Mascot Monday: 1993 Triple Play Baseball Mascots

While going through my huge sorting/organizing project ("Project Hercules"), I came across this card I of course forgot I had. A 1993 Triple Play Baseball card #164 Mascots featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates Mascot "The Pirate Parrot".

1993 Leaf Triple Play Baseball - 164 Mascots

2012 Opening Day Macots Set

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots Set

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-2 The Bird Baltimore Orioles

I originally started drafting this post ages ago. Like a ton of other posts on this blog. Yeah I have more than a few dusty posts in my drafting queue here and on my other two blogs. A very long while back (around 2013 something) from Ebay I got the 2012 Topps Baseball Opening Day Mascots insert set (numbered M1-M25). Got it for $22.99 + $3.50 shipping. Not a steal or a deal but I have seen them for way more.

The Opening Day set is almost identical to the flagship set with the exception of the "Opening Day" logo with the red, white, and blue bunting on the front. For players they usually use the same photo from the flagship set, but not always. The Mascots are not part of the regular flagship set they are the only picture in most cases of the mascot for that year. Some of them make cameo appearances on player cards or their team cards. I recall some years they have had variant picture cards for some of the players interacting with the mascots for special short prints. The backs of the cards are like the flagship backs not much different. The card numbers for the mascot cards for 2012 use the "M - #" format. There are 25 cards in the set. I used to mistakenly call it a "sub-set", but the numbering indicates it is a separate insert set.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-2 The Bird Baltimore Orioles Back

Most of the 30 MLB teams have mascots, the Angels, Dodgers and Yankees are the only teams without an official, or unofficial mascot. Years ago the Yankees had a mascot from 1979-1981 named Dandy he was a strange looking beast. I couldn't decide which picture to post from my searching so I didn't. You'll have to Google, or Bing or Yahoo search to see what the fella looked like. I'm not sure if I'll get around to featuring him at all since I don't think he is officially on a card, even though the blog? Baseball Think Factory dot org has a mock-up 2011 Topps Opening Day card showing him. The Cubs used to be mascotless but in 2014 they announced Clark the Cub as their official mascot, their first official mascot in ages. In 2012 for this set Clark was not yet discovered. The only other team mascot NOT in this set is Lou Seal of the Giants, for some reason he was left out of this set, yet he is in others. In some cases a team has more than one mascot, but only the official mascot or the most popular one is shown in this set. I hate when they leave some of these guys out.

An odd thing about this set is the card for Homer The Brave of the Atlanta Braves is the only card that is landscape (horizontal) oriented. The rest are the standard portrait (normal vertical) orientation.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-8 Homer Atlanta Braves

Front and Back

M-1 Bernie Brewer Brewers
M-2 The Oriole Bird Baltimore Orioles
M-3 Ace The Blue Jays
M-4 Baxter The Bob Cat Diamondbacks
M-5 Fredbird Cardinals
M-6 Raymond Rays
M-7 Mr. Met Mets
M-8 Homer The Brave Braves
M-9 Rangers Captain Rangers

M-10 Pirate Parrot Pirates
M-11 Billy The Marlin Marlins
M-12 Paws Tigers
M-13 Dinger Rockies
M-14 Phillie Phanatic Phillies
M-15 Slugger Royals
M-16 Wally The Green Monster Red Sox
M-17 Gapper Reds
M-18 Slider Indians

M-19 TC Bear Twins
M-20 Swinging Friar Padres
M-21 Southpaw White Sox
M-22 Screech Nationals
M-23 Mariner Moose Mariners
M-24 Stomper Athletics
M-25 Junction Jack Astros

Today (Monday 03 April, 2017) is Home Opening Day for my Homies the Washington Nationals they kick things off at home with the Marlins. Screech will be there cheering on the Nats.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-22 Screech Washington Nationals
Front and Back

Look for my weekly occasional feature on this blog "Mascot Monday".

Mascot Monday: The Return With A Rivalry

Mascot Monday: A Division Rivalry

Yes it has been ages upon ages since I've done one of these. Well over a year. This one is a bit different from the other installments because the Mascot(s) I am covering is(are) not the Official Mascot of the team they are cheering for. This episode is actually about two Unofficial Mascots, and both of them are real people just plain fans dressed up in simple costumes not character heads and costumes. I am talking about a big Rivalry in Football. The NFL NFC East Rivalry between the Cowboys and Indians, Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins to be exact.

Wilford "Crazy Ray" Jones

Crazy Ray with Official Cowboys Mascot "Rowdy"

and Zema "Chief Zee" Williams.

Chief Zee with Redskin player Santana Moss

Both men were ultimate SuperFans of their respective teams. They were similar in that they were recognized by their team's fandom and their team as being a sort of Official Unofficial Mascot for the team. Both men were enthusiastic for their team. They butted heads often (as can be seen in the card I'm going to show), but I'm fairly sure it was a friendly rivalry. I'd like to think that both men respected each other the way their teams respected them. After all they despise the other's team not the other man. Right?

Now the card from 1992 Pro Set Football from the Team "Spirit of the Game" sub-set this is card #363 The Dallas Cowboys card. I think it is the only card either man is officially on. I don't have the Redskins card #374 yet. It doesn't have Chief Zee it has a bunch of fans holding letter and symbol signs that read "Hail To The Redskins" as the card has the lyrics to the Team Fight Song on the back. I will need to get that card and make a Washington Wednesday post about it. I have one of those ready in the queue for this Wednesday about a trade from long ago from my childhood.

1992 Pro Set Football: Spirit of the Game: 363 Dallas Cowboys

While searching for images of the rival mascots, I found this image of an autographed copy of this card on the site Redskins Hog Heaven. Actually I found it first via Google, then the site that had post it.

I don't have this autographed card, but would love to find one that is. I would also love to find an autograph of Chief Zee. I had never met him. I haven't been to a Redskins game. Sadly both men are no longer with us on this side of life. Ray passed in 2007 and Zee passed away earlier this year (2016) nine years later.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here.

Mascot Monday: Cubby T. Bear

Cubby T. Bear 

Daytona Cubs 1993-2014

This installment of Mascot Monday is one of the many cards I have yet to feature that are on the MM Logo. I have a feeling that the next zillion episodes will be these cards and everyone will get bored and tired of them. *Heavy Sigh!*

Last year (2014) when the Chicago Cubs announced they were getting a mascot (Clark) for the first time in over 100 years. I couldn't help but think of this card that I have had for a few years.

2008 Choice Sports Cards NNO Cubby T. Bear Mascot - Team Checklist

(Front and Back)

As of the 2015 Season the Daytona Cubs changed their MLB affiliation to the Reds and were renamed the Daytona Tartugas (Turtles/Tortoises). In October of last year Cubby was physically auctioned off. Bidding started at $200 and the final bid was $2,105.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here.

Mascot Monday: Logo Key

Mascot Monday: Logo Unmasked

Over on my Curly W Cards blog I began a little project that started off by just something I thought would be kind of helpful to some folks who read that blog. It ballooned from that one-shot idea into an even larger project for myself that now spans both blogs. As many readers (The 2 or 3 regular readers) of my blogs may have noticed, or not, I like to make logos for my regular and semi-regular features. The last few times I've made them I decided to do a spread out collection collage of cards that meet the criteria for the feature they are for.

The current logo for this blog is made up of a few of the collages I have made and used for my blogs. I will not attempt to make a key for that one, maybe for the individual collages it is made up. For some of them I might not have some of the cards anymore.

Basically I just spread the cards out covering the entire area of my flatbed scanner and scan the mess. Sometimes I rearrange things or cover up holes if the first attempt wasn't to my satisfaction. Most of the time though it is just a one and done scan. I should have done the logo keys, or key logos when I first did the scanning but I didn't think of doing a post like this back then for any of them. It would have made identifying things much easier. Fortunately most of the time I can recognize what is what.

For these Mascots though it is a good thing I have kept most of my mascot cards lumped together and not sorted into sets yet.

On to the identifying the cards. The team in (parentheses) is the Major League team affiliate at the time of the card. Many of these teams have changed affiliates and several have changed names and moved to different cities completely since the card was printed. It seems that in 2014 there was a major shifting of teams.

Row 1:

1998 Multi-Ad Sports Rascal 28 Harrisburg Senators (Expos)

2007 Topps Opening Day Baseball 189 Homer Atlanta Braves

2007 Multi-Ad Sports 35 Woolie Hagerstown Suns (Nationals)

2007 Falconer Printing 06 Bubba Grape Jamestown Jammers (Pirates)

2010 Grandstand NNO Recycle Man Spokane Indians (Rangers)

2010 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 299 Cosmo Las Vegas 51s (Mets)

2010 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 473 Slider Rochester Honkers
(Northwoods League - A collegiate summer league)

Row 2:

2008 Choice Sports Cards NNO Cubby T. Bear Daytona Cubs (Cubs)

2011 Grandstand NNO Rascal Harrisburg Senators (Nationals)

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball M-3 Ace Toronto Blue Jays

Space with unidentified piece of card showing. This little patch around the center in this logo I haven't figured out which card it comes from. The little green area between the Toronto Blue Jays Mascot Ace and The South Bend Silver Hawks Swoop. I thought I knew which one it was (Bubba Grape) but that card is already shown elsewhere in the photo. It looks like an image I seem to recall of a military Minuteman type character in green with purple another card of Louis the Lumberking maybe? I can somewhat remember what the image looks like he is running/jogging the bases or maybe the warning track. A chunk of my mascot cards I can't locate right now it has to be with them.

Not Dated (After 1998): TCU Swoop South Bend Silver Hawks (Diamondbacks)

2010 Grandstand NNO Keyote Frederick Keys (Orioles) - Autographed in black sharpie

2010 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 174 Rocky Bluewinkle Wilmington Blue Rocks (Royals)

Row 3:

1999 Grandstand NNO Louie The Lumberking Clinton Lumberkings (Reds)

1984 Donruss Baseball 651 The Famous Chicken AKA: San Diego Chicken San Diego Padres

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball  M-22 Screech Washington Nationals

2002 Mulit-Ad Sports 31 Homer Edmonton Trappers (Twins)

2010 Choice Sports Cards 14 Lou E. Loon Great Lakes Loons (Dodgers)

Very small space with a Topps Opening Day Logo, too small and generic to ever figure out which card it came from. Unless...Hmm the MLB logo is at the top of the Opening Day Logo. That helps narrow it down to a year, dang the picture is too blurry to make out the year looks like 2007 and 2010 are the only years I have that have the MLB logo above and not below the OD Logo...

I think I've narrowed it down to most likely being the 2007 Topps Opening Day Baseball The Bird (Orioles).

2009 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 191 Lucky The Beaver Portland Beavers (Padres)

2009 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 123 Uncle Slam Potomac Nationals (Nationals)

This was also a sneaky way to get myself to scan some mascot cards so I can reboot my Mascot Monday feature.