Home Run Derby

In our last MLB Mascot Bracket showdown, Miwaukee’s Racing Sausages fried up Pittsburgh’s Racing Pierogies …

Let’s head to the Mammal Division for our next fight …

#2 Stomper (Oakland A’s) vs #3 T.C. Bear (Minnesota Twins)

Remember – your vote decides who moves on … Let’s get to it.

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I am proud to announce that due to popular demand  …
Home Run Derby’s MLB MASCOT BRACKETS IS BACK!!

Okay, when I say “popular demand” … I mean the two people who emailed me asking what the heck happened to the Baseball Mascot Tournament. 

We’ll pick up where we left off last year in the second round with what might be one of the most anticipated showdowns of the tournament.  One which is sure to whet your appetite.

#1 Racing Sausages (Brewers)  vs #5 Racing Pierogies (Pirates)

This week’s Jersey of the Week comes to us from last October, when the Milwaukee Brewers were in the midst of their first playoff appearance in 26 seasons.

I wish I had seen this shirt when it was a bit more relevant … say last October … but it’s just awesome.  It deserves to be recognized as a belated JotW.

Now, after finally making the playoffs after a 26 year postseason absence, Brewers fans were finally feeling some relief.  So much so that some of them peed their pants.

But others … well … they were hoping for another kind of release for their Racing Sausage.

Looks like the Polish is about to get polished. 

It kinda amazes me that no one’s done anything like this with Milwaukee’s Racing Sausages before.  They’re kinda made for innuendo.  If you’re unfamiliar with what a “Happy Ending” is … well, here.

Brewers Playoffs Happy Ending Shirt Rating:

• Cleverness:  10
• Originality:  10
• Understandability:  7  

That shirt used to be available on the internet … but it’s hasta la bye-bye now.  Something makes me wonder if the Brewers’ legal department had something to do with that.

So before last night’s Presidential debate at Hofstra … the mascot of the New York Mets – Mr. Met – was hanging around for some reason. 

During the FOX News telecast by Greta Van Susteren … Mr. Met lost his head. 

Literally.

Can anything else go wrong for the Mets the past few years?

I’ve talked about how that’s a giant faux pas in mascotdom before, when video surfaced of all the Milwaukee Brewers’ Racing Sausages without their heads. Or Bodies. 

As a former mascot – you just don’t do that.

Hat tip:  The Mighty Mighty Deadspin

Waaay back in March, Home Run Derby showed you the Famous Milwaukee racing sausages doing a little bit of skiing.  They’re so talented.  And tasty, I imagine.

Somehow we missed this event at a minor league hockey game in Rockford, IL – wherein the Sausages took their race to the ice in an intermission at a Rockford Icehogs game, way back in February 2008. 

Wow – that’s some nightmare fuel for you right there.  Especially when Benny the Bull of the Chicago Bulls tried to grab the Chorizo.  If he caught that sausage, would he have eaten him and washed it down with the walking can of Mountain Dew? 

I know I would have. Someone ask that racing hot dog if he’s ever tried to eat himself.

Looks like Chorizo won the race, but only after he checked the Italian Sausage into the boards.  Nice move there.  Was anyone shocked the Polish Sausage took a dive right after the start?

The Racing Sausages also participated in a broomball game with a bunch of other mascots during an intermission. 

The Presidents bum rushed the Padre in the Mascot Battle between Church and State … so it’s time for another Mascot Bracket Showdown.

We’re headed back to the aviary (the Feather Division) for a second round showdown between two feathered NL Central mascots who like biting female fans (and who doesn’t?)

#1 – Pirate Parrot (Pittsburgh Pirates) vs #5 Fredbird (St. Louis Cardinals)

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The Phillie Phanatic came back from an early deficit to slaughter Southpaw last week, so it’s time for another Mascot Matchup.

Let’s head to the Primate bracket, where we’ve got a transcontinental showdown between two last place teams with first-rate mascots. To make things more interesting … it’s a battle between Church and State.

#2 - Swinging Friar (San Diego Padres) vs #6 – Racing Presidents (Washington Nationals)

Your vote decides who moves on!!

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And we are into the second round of Home Run Derby’s MLB Mascot Brackets.  Took us long enough.  Weekly matchups will be in effect until the end of the 2008 MLB season.

We’re going to start off with a matchup from the Furrie Divison, with the #1 Seed matched up against another green mascot who was granted new life in the tournament.

#1 – Philly Phanatic (Phillies) vs #7 – Southpaw (White Sox)

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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.