Follow the rally squirrel
Posted by Andy on October 7, 2011
The squirrel seen dashing around Busch Stadium has its own Twitter account right here.
Posted by Andy on October 7, 2011
The squirrel seen dashing around Busch Stadium has its own Twitter account right here.
October 7th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
In case anyone thought this was new, here is the original "Rally Squirrel" game:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=3004987
For the record, the Cardinals have yet to stage a rally after any appearance of the rodent (though they do have a 2-1 record in his games now). At least the Rally Monkey earned his nickname....
October 7th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
@1 I know a squirrel is technically a rodent, but it is high on the rodent scale, and not a varmint.
October 7th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
I'd love to see the reaction at a New Orleans Zephyrs game if a nutria ran across the field....
October 7th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Rally Capybara ftw
October 7th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
I'd love to see the reaction at a Montreal Expos game if a sasquatch ran across the field...
October 7th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sievero01.shtml
October 7th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Sasquatch only visited outdoor ballparks.
October 7th, 2011 at 5:37 pm
This guy may have played a role in many rallies without anyone knowing it:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/molefe01.shtml
October 7th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
The old Yankee Stadium squirrel was better: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2007/09/06/2007-09-06_squirrel_in_outfield_seems_to_be_good_om.html
October 7th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Reminds me of the time I was in Valencia, Venezuela for a Magallanes game when a tapir ran out onto the field.
October 7th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Okay, I think the tapir wins.
October 7th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Only if somebody has just hit a tapir measure home run.
October 7th, 2011 at 8:14 pm
If you've ever had one take up residence in the soffit outside your bedroom you'd quickly come to the realization squirrels ain't nothin' but rats with fuzzy tails...
October 7th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Timmy,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv87T1CQF8E
October 7th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Talking about rodents...it seemed like yesterday...It was May 9, 1926 (I was a young man)--Richard Byrd, Floyd Bennett & myself made the first airplane trip over the North Pole. And, by god, you could see those poor lemmings jump into the icy water to their demise. The rally squirrel is not a "real" rodent, they are just attention-seeking narcissists. The lemming, on the other hand, now that's a rodent--willing to sacrifice his life for...hmmmm...ok, they're just plain stupid!
October 7th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
On another totally unrelated note, Andy...you & I could be long-lost brothers. Your avatar looks exactly like me, minus the facial hair. My mom has said in the past that the doctors initially thought she was having twins, but alas, it was just me. Maybe, you are my twin. But, who is the evil twin? Just like one of "The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror" episodes, maybe I am the evil Bart & you are the good one. Although everyone who has a goatee has to be evil, right?? Hmmmm...
October 7th, 2011 at 10:56 pm
@5 and @7-
You guys can keep the sasquatch, Down here in FLA we have
the skunk ape. True or not it is fun to say.
Since the Yankees lost I need a diversion anyway.
This from the Wikkipedia...
The Skunk Ape is a hominid cryptid said to inhabit the Southern United States,[1] from places such as North Carolina and Arkansas, although reports from Florida are most common. It is named for its appearance and for the unpleasant odor that is said to accompany it. According to the United States National Park Service, the skunk ape exists only as a local myth.[2] Reports of the Skunk ape were particularly common in the 1960s and 1970s. In the fall of 1974, numerous sightings were reported in suburban neighborhoods of Dade County, Florida, of a large, foul-smelling, hairy, ape-like creature, which ran upright on two legs
October 7th, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Speaking of rallies, check this hilarious write-up on the '88 Topps-Big card of every sabermetrician's least favorite WS clucth hitter:
http://baseballcardblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/white-lies.html
Best line ever: "That Joe Carter’s favorite player wasn’t Jackie Robinson probably saved Topps several lawsuits and millions of dollars."
Check it out!
October 7th, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Phillies going home!
October 7th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
HAPPY FLIGHT!
October 7th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Texas won game four by one run.
The other 3 winners all won their decisive games by one run.
A reminder that on our way to the Phillies V. Yankees in the WS,
scheduled games were played.
Halladay V. Carpenter was the best since Smoltz V. Morris.
October 7th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
@14 I agree with Carl, the gopher is on the lowest rung of the rodent family and also a varmint. As far as I know the University of Minnesota is the only school with a rodent mascot. I think the badger is in the weasel family.
October 7th, 2011 at 11:55 pm
I guess the beaver is a rodent also and there are lots of teams called the beavers.
October 8th, 2011 at 12:16 am
To build on an earlier post...
- All three playoff teams from the Eastern divisions are out. Add in the fact that both divisions each had another stronger contender for the playoffs miss out and we have quite a disappointing end of the season for these two divisions.
- The two Central divisions, two of the more maligned divisions recently, have three of the remaining four playoff teams.
- Detroit is the farthest east of the remaining playoff cities. Texas (Arlington) is the farthest west. I'm not sure the exact distance, but a quick glance at the map puts all four of these teams closer to each other than to either close; Texas and Detroit seem less than 1000 miles apart looking only at the East-West axis and both teams are much farther than that from either the East or West coast.
- Detroit plays in the Eastern time zone. The remaining three teams play in the Central time zone.
October 8th, 2011 at 12:48 am
Around here, the closest baseball team is over in Richmond, just accross the state line in Indiana. Their nickname? River Rats.
October 8th, 2011 at 12:48 am
#18
That blogger needs to lighten up.
October 8th, 2011 at 1:59 am
Todd-
What is wrong with that blogger's stance? You really think we should just chuckle at the fact that a major baseball card manufacturer couldn't even bother or didn't care enough to get the race of the players accurate in their comics?
It is convenient to be in a position to tell people how they ought to feel...
October 8th, 2011 at 2:49 am
#24.
Thanks for the Geography lesson BSK.
OH MY GOD.
All these years...I thought Milwaukee was in Oregon, Dallas was somewhere between Fargo and Winnipeg, and St Louis played in the NL South.
derp.
October 8th, 2011 at 3:49 am
#28, that's uncalled for. I hadn't thought about the geography of the final four teams and found BSK's comment really interesting. Your comment, however, adds nothing and isn't even an appropriate criticism.
Regarding Topps Big, the issue of the race on cartoons is the sole reason why I did not collect that set. It's not even that I was offended by it--I just found it creepy and weird.
October 8th, 2011 at 3:51 am
Maybe the cartoon artist was not a baseball fan and didn't know Joe Carter was black. Joe Carter is a white sounding name BSK, maybe the cartoon artist was a member of the Ku Klux Klan or he was a Detroit Tigers fan and he thought that by messing with Joe's mind he could help the Tigers when they played Cleveland. I looked at the cartoon and I think the guy looks Mexican, but with a name like Joe Carter he should have known he was not latin.
October 8th, 2011 at 3:55 am
The more I look at that cartoon, the more I think he looks like Moises Alou! Really I think it looks like Alou.
October 8th, 2011 at 4:05 am
@24 a quick glance at the map puts all four of these teams closer to each other than to either close... What?
October 8th, 2011 at 4:07 am
He meant "coast".
October 8th, 2011 at 7:19 am
JB-
There was an earlier post about the AL East going out with a whimper. I was building on that idea, looking at the general assumptions made about the various divisions as well as the uniqueness of the final participants being located in the "flyover states". Don't like it? Don't read it.
Timmy P-
Even if it was accidental, it's problematic. If a company dedicated to the representation and recording of baseball players can't get basic facts such as their race/ethnicity right, how much legitimacy can we put into whatever other information they put out? Furthermore, for many people, people of color in particular, race is a fundamental part of their identity. Ignoring this is an insult and is just as egregious an error as getting their gender or name wrong. If this was an isolated incident, and just Carter's card was in error, you could chalk it up to chance. But the fact that EVERY card featured white or light skinned cartoons? Clearly, they just didn't give a crap about getting it right. Which is problematic.
October 8th, 2011 at 9:29 am
BSK, you and your new buddy should both lighten up. It's a friggin' baseball card.
October 8th, 2011 at 9:38 am
This surely must have been made to keep Matt Holliday's Moth company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/hollidaysmoth
October 8th, 2011 at 9:45 am
Todd-
I'll remember that when the English-speaking world explodes at the suggestion that Idris Elba be the new Bond.
How arrogant of you to tell others how they should feel. I guess you get to decide for everyone else what is offensive and what is not. Privilege is fun, ain't it?
October 8th, 2011 at 10:46 am
BSK, you'll have to excuse Todd. The tightness of his pointy white hat is obviously impairing his brain function.
Iris Elba as Bond wor be awesome.
October 8th, 2011 at 11:13 am
BSK you have to be the biggest baby, I would love to know what kind of work you're in! I can't imagine you working in any kind of competitive occupation that required a certain minimum quota to keep your job.
October 8th, 2011 at 11:19 am
Timmy-
That doesn't even make sense. What job requires a "quota" from the individual to keep it? Do you mean an intelligence quota? A finger quota? Perhaps it is your job we should worry about.
I apologize if my understanding that identity, including racial identity, is something that ought to be respected is confusing to you. I bet you are the kind of guy who gets upset if people mistake which town you live in. Yet you have the gall to tell people of color that they should just "get over" having a fundamental aspect of their identity denied or ignored. Since being bothered by this is babyish, surely you wouldn't mind if I referred to you using female pronouns, right? I mean, I'm not saying you are a woman or that being called a woman is insulting. I'm just ignoring key aspects of your identity because, well, what does it matter anyway!
October 8th, 2011 at 11:21 am
Andy-
Idris Elba would be an incredible Bond. I've actually heard whispers of this, but I don't know whether it is people thinking how cool it'd be or if there is actually some merit to it.
October 8th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
BSK, Timmy is wacky but not stupid. I suspect his comment at 39 was facetious. There is no defense of the Topps Big cartoons, so I wouldn't bother arguing against it any further.
October 8th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
That may be the case but his "wackiness" has ventured into the realm of outright ignorance and bigotry more than once. I'm not apt to think such nonsense is cute. Hiding behind wackiness doesn't excuse it.
October 8th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
BSK, I think he is just annoyed by your blinding political correctness and need to start a sentence with "I'm not apt to think..."
October 8th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
@28, there actually is a Milwaukie in Oregon though. Pretty random if you just pulled Oregon out of thin air to make your point!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukie,_Oregon
October 8th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Topper-
Please inform me of A) where I demonstrated "blinding political correctness" and B) if I am guilty of this, how it is worse than blinding bigotry?
October 8th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
A) Basically your entire second paragraph in post 40. Please, lets keep this about baseball instead of a Jesse Jackson speech writing clinic.
B) Maybe if you stopped assuming everyone is a racist you would relax a little bit and realize people are joking around here instead of being bigots.
October 8th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
I'm sorry if I don't find racist jokes funny. If that makes me "blindly PC", I'll wear that label with pride.
October 8th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
@40 What job requires a "quota" from the individual to keep it? Are you kidding me? You've never heard of someone having to maintain a certain level of performance to keep their job? Most salesmen are required to sell or walk. I would say your biggest problem BSK is that you demand respect before you've accomplished anything. It's a problem that plagues much of the country right now regardless of age or race. Those Topps baseball cards are not racist, they're cartoons! They use the same Mexican looking guy in all the cartoons. Hank Aaron saw real racism, he heard it from the stands. I heard stories about him and others eating peanut butter out of jars on the team bus because they couldn't go into certain resturants. That's real racism, not some stupid cartoon that looks like a Moises Alou. Maybe Topps wanted to save money on ink, using color on a million baseball cards would probably raise the cost of printing!
October 9th, 2011 at 2:32 am
@ 40....you have a strong point there and I agree one hundred %
October 9th, 2011 at 2:33 am
@ 49...I concur as well,You have a valid point as well
October 9th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Before somebody calls me a liar, this is from Hank Aaron's autobiography, I Had A Hammer We all got $2 a day for money, and he and I would buy bread and sandwich meat or peanut butter..... We almost never stopped in a restaurant because it was hard to find one that served us. We just picked up some groceries when we saw a store and ate on the highway. Hank Aaron played for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League when he was 17.