Monday, February 02, 2009

MEET THE MASCOTS.

TBF was awfully engrossed in the computer tonight, and when I asked what he was up to, his response was:

I’m looking to add to the mascot collection.

We started a tradition when we began visiting out of town ballparks, this idea of buying a version of that team’s mascot. Except that, really, we didn’t buy a Phanatic until some point in 2008, and we will pass up buying them on site if we don’t like the selection (which is why we don’t own anything from Pittsburgh or Washington, DC.). In the case of this evening’s eBay shopping for TBF, he was looking for a Junction Jack, since the only ones we found in Houston were these weird puppet-type things or entirely too big.

The mascot collection began, of course, with my Mariner Moose.

Also pictured, of course, are Rangers Captain and Wally (who is one of TBF’s favorites because of that SportsCenter commercial). Now, I was never happy with that stuffed Moose (for the same reasons I never liked the stuffed Mr. Mets), so I eventually acquired the superior bobblehead:

Of course, in this photo, you not only see the Moose, but Mr. Met, Sluggrrr from the Royals, a random gumball machine mini Pedro bobblehead from a friend, and a recent acquisition from this year: the Crazy Crab! (Older readers will recall my obsession with the former San Francisco mascot. It was a gold star day in this house the day that Crazy Crab bobblehead arrived. Yes, I realize I need help.)

[Yes. That is Paulie Baseball behind all of them, the night the Mets clinched the division in 2006. I took the photo, he signed it, it’s still a memorable moment for TBF and I, so it stays in the collection.]

The Phanatic (acquired in happier days), Paws (from when TBF went to Detroit to see the Mets play WITHOUT ME [hi, honey]), and Fredbird.

But the creme de la creme of our collection (besides the Crazy Crab) are these fellows:

The sausage doll thing started in 2006, when TBF was out of town and going to see the Mets in Milwaukee, and me, watching at home, saw a shot of a vendor marching up and down the aisles selling sausage dolls. I sent copious texts to TBF, begging for one, which TBF claims he 1) did not get, 2) could not act on even if he had, 3) was busy high-tailing it out of the park after the Mets lost, 4) [insert lame-ass excuse here]. A friend of ours made up for that faux pas, and thanks to an eBay purchase, 1-4 arrived out of the blue one day. Of course, I acquired #5, Chorizo, all by myself when visiting Miller Park in 2007 with the lovely Coop.

So there you have it. Meet the Mascots.  What, were you perhaps expecting yet another trenchant analysis of whatever scrub Omar signed to a minor league contract today, or something?