams collide again today in the Banjo Bowl at Investors Group Field.

“No one has stooped this low before in the history of this Labour Day Classic rivalry, to the point where (they are) spitting on players or assaulting a mascot, that’s never happened before,” Rod Pedersen, the voice of the Roughriders, groused after the game.

This column is taking a courageous stand against anti-mascot violence, which is a growing problem, as we can see from today’s overstuffed list of The Top Five Maniacal Mascot Attacks of All Time:

5) The mascot(s): Rufus Bobcat vs. Brutus Buckeye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=577hN8tQM6g

The mayhem: It’s bad enough when fans tackle innocent mascots, but it’s even more shocking when an incident involves mascot-on-mascot violence. Which is exactly what happened in September 2010 before the start of a football game between Ohio University and Ohio State at (no surprise) Ohio Stadium. About 15 minutes before the game, a young man named Brandon Hanning suited up as Ohio University’s Rufus the Bobcat mascot, went on the field near the OU cheerleaders and patiently waited for the chance he’d been dreaming of.

The big moment came when his hated rival, Brutus the Buckeye, and an Ohio State cheerleader hoisted an OSU flag and began leading the Buckeyes players onto the field. “As soon as they started running onto the field, that’s when I went,” Hanning told The Associated Press at the time. That’s when Rufus sideswiped Brutus, who bravely bounced back up and continued sprinting toward the end zone, where Rufus continued his brazen attack, climbing on his rival’s back and riding him to the ground, where the pair tussled, with Rufus punching the Buckeye in his oversized head while fans booed in anger.

In the wake of the unexpected attack, Ohio University formally apologized to Ohio State and its fans. What’s more, Hanning was banned from any further affiliation with the school’s athletics department. It turns out Hanning didn’t even attend the school anymore; he was a student at nearby Hocking College. And he had absolutely no regrets about his actions. “It was actually my whole plan to tackle Brutus when I tried out to be a mascot,” he told AP. “I tried out about a year ago, and the whole reason I tried out was so I could come up here to Ohio State and tackle Brutus.”

For the record, Ohio State hammered its rival 43-7, prompting Bobcats coach Frank Solich to sagely observe: “Obviously we needed to tackle the guy with the ball, not the mascot.”

4) The mascot: Marty the Marmot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKVk4QULF8Q

The mayhem: The fur was definitely flying at a Western Hockey League game between the Victoria Royals and the Red Deer Rebels in November 2013. That’s because of a scary incident involving the Royals’ beloved mascot, Marty the Marmot. On this fateful night, Marty the Marmot, a large rodent that is a member of the squirrel family, was engaged in comical hijinks during a between-periods promotion.

During a game of inflatable musical chairs on the ice, Marty reportedly pulled a chair away from one contestant, a man who was a loyal season-ticket holder, thereby eliminating him from the competition. Which is when the angry guy ran toward Marty, hoisted him up and body-slammed him on the ice, then dragged him by the leg while the hometown crowd vigorously booed.

In the end, the attacker was escorted from the rink by security guards. Fans were outraged by the attack. “Poor Marty the Marmot was slammed pretty badly onto his back,” witness Malia Benmore told Global News. “I think people think those mascot outfits are full of stuffing; they are definitely not!” The next day Marty tweeted a shout-out to his fans: “Thanks for the love this morning! Feeling good, enjoying a quiet day in the burrow.”

Victoria police began an assault investigation, but dropped the probe when the man who tackled Marty approached the mascot and the team with his tail between his legs, apologizing for the incident and making a donation to charity.

A friend of the attacker said his pal was deeply sorry and had received indirect death threats. “He regrets hitting him so hard,” the friend told the Victoria Times Colonist. “It was just supposed to be part of the fun, clowning around. The hit was too hard, he admits that.”

It seems the guy had been celebrating his birthday with his girlfriend, which is no excuse for acting squirrelly.

3) The mascot: The Baltimore Oriole Bird

Watch the video

The mayhem: Bad things seem to happen in threes, especially if you happen to be the avian mascot of the Baltimore Orioles baseball club. In 1995, during a home game against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Oriole Bird was punched out — by an out-of-town cop from Long Island, N.Y., who had reportedly been drinking way too much.

“I’ve seen a lot,” Baltimore police Lt. Russell Shea Jr., head of the stadium police unit, told reporters. “This is the first time I’ve seen the bird get beat up.”

The guy inside the bird suit was uninjured, but the repeated punches caused $500 damage, crushing one side of the costume’s head.

No charges were laid, but the drunk officer was ejected, and 14 other officer buddies from Long Island accompanied him voluntarily. “He was drunk,” Lt. Shea said. “He came in and said he had been drinking since 12 noon and it was a mistake he made… that’s what happens when you drink for 10 hours. You do stupid stuff.”

Speaking of stupid stuff, in May 1999, the Bird was dancing down the bleachers when, for no apparent reason, a visitor from Philadelphia pushed the mascot into right field at Camden Yard. The Bird struck back, filing a lawsuit, and in 2000, a circuit court judged ordered the pushy fan to pay the guy inside the Bird suit, John J. Krownapple, $60,000 to cover medical expenses, lost wages and the pain and suffering the mascot endured when he plummeted 15 feet from the bleachers.

“It’s kind of sick to attack the mascot,” chirped Krownapple’s lawyer, F. Todd Taylor. “Why don’t you just take the candy out of the baby’s mouth and tip over the stroller?”

As if that wasn’t enough, according to Sports Illustrated, in 2014 an unruly fan punched the Bird in a medically sensitive area, but the mascot fought back, tossing the man to the ground, which is better than flipping him the bird. “Luckily for the Oriole Bird, it seems the costume provided sufficient padding to stop too much damage from being done,” SI noted. 

2) The mascot: The Phillie Phanatic

The mayhem: What we are talking about here is what many baseball fans consider the weirdest mascot moment in Major League Baseball history, because it involved real emotions.

In one corner, there was the Phanatic, the furry green mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies that is arguably the most recognizable mascot in North America. In the other corner, there was Tommy Lasorda, the legendary manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a man who famously bleeds Dodger blue. These two baseball icons truly disliked one another.

On Aug. 28, 1988, the Dodgers were headed to the World Series and the Phillies weren’t going anywhere, which is when the Phanatic came out in the middle of a game with a new prop — a dummy dressed in a Dodgers uniform with “Lasorda” written on the back.

When the noodle-nosed mascot stomped on the dummy, Lasorda had seen enough, so he charged from the dugout, wrestled the mannequin away from the Phanatic, then knocked him to the ground before walloping him with the dummy.

In ranking it as the most ridiculous mascot moment in MLB history, BleacherReport.com notes: “It’s not much on the surface, so why is this top on the ridiculous mascot moments? It wasn’t staged. Lasorda’s hatred of the Phanatic, and mascots in general, became too much, so he attacked.”

Here’s what the Phanatic told ESPN years later: “After Tommy attacked me, the next inning I got on top of the Phillies’ dugout. I had the Tommy doll in one hand, a pizza in the other. I’m stuffing his face with pizza, then smacking him. The next day, I’m getting calls from the L.A. media. Tommy attacked me in the papers. Said I was bad for kids…

“The next time the Dodgers came in, I sent him a pasta dinner from a favourite place and a note that said, ‘I’m sorry.’ I went down to see him after the game. I asked him if he got the dinner. He said, ‘Yeah. The sauce was overdone. Anything else?’”

1) The mascot: Guido the Italian Sausage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPwOBGcXHiM

The mayhem: It’s a longstanding rule in journalism — if a ball player bops a sausage with his bat, he’s got to be No. 1on any list of stupid mascot moments.

It was July 9, 2003, and the Pittsburgh Pirates were in Milwaukee battling the Brewers when, between the sixth and seventh innings, the fans were being entertained by the “sausage race,” wherein mascots sporting seven-foot-tall foam sausage suits — there’s a hotdog, a bratwurst, a Polish sausage and an Italian sausage — zip around the field seeking sausage supremacy.

As the group went past the Pirates’ third-base dugout, Pittsburgh first baseman Randall Simon reached over a railing and took a half swing, hitting the Italian sausage, Guido, from behind with his bat. The sausage toppled over, knocking down the hotdog. If you care, the bratwurst won the race.

The young women inside the suits sustained scraped knees, but weren’t seriously hurt. After the game, however, the mustard hit the fan.

Simon was arrested and booked for misdemeanour battery. He was cited for disorderly conduct and fined $432 for what became the most famous swing he ever took in baseball.

“I thought at the moment they were trying to play with us,” Simon told AP at the time. “They were running right next to the players. I’m a fun player, and I’ve never hurt anyone in my life.”

Mandy Block, 18, who was inside the Italian sausage suit, laughed it off. “It just seems ridiculous — it’s like a big sausage getting hit by a bat causes all this controversy,” she told local radio.

Said Brewers’ manager Ned Lost: “I just looked over and saw our wieners in a wad.”

Simon was fined $2,000 and suspended for three games.

For the record, the Brewers won 2-1 in 12 innings, but it’s safe to say they couldn’t relish the victory. When his team came back the next year, Simon bought sausages for an entire section.

With Saturday’s Banjo Bowl guaranteed to be a heated battle, we’d like to remind everyone to lay off the mascots. Because they’re people too… at least on the inside.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca