Home Run Derby

Somehow I missed this in Home Run Derby’s Top MLB Promotions of 2008.  I think it was because I excluded bobbleheads from the list.

But Friday Night (July 18) was Crazy Crab Bobblehead Night in San Francisco.  Who’s Crazy Crab?  Well, The Crab was a mascot the San Francisco Giants paraded out in 1984 as an anti-mascot to rival the recent influx of mascots into Major League Baseball.

Why an “anti-mascot” instead of a regular mascot?  Well, then-Giants exec Pat Gallagher explains …

Our fans were too hip, too sophisticated and way too baseball oriented to put up with anything as stupid as a mascot.

And you wonder why San Francisco gets portayed as the Smug Capital of the World?  It’s beacuse it’s true.

The fans would boo the Crab (when they weren’t throwing things at it), the players would abuse it with rosin bags and bats, and the Crab would give it right back on talk radio and taunt fans and management, even after it was retired in 1985 – barely a season after it had debuted. 

But over the last decade, The Crab has seen a surge in popularity among fans. 

• There’s been an online petition to Rehab the Crab and bring it back as a mascot. 
• In 1999, he threw out the first pitch at the second-to-last game at Candlestick Park. 
• In 2006, the Crab appeared and interrupted a race between the Giants’ new mascot (Lou Seal) and the A’s mascot (Stomper the Elephant). 
• The Crab has its name on an upscale vendor booth at AT&T Park. 
• And Friday Night the Crab had its own Bobblehead Night. 

And he even made an appearance …

Last season, Crazy Crab won his first round matchup in Home Run Derby’s Mascot Brackets .. and he’ll be up again real soon when the tournament continues (beginning on Monday 7/21/08).  He’s a real dark horse in the tournament.

Let’s hope Stomper the Elephant doesn’t meet him in the finals.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Giants, Mascots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.