Sports Editor Justin Kline is a sucker for a good sports mascot.
For several years, the staff at the Plant City Times & Observer often talked about getting an “office mascot.” We love when people come to visit us, or when we go teach others about our day-to-day work, but have long felt that adding a mascot would spice things up a bit.
We didn’t end up getting any of the animals we discussed — turtles, guinea pigs, fish, any small animals — but, thanks to In the Field Magazine Managing Editor Sarah Holt, ended up with one anyway. Karah, Plant City’s sweetest pit bull, keeps our office days interesting and even gets her own visitors from time to time. I don’t think we could have asked for a better mascot.
I’m hesitant to pick my favorite local sports mascot, though. Durant’s cougar is the one I most often see, but Strawberry Crest’s horse gets really hyped for football. The Plant City Raider looks like if Zorro were a Miami Dolphins fan. In the interest of staying fair to everyone, I’ll say that I enjoy seeing them all around.
But there are college and professional mascots out there that I really like, and I think they could get just about anybody in higher spirits on sight.
For my money, the best mascot in sports belongs to the Montgomery Biscuits. They have two, but I don’t want anyone to think I’m praising Big Mo, their weird elephant-anteater thing. Monty the Biscuit is the best thing ever. You can’t look at Monty and not smile. When I owned a PlayStation 3 with the Show games, I always had to play on or create a Biscuits team because the brand was that strong.
I never cared much for the Buffalo Sabres’ mascot, Sabretooth, because it was weird for a sabretooth tiger to represent a city where everything else is a buffalo. The Nashville Predators have always used a sabretooth tiger in their branding, too. What gives?
One hockey team that’s done well in the mascot department is the Los Angeles Kings. Bailey the Lion is not only a quality mascot in real life, but also great on social media — no other mascot can say it has a long-running feud with former WWE star CM Punk, which is always good for a laugh.
There are plenty of great college mascots to choose from, human or otherwise. Most of the human mascots are really creepy — Pistol Pete, I’m looking at you — but the rest can be pretty great. I can support any program that employs a dog for the job, but my favorite is Dubs the Husky, from the University of Washington. Until a team pulls a leaf from the Trenton Thunder’s book and gets a golden retriever, Dubs is my favorite breed in the game.
None of those mascots are as cool as our office dog, but they sure are something.
