The Mascot Boom
How two Canadian baseball mascots changed (the world)
Good morning!
On June 14, 2020, Youppi!, the famous Montreal sports mascot, was officially inducted into the International Mascots Hall of Fame. I did not know this was happening until I wrote last week’s story and had it set to go. I’ll try and reach for some grander connection here about changing my plans for when I would write about certain stories. Players move around from city to city; rules change from time to time, though, of course, there’s often a lot of pushback here.
And, yeah, mascots change, too. The whole idea, frankly, is about change: Donning a new persona for a few hours, before slipping the costume off and re-entering the world.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. Share it with someone. I’ll remind you at the end, but there’s a button here too. I wrote, like, 1200 words about mascots, everyone. It’s a history of Youppi! and his corresponding Toronto friend.
We pick up where we left off last week, sort of. It’s still 1979.
1979, Montreal:
The Montreal Expos first wanted a mascot in 1979, and they enlisted the team of Bonnie Erickson and Wayde Harrison. Erickson and Harrison were known well for their work with Jim Henson and the Muppets; Erickson had created Statler and Waldorf, the two codgy men I consider some of my favourite Muppets. Anyway, the duo, fresh off their successful creation of the goofy, green Phillie Phanatic, dove right into the project. They came out with whatever Youppi is.
The two churned out mascots in the eighties. A Harrison/Erickson costume took twelve weeks to make, including design, meetings, and, most importantly, finding the right fit for the performer.
While they shuffled through potential fits, the right Youppi! came upon the Expos by accident. Jean-Claude Tremblay, originally tasked to clean the costume, ended up inhabiting the character to keep track of his young son when he would visit the ballpark. Tremblay quickly took to the character, stealing bases on top of the dugout when outfielder Tim Raines did or learning when to do the wave—I still say never at a ballgame, by the way, when it comes to the wave.
“You don’t do the wave in the first inning. People aren’t drunk enough,” he says to Maclean’s in 2015. “Not drunk on alcohol, drunk on baseball.”
While the Montreal Expos originally leased Youppi! and all that came with him, they would quickly become the first buyer of a Harrison/Erickson mascot, owning copyrights and all that good stuff.
1979, Toronto:
“I saw the San Diego Chicken and he was like a team mascot, and then I saw Youppi, the Montreal Expo mascot,“ 20-year-old Kevin Shanahan said. “A friend of mine suggested I contact the Blue Jays to see if they were interested.”
Having honed his craft at Ontario Place walking around in a moose costume, Shanahan built the new BJ Birdy by himself for a cost of $250 to $300—which, factoring for inflation, is roughly $850 to $1000 today.
He quickly became a hit.
1989, Montreal:
Ten years into Youppi’s tenure as beloved Expos mascot, he got tossed.
Bob Davidson walked over, pointed toward the orange mascot, pointed away from the field, and flicked his wrist.
“The third-base umpire thought [Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda] was yelling at me, so he said ‘Youppi!, get out of the game,’” Claude Hubert told Télé-Québec’s Guylaine Tremblay in a 2017 interview. (I used David Rudin’s 2019 Montreal Gazette article for this translation from French.)
Hubert played the role of Youppi in this contest, a 22-inning affair that ended a loss for the Montreal side. Only one run was scored in this one. That’s right. 22 innings, 1-0 Dodgers.
One minute, Youppi was in the game. The next, he was gone. Boom, just like that.
One minute, the Expos and Dodgers are tied. 22 innings later, a run scratches across the board. The whole game has changed. Boom, just like that.
1992, Toronto:
Quick detour. Bob Davidson, that same umpire who tossed Youppi! three years ago, misses the call that Kelly Gruber completed a triple play. Small world. Sorry, Bob. I guess both Montreal and Toronto have a bone to pick with you.
1993, Toronto:
Another quick detour, I guess, because, well, a mascot gets in trouble again! This time, BJ Birdy takes the ejection honours.
Caught up in a close call, BJ Birdy urges the fans to rule a batted ball a hit as umpire Jim McKean prepares to do the same thing. Not happy with the bluebird for showing him up, and doing his job for him, McKean throws Birdy—Shanahan, that is—out of the game.
1999, Toronto:
At the end of the 1999 season, Shanahan, half of his life now spent as the Blue Jays’ sole mascot, is not offered the chance to return. I guess, begrudgingly, I could say that now he was actually tossed or, I don’t know, ejected from the mascot game.
But, he owns the BJ Birdy mascot and offers to figure out a deal to sell the rights. He is instead replaced by two new birds. Boom, that’s it. 20 years of mascotting—is that a word?—becomes a legal issue, a brief dispute—in come the lawyers and then it becomes nothing. While the relationship had begun to dissolve (the Blue Jays didn’t really use BJ for marketing appearances, for instance), this marks a swift end to a lengthy mascot career for Shanahan.
The ballclub informs Shanahan that they would accept a donation of the costume if he found it too tough to handle. He declines. It’s done. Over. By December 31st, the new mascots are introduced. Boom, just like that.
2005, Montreal:
At the end of the 2004 Major League baseball season, the Montreal Expos no longer existed, leaving Olympic Stadium’s baseball field empty for now and a big, orange mascot without a home. It took months of negotiations and a six-figure monetary exchange, but the city figured it out.
“We always wondered what Youppi! would look like in a Habs sweater,” Ray Lalonde, the Canadiens’ marketing manager at the time, said.
His first game in a Montreal Canadiens uniform, after 25 seasons in Expos colours, would come on October 18, 2005 against the other rival Boston Bruins. Youppi! was the first mascot to transfer between Big 4 professional sports leagues.
Glen Street, whose company Street Characters has made mascots like the Calgary Flames’ Harvey, spoke about the difference between Youppi’s old and new sports.
“Baseball tends to be a leisurely stroll through the stands,'' Street told TSN. ''[Mascots] can go down into the dugout, spend time there and work out on the field. NHL mascots seem to be best at interacting with the crowd because they don't get the opportunity to be down on the field or the playing surface. Hockey is the only sport where the mascot is forced to be in the crowd for the entire event, except for the intermissions.''
It was a new challenge for Youppi, to be sure. When the Canadiens picked up Youppi!, the weight of two franchises could be seen as thrust on the shoulders of the mascot. It’s the memory of one dead team; it’s the history of a then-96-year-old franchise who had never put a mascot in the stands prior.
It’s a new challenge, and a big change. Jean-Claude Tremblay returns to equip the mascot for his new life on the ice, modifying the costume as needed. The Expos never won a World Series, but Tremblay sees how exciting the future for Youppi’s performer could be.
“When a kid opens his arms and kisses you on the nose, this is something special,” he says. “Can you imagine if the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup—and you’re Youppi!?”
Boom. Imagine if it happened, just like that.
That’s it for this week. Here are the sources for this week, along with some potential further reading.
Sources:
It’s linked up there or it’s down here:
Jean-Claude Tremblay interview
Kevin Shanahan—April 13, 1979, The Globe and Mail by Paul Patton
This article by Mike Rubin about Harrison/Erickson mascots in Victory Journal is legitimately one of the best things I’ve read in quite some time.
Images:
BJ Birdy photo from BlueJayHunter.com
BJ Birdy and Youppi, pictured with sports columnist Milt Donnell: Colin McConnell, Toronto Star, 1988
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Gabe