The Most Outrageous Scandals Involving Sports Mascots
From doping to deflating, the sports world has had its fair share of scandal, but it usually involves the world-famous players. No one suspects the clowns who run around the sidelines in fursuits, even though they may be getting up to shenanigans just as serious. Such as…
The Pirate Parrot Was All Coked Up
In 1985, 11 players for the Pittsburgh Pirates were suspended on charges of using cocaine, but the most shocking of those implicated wasn’t a player at all but the Pirate Parrot. The man who had worn the Parrot suit for the previous seven years was found to be the leader of the ring, introducing the players to cocaine, procuring it for them and being high himself during several games. His name was Kevin Koch, pronounced “coke,” so they really should have seen that coming.
Baxter the Bobcat Committed ‘Extreme DUI’
In 2009, the Arizona Diamondbacks fired the man who played Baxter the Bobcat, David Hamilton, after learning he’d been arrested for “extreme DUI,” which sounds like drinking and snowboarding but it’s just being over twice the legal limit for blood alcohol content. He also admitted to having smoked weed, apparently on Baxter duty, as the suit was in his car.
Benny the Bull Fought a Cop
In 2006, Barry Anderson, as Benny the Bull, got a little carried away at the Taste of Chicago festival, riding his mini-motorcycle through the middle of it. When a cop working the festival tried to stop him, he gave chase, then threw a punch at the man. He was arrested for battery and driving on a parkway, but the charges were dropped and Anderson stayed in the suit because, honestly, this is light for the Chicago Bulls.
Slapshot Groped Three Women
The mascot suit is the perfect cover for a predator: fully disguised, fiercely beloved and access to huge crowds. The 1993 mascot for the New Jersey Devils, a puck called Slapshot, found out that none of that was enough to save him, however, when three women accused him of groping them at a game. He resigned, agreeing to counseling to avoid prosecution, and Slapshot was so tainted that the Devils adopted a more wholesome mascot: an actual devil.
The Grump Was a Serial Pedophile
Sometimes, it’s the least celebrated who prey under the cover of obscurity. In 2007, Jay Hastings, who performed as a mascot called the Grump for the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees minor league baseball team, was arrested in a sting after showing up to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old boy for sex. After his arrest, he admitted to repeatedly assaulting a 15-year-old boy and having a computer full of related horrors. The Yankees are now known distressingly as the RailRiders, but they’ve retired the Grump in favor of a mascot called the Champ, because you really can’t put that on the Kids Club.
