When mascots go bad..

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These days, any team worth its salt has a mascot – usually a bloke attired in a ridiculous animal costume. But these creatures are not as cute, cuddly and well behaved as they should be. Howard Swains reports on mascot rage...

In an early episode of The Simpsons, a beer-fuelled Homer gives an unlikely star-turn at a Springfield Isotopes baseball game and is adopted as the team’s mascot. High on “the intoxication of being a public spectacle”, Dancin’ Homer considers abandoning his job at the nuclear power plant to take up the mascot business full-time. “We all have a calling,” reasons his wife Marge. “And yours might be to dance on dugouts.”
Although not everyone will have the same calling as Homer Simpson, these days it is a rare dugout or touchline that goes un-danced upon by an outsized wildlife caricature. Mascots have become as much a part of major sporting events on both sides of the Atlantic as overpriced merchandise and junk food.

But it’s not necessarily all fun. Supporters at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate were treated to a surprising half-time show in November 1998 when Wolfie, the mascot of visiting Wolverhampton Wanderers, was seen to be goading three little piggies, dressed in dungarees. One of the pigs landed a firm punch to the side of Wolfie’s padded head. When the wolf returned with a left hook, the City Cat, the bespectacled mascot of the home team, leapt to the pigs’ defence. The first instance of mascot-rage was recorded with a five-animal brawl that cost the feline his job.

It was not an isolated incident. In February 2001, Cyril the Swan of Swansea City, the undisputed enfant terrible of the furry football farmyard, began an unprecedented reign of mascot terror by ripping the head off of Millwall’s Zampa the Lion and drop-kicking it into the crowd.

A litany of further offences was added to the charge sheet of the nine-foot bird before he was hauled, in full swan regalia, before a Welsh FA disciplinary committee. Cyril had grabbed a referee, pushed a director of Norwich City, thrown a pork pie at West Ham United fans and led a one-bird pitch invasion during an FA Cup victory. In spite of a “Cyril is Innocent” campaign by Swansea supporters, he was banned from the touchline and fined £1,000.

The 2001 mascot Grand National, a race designed to channel the steam emanating from the within the polyester costumes in a more spectator-friendly direction, also ended in injury and shame. Wendy the Wolf left via a stretcher, Harry the Hornet cracked two ribs, and police were left searching for a mysterious long-necked figure after a woman claimed she had been pushed over, damaging her wrist. “I can confirm Cyril the Swan is the main suspect,” a police officer said at the time.

But the most notorious bust-up came at Milwaukee’s Miller Park during a race between a bratwurst, a hot dog and Italian and Polish sausages. Randall Simon of the Pittsburgh Pirates took a gentle swing with his baseball bat at the eight-foot Italian salami. After the sausage took a tumble, albeit unhurt, Simon was led from the ballpark in handcuffs to face a charge of misdemeanour battery.

Exercise caution, then, the next time you are tempted either to pet or to pillory these most curious of hybrids stalking the stadia of the beautiful game. If the mascots don’t bite back, the law might.

(Source: http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/art...252544,00.html )