That day arrived yesterday.
Team mascots have cool jobs, sort of
Alex Gyr is the reporter this week.
SACRAMENTO -- Minor League players move up and down over the years, but mascots are forever. Maybe not forever, but mascots are as important to the Minor League Baseball experience as having a speedy leadoff hitter.
For this week's installment of "Working the Minors," I suited up as Dinger, the mascot for the Sacramento River Cats to see what it was like inside the costume.
After we made our plans, the conversation quickly turned to the perils of being a mascot. The Dinger costume has a body suit, oversized shoes, a full head and furry gloves. Needless to say it gets hot in there -- really, really hot.
Ricky showed me an article written by another fearless journalist who had attempted to be Dinger for a day. She lasted mere minutes before succumbing to severe headaches and vomiting. This was about the time I started to get a little worried.
So, you want to be a mascot, eh, kids?
Ricky attempted to reassure me by saying he had only been taken to the hospital once, and that was on a really hot day when he wasn't feeling well before donning the costume. Despite his best efforts, I was still highly concerned.
This was going to be harder than I thought.Well, if he's only been taken to the hospital one time, sign me up for that!
I stuck around through first pitch, but I was spent. I could feel my shirt sticking to my skin under the costume, and my hair was starting to mat to my forehead. I needed a break and some water, quick. I walked over to James and signaled that I needed to get back to the closet. We hustled back down under the seats, but the tunnel seemed to have gotten a lot longer since the beginning of the day.
The second the door was closed I took the head off as quickly as I could. My hands were shaking, which made unbuttoning the jersey particularly difficult. I finally gave myself some air and slumped into a chair. I had been drinking water almost non-stop for the last two days, but after a half hour it felt like every ounce of water that was once in my body was now in sweat form and no longer of any use to me. I drank four entire bottles of water in the next 10 minutes as the world slowly began to come back into focus. I knew that I was going to need a very long rest before I'd be ready to re-emerge.
After about 20 minutes of resting, I decided to pull the plug. I was nowhere close to recovered and slightly afraid of what might happen if I tried to go back out.
Recalling the horror stories I'd heard the day before, I decided to pass Dinger duties back to Ricky for the rest of the game. After one half-hour with the crowd, my mascot career was over.
But, it was the happiest thirty minutes of my life, is how I would have ended this article. But that is just backseat writing.
Up next, the reporters at Working the Minors attempt to be an official scorer at a minor league game. Thrill as pitching coaches glare to the press box as they disagree with a hit call. Enjoy as managers call the press box during a game and use the phrase, "Tell the official scorer I want to see him after the game." Or maybe not.
It's been groundskeeper, peanut vendor, scoreboard operator, and mascot. Parking lot attendant, ticket taker, or usher may be next.
But to be somewhat serious for a moment, Rod Luck was a sportscaster in Milwaukee on Channel 12 when I was much younger. He did a special before a couple of Brewer seasons that were called, Rod Luck, Rookie Pitcher and Rod Luck, Rookie Umpire. I remember them being pretty good and interesting.
These articles at MILB.com have been informative and any time that you can work the word "vomitting" into a story without getting it edited out, makes it them well worth the read.
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