Happy Birthday, Phanatic!
Published by Becky S May 28th, 2004 in sports, philadelphia
Don’t forget to wish the Phillie Phanatic a happy belated birthday. Last Sunday, some of the Phanatic’s mascot friends threw him a surprise party, which was a great opportunity to catch up with Phoebe, the Phanatic’s mom. Isn’t she stylin’ in those granny boots and stirrups?
Not to sound grumpy, but the party lacked the pizzaz of previous years*. Where the hell were the ZOOperstars? This troupe of charming, inflatable animal characters used to be the main event at the Phanatic’s birthday celebration. Sadly, they were absent this year. Things just weren’t the same without seeing Clammy Sosa eat a ballplayer or marveling at Shark McGwire’s vibrating fin. Not to mention Ken Giraffy, Jr., Cow Ripken, and all of the others.
Call John Street and Larry Bowa. It’s all about grassroots, people–bring back the ZOOperstars!
*I missed last year’s party. The Phanatic wouldn’t speak to me for weeks.
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Embarassing question Becky … but what kind of freakin animal is this? (Don’t be offended at this question as the internet cable gets a bit dodgy in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean and it is sometimes hard to make out the details of images). Also note that this question comes from someone who supports a football (AFL) team that has a mosquito as a mascot. I’m not sure why that might matter.
watched the braves/ philly game on TV today. didn’t see you in the crowd anywhere.
D.
Whitebait–it’s not an embarassing question at all. You’re not the first person to wonder, which is why I posted this explanation a few weeks ago. This freakin animal is Phoebe, mother of the Phillie Phanatic. They hail from the Galapagos Islands.
Er, I’m not football literate. Do you mean “football” as in large men running up and down the field and jumping on top of one another or “football” as in people running up and down the field and kicking a ball? Either way, a blood-sucking, disease-spreading insect seems like an odd mascot choice.
Dana,
Thanks for checking. Too bad I wasn’t there–it was a great day for baseball!
Thanks Becky: I really appreciate the posting of the link to the previous disussion about the Phillie Phanatic. The Phillie Phanatic’s venerable history is a good read. However, it seems slightly odd that a creature from the Galapagos Islands chooses to use an all-terrain vehicle in a perfectly flat American baseball stadium, but not–if my David Attenborough-Life-on-Earth memory is correct–on the volcanically active, bumpy and rubble-strewn islands it comes from.
You can find an image of the mosquito mascot, ‘Skeeta’, at
http://www.characterland.com.au/ie/skeeta.htm
The kind of football that Skeeta attends is a strangely distinct code that only gets played in Australia. It involves both the kicking and the jumping as well as(and best of all) a kind of spectacular aerial ping pong in which grown men leap on other chaps’ backs and shoulders to catch the ball.
I must post some images on my blog soon.
Yes, I think some pictures of this football are in order–I’m having a hard time envisioning it.
The Phanatic is not as trim as your Skeeta, so that could be one reason for the all-terrain vehicle. Perhaps on the Galapagos Islands, the Phanatic was in good shape and didn’t require a mechanical aid to get around. Then he arrived in Philadelphia, ate a few too many cheesesteaks and too much scrapple, and suddenly found himself getting easily winded.
Personally, I thought the ZOOperstars were lame. Big deal, they can bounce on their heads. They were only there for the PR, not the Phanatic’s b-day. I say keep it to just his other mascot friends not these “posers.”
Dear Clair,
We think you are a mean, mean man. You are obviously jealous of our clever names and head-bouncing abilities. We love the Phanatic and would never consider PR to be more important than his birthday.