Home Run Derby

Time for another mascot showdown. Let’s head back to the Critter division, where we’ll match up a Bay Area legend against a big purple dinosaur. 

#2 Crazy Crab (San Francisco Giants) vs #7 Dinger (Colorado Rockies)

Crazy Crab is what one might call an “anti-mascot” who was intended to lampoon the new influx of mascots to baseball in the late seventies-early eighties.

He only lasted one season in San Fran, back in 1984 when the fans took their frustrations from a 94-loss season out on the crab.

The crowd would hurl all sorts of things at the beast, both verbally and literally, and even players got into the act, dumping drinks and other things into the suit.

Mike Krukow: “… we used to drill him with the resin bag daily, so he was scared of us.”

However, after nearly 22 years in storage, absence truly made the heart of San Francisco grow fonder of the crab. A now defunct website, Rehab the Crab, emplored people to sign an online petition to bring back Crazy Crab.

As you’ll see, the Crab made a surprise return in 2006.

Now the Crab has his own restaurant in AT&T Park, Crazy Crab’z, where you can get what sounds like a culinary delight of a crab sandwich on sourdough bread … for $15 dollars!! You’ll need a nice glass of Napa Valley white wine with that.

Dinger

I guess when they were building Coors Field, someone found some dinosaur bones nearby.

So the Rockies took it upon themselves to create their mascot in the guise of a big purple triceratops.

Does he teach kids to share and sing songs inbetween innings?

Really – the coincidence of the Rockies introducing a purple dinosaur in 1994, at the height of Barney’s popularity is just too much.

But then again, Dinger’s been no role model.  He’s been in a bunch of snafus – which means he’s my kind of mascot …

• Aug 1994 – Got in a fist-fight with Bob Kingery, the Rockies radio announcer, during a game
• May 1996 – Reprimanded by GM Bob Gebhard for taunting the Cardinals with a broom (after they were swept at Coors)
• Aug 1997 – Attacked by a fan while playing with a kid at the game

The Rockies use Dinger to promote physical fitness in the Denver area.  He should teach them to stretch out before doing dance routines on top of the dugout.

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Billy the Marlin gets dibs on the winner in the next round.  Do marlins eat crustaceans? 

Voting is open until Wednesday, August 29 at Midnight.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 10:03 am and is filed under Giants, Mascot Brackets, Mascots, Rockies. 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.