[zeprock]

Mascot Mania is the theme for today's oddball post. Mr. Met was the first MLB mascot debuting in 1964. Today all but three MLB teams have official mascots (Angels, Dodgers and Yankees) and they are important in marketing the team and league to young children. In 2010 Topps started featuring mascots in their own insert set with their Opening Day product and that has continued throughout the past decade. Here are nine mascot cards from my collection.

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1982 Donruss #531A San Diego Chicken/ERR Without TM (The San Diego Chicken started making appearances around San Diego in 1977 and was the second official MLB mascot. Ted Giannoulas first appeared in the costume in an attempt to get into Padres games for free. In 1991 a jury ordered Giannoulas to pay $300,000 to a Chicago Bulls cheerleader who was injured when he tackled her on a basketball court. It is also one of six mascots inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame.)
1986 Expos Provigo Panels #27 Youppi (Mascot) (Youppi! was designed by a member of Jim Henson's muppet making team and first appeared with the now defunct Montreal Expos in 1979. "Youppi" which means "Yippie" in French was the first mascot to be thrown out of a MLB game. When the Expos moved to Washington in 2004, Youppi became the official mascot of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team. He is the first Canadian inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame and is one of only three mascots along with the San Diego Chicken and Phillie Phanatic on display in Cooperstown. This card came from a grocery retailer based in Quebec.)
1993 Fun Pack Mascots #3 Fredbird (Fredbird, derived from "Redbird", has been the Cardinals' mascot since 1979. He is one of baseball's best known mascots and makes hundreds of appearances around the St. Louis area each year. Upper Deck inserted this hologram card in their 1993 Fun Pack packs.)

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1993 Triple Play #164 Mascots/Pirate Parrot (The Parrot character was derived from the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story, Treasure Island. It debuted in 1979, the year the "We are Family" Pirates went on to win the World Series. It was discovered during the infamous 1980s Pittsburgh drug trials that the original man in the suit, Kevin Koch, was discovered to be the middle-man in getting the Pirates players cocaine. He was fired but the character lives on.)
2005 Portland Sea Dogs Grandstand #32 Slugger MASCOT (Here's a card depicting the Portland Sea Dogs mascot, Slugger, meeting with the Red Sox mascot, Wally. The Sea Dogs are a minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and is the only MiLB team in Maine. A sea dog is another name for a seal, of which we have plenty of cavorting along our rocky coastline.)
2006 Upper Deck Collect the Mascots #MLB2 Phillie Phanatic (The Phanatic was created in 1978 in response to the San Diego Chicken's appearance a year earlier. He has become one of the best and most widely recognized mascots in North American sports and is on display in Cooperstown and has been inducted into the Mascots Hall of Fame. This card is one of three in Upper Deck's 2006 insert set along with Mr. Met and Wally the Green Monster. If a collector obtained all three cards and entered the code on the backs of them at Upper Deck's website, they would win prizes including Kids Reward bonus points, iTunes music downloads, movie passes, boxes of 2007 UD baseball cards and autographed memorabilia.)

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2007 Red Sox Topps Gift Set #BOS55 Wally the Green Monster (This card came from Topps Red Sox Gift set released after the Sox won the World Series that year. Named after Fenway's famous Green Monster wall, Wally debuted in 1997 and has since appeared in SportsCenter commercials and is the only mascot to have a Dunkin' Donuts Coolatta drink named after him.)
2012 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M7 Mr. Met (As previously noted, Mr. Met was the first official MLB team mascot, a member of the Mascot Hall of Fame and in 2012 was named by Forbes magazine as the number one mascot in all of sports. He's also starred in a number of SportsCenter commercials and was the first NY Met to be featured as a bobble head.)
2018 Topps Opening Day Team Traditions and Celebrations #TTCPR Racing Presidents (Although the Racing Presidents are technically not mascots, they do entertain at every Nationals home game. The Presidents first raced in 2006 and include the four Mt. Rushmore Presidents, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt. Coolidge, Hoover and Taft have also made appearances in the past. It has become a Washington tradition as the similar sausage race has become in Milwaukee.)