After losing to FCS opponent William & Mary in their home opener, Virginia could have used a pep talk from Maury Ballstein. "What do we do when we fall off the horse? ... We get back on!"
One week later, the same advice quite literally applies to CavMan, the Wahoos' horseback-riding sword-waver.
The Tampa Bay Rays rose to prominence this past baseball season and reached the World Series before their year ended on a sour note by losing to the Philadelphia Phillies, but as it turns out, it won't be just Rays players and fans who finish the year with a bitter taste in their mouths. For poor Kelly Frank, the end of the World Series wasn't just the end of her dream of seeing the Rays win the World Series, it was also the end of her being able to call herself employed.
Now the name Kelly Frank probably doesn't ring a bell for you, but that's because you know her better by her stage name. She goes by the name Raymond, and she really knows how to shake her moneymaker, though the Rays recently told her she won't be shaking it for them again anytime soon.
Performer Kelly Frank, the woman who perfected Raymond's trademark butt shimmy, said she does not know why she was fired Monday after five seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays.
"I'm just as confused as everyone else," she said. "I really didn't get an explanation."
Not only did Kelly not get an explanation for her dismissal, but she's more confused than ever after being told by the organization that she "out-enthused" the Phillie Phanatic during the World Series. Fear not for Ms. Frank, though, as she'll continue to create mascot costumes for other teams like the Florida Gators and Denver Nuggets.
If there's any good news to come out of this, it's that all those male Rays fans who secretly found themselves turned on by Raymond's Butt Shimmy can take comfort knowing that it was a woman inside that costume.
Clay Bennett and his cronies officially confirmed the league's worst kept secret today by announcing that his franchise has been dubbed the Oklahoma City Thunder. So does this mean after stealing basketball from Seattle he now has his sights on Golden State's mascot?
It will be interesting to see how the NBA handles this little issue ... if at all. Can it really have a team in one city with the nickname of "Thunder," and an official NBA mascot for another team named "Thunder?"
That just can't be, right? It'd be like the Knicks having a little Irish guy named "the Celtic" perform at halftime. The NBA is usually so savvy when it comes to branding and marketing, but everything else about this whole OKC debacle has been backwards and hamfisted, so I guess this shouldn't be any different.
My guess is that 11 years of tradition will be flushed down the drain and a name change will be forced, although it would be kind of cool (in a trainwreck/professional-wrestling-type of way) to simply let Bennett embrace his role as the league villain and actually kidnap Thunder from Oakland.
He is a dog so these things happen from time to time, and Georgia will most certainly have a succession pooch ready in short order. But it's sad news just the same, as UGA is one of the better live mascots in all of sport and a face for the entire Georgia athletics program.
UGA was a fixture "between the hedges" on the Georgia sidelines at football games, taking in his 'Dawgs and offering a few barks when the mood struck. He actually goes down as the winningest UGA in program history, as Georgia football went 87-27 during his tenure. How much of that was due to coach Mark Richt and how much was the good grace of UGA, we'll let you decide.
Regardless we enjoyed writing about him here. There was actually speculation last year might be his last before heading to retirement, but it appears a call to puppy heaven made that decision for his owner, Frank W. "Sonny" Seiler. Our condolences to Seiler and the entire Georgia athletics family.
Pictured here is Michigan State's mascot Sparty at last night's fête for EA Sports' NCAA Football '09. He was, at best, an incongruous presence throughout the evening.
Mascots are designed to stand out in spacious stadiums filled with thousands of people, where their cartoon heads and giant limbs are clearly visible from the upper deck. In a crowded Manhattan night club, a mascot's caterwauling charm is lost. There simply isn't enough elbow room for the wide-ranging radii of their pantomime that serves as their sole form of communication, and three times last night I turned around and found myself looking into the huge lifeless eyes and furrowed plush brow from a mere two feet away.
And I suspect it's no more comfortable for the man inside the costume. The bathroom at Marquee -- the club that hosted the party -- is typical of swanky clubs anywhere: candles on every flat surface and an attendant lording over a selection of colognes and tip basket. Since it's New York City, I wasn't particularly put off by two men's voices coming from the one stall, but when part of the conversation is "damn mascot costume" while Sparty's helmet is visible above the divider, well, that will catch a man's attention.
A minute after the conversation stopped, Sparty exited the stall -- fully plush, once again inhuman, his personal bathroom assistant in tow. He was relieved ... and so was I when he finally left.
Officials said a game-day employee called an IncrediBull tripped as he squeezed the trigger, the shirt then bounced off the ground and slid into the Celtics' team huddle. Bulls personnel apologized to the Celtics for the mishap and also alerted game officials to what happened.
Whatever happened took place in an arena with roughly 10 television camera trained on the court, correct? Surely somebody caught something on tape -- can't we let YouTube settle this for us? One thing is for sure, though, and that's Benny's history of on-court violence certainly doesn't help his case.
It's Official! Kris Bensonsigns with the Phillies! Good for him. Have you seen the Orioles motto for this season? "THIS IS BIRDLAND." That's a great way to get fans into the park. "We traded away our stars. COME SEE THE BIRD, THE ACTUAL ANIMAL THE BIRD"
With the migration of Anna Benson comes the next chapter in a Dugout story that began in the long long ago before the darkness came about how Anna would sleep with everyone on the team including the mascot if she ever caught her husband cheating. The only way this could get better for us is if she got traded to the Red Sox and got to deflower Wally the Green Monster. She would have to go into the police force and get choked by Dmitri Young to be more Dugout ready.
Anna Benson wears a jersey around her cleavage like we'd never expect and Kris Benson gets into a plane crash and misses the '08 season with a dilated brain in today's Dugout, after the jump.
What's the hardest part about being one of the racing presidents at a Nationals game? Not falling down, apparently. Kissing Suzy Kolber blogger (and weekend Deadspinner) Christmas Ape played the role of Abe Lincoln in the video above, and although he avoided the fate that befell Thomas Jefferson, simply making it through the race without taking a header was harder than you'd think:
Whatever preconceptions I had about being able to see while in the costume were immediately quashed. The gauze-like fist-sized hole in the president's neck you're supposed to look through is mostly obscured by the character's jaw, so your field of vision is pretty much limited to your feet. And though you're strapped in, that giant head will lurch wherever it pleases and kill the s--t out of your back trying to keep it aloft.
Honestly, his entire account of the audition is worth a read.
Looking at this photo snapped in Atlanta during All-Star weekend, I feel like I'm viewing a grainy snapshot of The Beatles and The Stones jamming together in a London pub back in 1965. OK, maybe it's more like a cell phone photo of the casts of "Knocked Up," "Superbad" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" sharing a hookah. Whatever you call it, I'm calling it historic: A Penguin sits between an orca and a polar bear, and survives to tell the tale.
Using the latest in CSI-style investigation and unabated snark, The Empty Netter has analyzed this photograph and came to some stunning conclusions. (Montreal Canadians Mascot: Looks to be flashing gang signals; maybe putting out a "hit" on the Maple Leaf mascot.) But only FanHouse was there to record the costumed conversation in this world exclusive ...
What better way to celebrate the final home game in a creaky stadium that's falling apart than have the mascot risk his life attaching itself to wire and bungee cord, held up by the very stadium being left behind because it's creaky and falling apart. Obviously, lots of folks in RFK Stadium on Sunday ... as evidenced by the collective gasp in the crowd ... thought that Nationals mascot Screech was done for while dropping down from the zip line. Admit it, you thought so too, right?
Luckily, no mascots were injured in the making of this You Tube video. Sorry, No Photos
The Tampa Bay Rays rose to prominence this past baseball season and reached the World Series before their year ended on a sour note by losing to the Philadelphia Phillies, but as it turns out, it won't be just Rays players and fans who finish the year with a bitter taste in their mouths. For poor Kelly Frank, the end of the World Series wasn't just the end of her dream of seeing the Rays win the World Series, it was also the end of her being able to call herself employed.
The University of Georgia's awesome English bulldog UGA VI died Saturday at the age of nine of congestive heart failure.
Pictured here is Michigan State's mascot Sparty at last night's fête for EA Sports' NCAA Football '09. He was, at best, an incongruous presence throughout the evening.
Yesterday everyone had a bunch of fun with the story that Benny the Bull shot Kevin Garnett and James Posey in the back with a t-shirt gun, but the Bulls claim the two Celtics players are embellishing the story. From KC Johnson's blog in the Chicago Tribune:
It's Official! Kris Benson signs with the Phillies! Good for him. Have you seen the Orioles motto for this season? "THIS IS BIRDLAND." That's a great way to get fans into the park. "We traded away our stars. COME SEE THE BIRD, THE ACTUAL ANIMAL THE BIRD"
