www.indystar.com: The massive, brightly colored mascots seem perfectly out of place, plopped amid an oil refinery on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. The air is filled with the puffing of gray steam. The buildings around are factory-dingy.
The mascots are vibrant. Funny. Quirky. Weird. As mascots are.
Slider of the Cleveland Indians is lying on the cement, looking as if he's just taken a tumble. The Chicago White Sox's Southpaw is ready to swing, a bat propped on his shoulder. Benny the Bull stands spinning a basketball on a fingertip.
2 comments:
I am not sure what this has to do with theater other than being an alternate career path for performance majors, but I am glad it was posted. My dad is a football fanatic. I grew up with bobble heads of all sorts. One of my earliest memories was sticking my hand down Phillie Phanatic's snout. One of our dogs was named after Albert Pujos of the St. Louis Cardinals. My dad went to Arizona State and I can't count the number of Sparky plushies and other memorabilia we currently own and have owned in the past. Next time we take a trip to Chicago, we will certainly stop here. That said, I hope the curators of this museum of sorts are careful about dealing with some of the more problematic mascots. I hope attractions like this will encourage teams to maybe replace some of those mascots with something more silly and kid friendly than an offensive caricature of people who actually exist. I do not have a ton of faith that that is what will happen, but I can hope. Either way, I can't wait to go see Sparky!
Whiting the only town that drops a giant light up pierogi on New Years Eve. Only a town that whacky is deserving of a such a wonderful place. I consider being a mascot a kind of modern form of the art of clowning, because that is the kind of artform it is, it is an artform. Besides that this place is just nice for the kid in all of us. There are not enough places around that let people play and be children for a reasonable fee, because adults have to adult to often, and they need to play without being under the influence. As a Chicagoan mascots are just kind of there, Staley for the Bears and Tommy Hawk for the Blacks. I remember when they introduced South Paw for the White Sox’s because I thought he was incredibly creative and looked like a giant loveable Muppet. On the other hand that stupid Cubs mascot Clark the bear was roundly reviled by fans when introduced, and fans hold the characters much more dear than any player on a team.
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