Home Run Derby

Seeing as the Swinging Friar is taking Captain Jolly Roger to the Rectory (Friar leads 84% to 16%), it’s time for another Mascot Matchup.

This time we’ll head to the Mammal Division for a sluggers’ matchup between the two most prolific Home Run hitting mascots in all of MLB.

#3 TC Bear (Twins) vs. #6 Junction Jack (Astros)

Minnesota once had a legendary Bear … the Hamm’s Beer Bear.  And TC Bear is a distant relative.  Hamm’s Beer was an early sponsor of the Twins, and it’s pretty cool to see him live on in TC (whether the Twins admit it or not).

TC Bear is 6′4′ and a left-handed batter. Can he hit? Does a bear sh-t in Minnesota? He regularly puts on batting practice shows at the MetroDome and he’s won the Mascot Home Run Derby the past three years (2005-2007).

Don’t believe me? Watch this vid from the 2007 Mascot Home Run Derby at the San Francisco All-Star Game FanFest.  Sorry about the announcer/interviewer guy.  TC’s at-bats are near the end.

Junction Jack is the 7-foot tall Jackrabbit mascot of the Astros – everything’s bigger in Texas, right? 

But why a rabbit … and why is he dressed like a train engineer?  Oh yeah, that train in the outfield at Minute Maid. 

Still … shouldn’t the Astros’ mascot be an Astronaut or a geeky NASA Mission Control Center technician or something?

Ah well – it seems to work … the ladies apparently dig the rabbit.

JJ can hit the longball too, as he three-peated as the Mascot Home Run Derby Champ from 2002-2004, and almost acheived the four-peat in in 2005. TC Bear beat him. JJ’s looking for some revenge in this matchup.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find video of Junction Jack swinging the lumber.  So here’s the rabbit’s parody of the opening credits of the Sopranos.

[Poll=10]

Vote until midnight on Saturday July 28.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 10:58 am and is filed under Astros, Mascot Brackets, Mascots, Twins. 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.