For me growing up in Toledo, Ohio the home of the Toledo Mud Hens, one of the things you think of is our mascot, "Muddy" and as an afterthought a later addition, "Muddona". The topic came up of New York Yankees tickets and I gave away my lack of knowledge when it came to the Yankees, I wondered what mascot they have. Evidently, mascots aren't popular in New York, of the nine professional sports teams in the New York market, five do not have mascots: the Yankees, Jets, Giants, Knicks and Rangers.
I read that the previous New York Yankee's Mascot, "Dandy" was beaten up by fans, but I was unable to confirm that as a source, and it's funny in reading this blurb that it appears some of the Yankee Management doesn't even want to acknowledge they had a mascot:
As Joseph M. Perello, vice president for business development for the Yankees, put it: ''Fans come to see the Yankees win. And that's entertainment.''
Mr. Perello said that as far as he knew, the Yankees has never had a mascot. Lonn Trost, the Yankees' general counsel, said there are official Yankee hamburgers, hot dogs and popcorn. But a mascot? No, he didn't think the team ever had one.
From 1982 to 1985, though, the Yankees had Dandy, a pinstriped character designed by Ms. Erickson.
Dandy was a failure. Mr. Harrison said that was because he wasn't allowed out of the nosebleed area in the stands. Nor did he do any outside appearances. According to Mr. Harrison, George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' principal owner, was less than enthusiastic about the mascot after Lou Pinella, the Yankee outfielder, got so angry at the San Diego Chicken's clowning that he threw his glove at the bird (not a Harrison/ Erickson creation). Mr. Steinbrenner, through his spokesman Howard Rubenstein, said he had no recollection of the pinstriped mascot.
Strangely enough, there are not many pictures out there of "Dandy", I've only been able to find one...Did Dandy exist or his he a figment of the imagination? I'll leave that to the hard core New York Yankee fans to debate...
2 comments:
The "Dandy" is scary looking. I can understand why the Yankees would want to deny it ever existed.
I'm a Yankee fan since the 70s and yes, Dandy existed. They had a contest through Burger King to name him, and the rumor I heard was that the most popular name was "Asshole," which I think would've been better.
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