Sports Mascots are a Big Part of the Team

JOHN HUNNEMAN
Staff Writer

LAKE ELSINORE ---- For baseball purists, the sweetest places on earth this time of year are the green fields of Arizona and Florida, where the coming season's "Boys of Summer" are spending their days working out the kinks of winter.

However, for an increasingly important member of any professional baseball club ---- especially at the minor league level ---- there is no off-season.

Phillie Phanatic

"The difference between the major and minor leagues is that, in the majors, the clubs have stars they can use to promote their ball club," said Dave Oster, general manager of the Lake Elsinore Storm, a minor league affiliate of the San Diego Padres. "In San Diego they have a (Phil) Nevin or a (Ryan) Klesko. In the minor leagues, for the most part, people don't know who the players are."

Enter, the mascot.

In the Storm's case, that means Thunder, a roly-poly mound of fur who spends game nights bounding up and down the aisles of the Lake Elsinore Diamond entertaining fans, and the off-season helping to promote the club in the community.

"Our mascot is not only entertainment for the fans during the game, but he's a great marketing tool," Oster said.

During the winter months, Thunder appears in parades, store openings, chamber of commerce mixers and at dozens of other events. Before the Storm season gets under way in April, Thunder will make dozens of appearances at area Little League opening day ceremonies, all designed to remind local fans that there is plenty of fun to be found at The Diamond come the time when the bigger boys take the field.

A huggability factor

The Storm begins its 10th season, and Thunder his third, in Lake Elsinore on April 3.

For the first seven seasons, Hamlet ---- a 7-foot-tall sea serpent, who apparently had gotten lost, mistaken Lake Elsinore for the ocean and decided to hang out at the ball yard ---- held down the mascot duties.

"Hamlet was a great concept," said Oster, now in his fourth season as the team's general manager. "But the costume was so big and cumbersome that it was hard for the performers."

Oster called on an old friend ---- Dave Raymond, who has quite a bit of experience in the mascot business ---- to design something new.

"We needed a costume that was easier to get around in," Oster said. "We also wanted a mascot that was a little bit more huggable."

Old Dog, New Tricks

"Sports mascots are not new," said Raymond, owner of the Raymond Entertainment Group.

However, the skills required of the modern-day mascot are much different from the days when, for the most part, all the entertainer did was don a costume and wave at the crowd, he said.

"A good performer helps an organization in a variety of ways," said Raymond, whose company not only designs team mascots ---- their latest for the Cincinnati Reds ---- but also holds Mascot Boot Camp twice a year to teach and train the performers.

"For some people, being a team mascot is a full-time job," Raymond said. A job that can be lucrative. "Some of the top mascots are making six figures or better."

Raymond should know. He was a young intern with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1978 when the organization asked him to try out a new marketing concept.

The Philadelphia mascots at the time were two grinning Revolutionary War characters, Phil and Phyllis, who had not exactly captured the hearts of the often critical Philly fans.

A Phillies executive had traveled with the team to San Diego the previous summer and was impressed with the antics of a certain chicken that entertained in the stands during the Padres game.

The chicken, of course, was the legendary Ted Giannoulas, who at that time worked for a San Diego radio station and showed up in costume at almost every sporting event or concert in the city. Giannoulas still travels the country as the "Famous Chicken," performing in minor and major league stadiums, including The Diamond in Lake Elsinore.

Working with a Brooklyn design studio that had also designed some of the Muppet characters, the Phillies developed a costume for what would become known as the Phillie Phanatic.

Raymond jumped at the opportunity to play the fuzzy, green, motorcycle-riding, hip-gyrating character who quickly won the hearts of the Phillie fans.

In 1993, after 16 years in the costume, Raymond decided his Phanatic days were over.

"Being an entrepreneur was what I wanted to do," he said. "I realized my niche was creating characters."

The Raymond Entertainment Group, headquartered in Delaware, not only designs and builds team mascots, it helps organizations with the marketing and merchandising of those characters, including sales of hats, T-shirts and other souvenirs.

"We're really a one-stop shop," he said.

Raymond's next Mascot Boot Camp begins March 28 on the campus of the University of Delaware. The three-day training session costs $600 and includes workshops titled, "Oh my God where is that odor coming from?" ---- Wearing and Caring for the Costume; "You want me to put that where?" ---- Basic Skills for the Performer; and "That's no lady, that's my wife!" ---- The Art of Working the Crowd.

More than a furry suit

It takes a special kind of person to be a team mascot, said both Oster and Raymond.

"The mascot job is the most difficult position to fill," Oster said. "We can find people to be the ushers and to work in the concession stands, but the mascot job takes someone special."

Chief among the requirements is athletic ability.

"You won't find any chain smokers as mascots," Raymond said. "It takes a real athlete to do the job right. That costume can get awfully heavy."

This season, as in several years past, Ramon "Chico" Anaya, a 1998 graduate of Temescal Canyon High, is to play Thunder, which is a part-time job with the team.

The club also has a backup mascot for nights when Anaya can't make it to the ballpark.

"Dave (Raymond) will be coming out here at the beginning of the season to work with both of them," Oster said.

Anaya began his Storm career in 1997, working in the children's arcade just past the third-base grandstand. One night that season he was asked to don the Hamlet costume as a last-minute replacement.

He's held the mascot job since.

"A lot of it is being in the right place at the right time," Raymond said. "That's how I got my start in Philadelphia."

Anaya attended Raymond's camp several years ago, before Thunder's debut. On opening day of Thunder's first season, it was Raymond inside the costume at The Diamond, showing his student the ropes.

"This type of entertainment has become a part of the game," Raymond said. "When it's done right, it can be very positive."

Contact John Hunneman at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2603, or hunneman@californian.com.

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