Baseball S Wackiest Mascots

A fuzzy, green creature is spotted dancing with fans on top of the Philadelphia Phillies' dugout. Crew members chase after a wacky chicken on the San Diego Padres' field. A mischievous seal is caught trying to steal the San Francisco Giants' home plate--literally! Baseball fans love to watch and applaud the playful antics of colorful mascots. Join the fun and learn all about the wackiest baseball mascots!

A fuzzy, green creature is spotted dancing with fans on top of the Philadelphia Phillies' dugout. Crew members chase after a wacky chicken on the San Diego Padres' field. A mischievous seal is caught trying to steal the San Francisco Giants' home plate--literally! Baseball fans love to watch and applaud the playful antics of colorful mascots. Join the fun and learn all about the wackiest baseball mascots!

In 1911, Connie Mack and John McGraw-arguably baseball's all-time greatest managers-shaped the game as each pitch was thrown and every base was stolen. And they did it with the help of their quirky mascots and superstitious players. Set in the stadiums, trains, hotels and clubhouses of baseball's formative years, The Mascots of 1911 is peopled with brilliantly colorful characters. This fictional yet historically accurate story is told through the teams' managers and mascots: Connie Mack and Louis van Zelst of the Philadelphia Athletics, and John McGraw and Charlie Faust of the New York Giants. Louis, a young, misshapen hunchback, believes in the goodness of the soul of baseball; he says teams should "win for the right reason-they're the best." Under the wing of the even-tempered and gentlemanly Mack, Louis inspires the A's by concealing his personal agony with joy. Feeble-minded Charlie Faust, the Giants' mascot, arrives bearing a gypsy's prophecy: if he gets to pitch, he'll ensure the Giants win the Pennant. Barely tolerated by the pugnacious McGraw, Faust entertains the crowd and convinces the players that spells, good luck charms and black magic will improve their play. Through that curious season and all the way to the World Series in 1911, the story was clearly bigger than the final score.

Yes, It's Hot in Here explores the entertaining history of the mascot from its jester roots in Renaissance society to the slapstick pantomime of the Clown Prince of Baseball, Max Patkin, all the way up to the mascots of the slam-dunk, rock-and-roll, Jumbotron culture of today. Along the way, author AJ Mass of ESPN.com (a former Mr. Met himself) talks to the pioneers among modern-day mascots like Dave Raymond (Phillie Phanatic), Dan Meers (K. C. Wolf), and Glenn Street (Harvey the Hound) and finds out what it is about being a mascot that simply won't leave the performer. Mass examines what motivates high school and college students to compete for the chance to wear a sweaty animal suit and possibly face the ridicule of their peers in the process, as well as women who have proudly served as mascots for teams in both the pro and amateur ranks. In the book's final chapter, Mass climbs inside a mascot costume one more time to describe what it feels like and, perhaps, rediscover a bit of magic.

My First Auburn Baseball Book: Letters Around the Baseball Diamond is a children's book sports book about Auburn University. Readers can follow along with the alphabet to learn more about Auburn baseball.