Question 1: Back when I was a kid, in some major league parks, the relief pitchers would come in in a kind of tarted-up golf cart. I remember one shaped like a baseball hat, for example. Do any teams still use the same system today? And bonus points if you can name the team with the baseball-hat golf cart.
Question 2: I notice that the Minnesota Twins have “TC” (or possibly “CT”) on their helments. What does this stand for – Twin Cities? Why is that, when they have an M on their caps?
I remember the California Angels had a ball cap Car. Nobody uses this stupidity anymore. To paraphrase Howey, Why don’t we just put the relief pitchers in dresses.
It was silly, didn’t save any time and if you ever watch Mo’ Rivera walk in to enter Sandman, you know why it more dramatic for pitchers to walk in.
TC is Twin City to make the team more marketable to the entire Metro Area.
As stated, the TC stands for Twin Cities (Mpls and St. Paul). This logo was always a mystery to me when I was a kid (not in the twin cities). In the late '80s (IIRC) the Twins switched to the ‘M’ logo. The ‘TC’ logo reappeared about two years ago. I believe they now wear the TC hat at home and the M on the road. Or is it the other way around? Anyway…their batting helmets have the TC logo.
So can anyone help with what the Expos logo, ‘elb’ was supposed to represent?
When the team first moved, M would have been construed to stand for Minneapolis, which would mean that no fan from St. Paul would ever go see the games (there is an intense rivalry between the two cities). That’s why they used “Minnesota Twins” instead of “Minneapolis Twins.” They used the TC logo for “Twin Cities” for the same reason.
There was a team that brought out their reliever in a golf cart that was dressed up to look like a miniature fire truck (because he was being brought in to put out the fire, so to speak). The visiting reliever was brought out in a minuature gasoline tanker. The commissioner put a stop to that right quick, IIRC. (I think that may have actually been in one of the minor leagues. Just an anecdote I heard on an NBC game of the week long ago. Probably from that Garagiola idiot, though).
It may just be partisan rooting, but nothing beats “Welcome To The Jungle,” which was Eric Gagne’s entry song. For an extended stretch, that song meant “Game Over!”
No kidding. The cart was tres silli. A manly stride, a glowering brow, a few 96mph warm-up pitches…that’s what you need in a closer, not some dandy in a golf cart shaped like a watermelon. But there was a time there when every team was trying to out-do the others with fancy carts.
There is one baseball novel, All G.O.D.'s Children IIRC, that has the owner suggesting that the relievers parachute into the stadium!
This must be the Yankee fan in me. I think mascots are literally Bush league.
They are nice at Minor League games as very family oriented.
I wish Mascots, non stop music that prevents talking the game, the wave and Rally Hankies would all go away.
I was shocked to see even Proud Boston give into the mascot idiocy. While I hate the Redsox with a passion that most people reserve for the Yankees, I also respect the fans and their loyalty and baseball knowledge.
I agree. The Giants do not, thankfully, have a running around mascot. Back in the 80s, when the Gs played up above the Arctic Circle at Candlestick Point, they had a “joke” mascot, the Crab, which was really used in funny radio ads for the team.
The Oakland As have a mascot of sorts, the elephant. Dunno the etymology, but I kinda like that idea, a sort of throwback to the early 1900s. Gives the team character. Why is it that the junior circuit, of all things, is still more firmly rooted in tradition?
The thing with the bullpen golfcarts started with automobiles, as a way to promote local car dealerships. It started in the 1950s in Chicago, where the White Sox relief pitchers were driven in from the bullpen in a station wagon. Some visiting players expressed their displeasure, and after one of the New York players said “Yankees only ride in Cadillacs,” owner Frank Lane arranged for a black Cadillac hearse the next time the Yankees came to town.
At Fenway park in the late 50s and early 60s, players rode in on a motor scooter. In Oakland, owner Charlie Finley used a mule. Pitcher Catfish Hunter tells a story (which may or may not actually be true), about riding in from the bullpen during a tight game and having to wait while the mule stopped to make a huge pile of mule droppings, then muched popcorn from fans seated in the front row.
What about the Giants mascot of “Lou Seal” I saw on my trip to then Pac Bell park.
The A’s have a white elephant as a mascot after NY Giants derisively referred to the Philadelphia Athletics squad as a white elephant. Connie Mack adopted the logo as a badge of honor.
