Monday Mascots #6: Mr. Redlegs

In honor of Opening Day, I thought I’d post about the best opening tradition in baseball.  The Reds used to always be the first game in town, until sometime in the late 90’s.  I live in Chicago now, so going to Cincinnati’s Opening Day isn’t very realistic any more.  Plus, the Reds aren’t going to be very good this year, so I might as well do some kind of Reds post now.

I posted about Mr. Red last year after going to the All-Star game.  The Reds have 4 mascots, so even after this post, I’ll only be halfway done with all those mascots after this post!

Mascot/Team:   Mr. Redlegs (Cincinnati Reds, 2007-current)

Background:   The Reds first came up with a mascot known as Mr. Red in 1953 as part of the Crosley Field All-star game logo.  The character with a baseball head and a handlebar mustache and a bat.  The same character then appeared on either a primary or secondary logo for the team from 1954 through 1967.

However, this mustachioed gentleman isn’t the guy really known as Mr. Red – that was the clean-shaven mascot that appeared on the “Running Man” logo that started in 1968, became the primary logo in 1972, and held that distinction for 20 years.  Running Man still functioned as an alternate logo until 2007.

Mr. Red aka Running Man retired in 2007 to make way for the return of Mr. Redlegs (and female mascot Rosie Red).  These days you can find Mr. Redlegs at every Reds game, adorned in an old school Reds uniform with the striped cap that was replicated in last year’s all-star game.

Outside of baseball:   Like any good mascot, Mr. Redlegs hates the offseason and losing seasons.  Unfortunately, there’s no end in sight for the latter.  He also doesn’t like strikeouts, and his favorite song is “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”.

Baseball card connection:  There aren’t too many cards of Mr. Redlegs, probably due to the fact that the Reds basically have 4 mascots (and maybe more if you count Schottzie the dog from the infamous Reds’ owner).  He was featured on a Topps team card in 2009, and also on the Reds’ Mascot cards from last year’s All-Star Fan fest giveaway.

I got Gapper and Mr. Redlegs himself when I was down there!

2004 Cincinnati Reds season

The 2004 Reds started off with plenty of promise.  Ken Griffey Jr. was healthy for the first half of the season.  Sean Casey was hitting well above .300.  Adam Dunn was mashing home runs.  A young Ryan Freel was stealing bases and giving spark at the top of the lineup.  The starting lineup looked pretty solid with a young Aaron Harang and Paul Wilson leading the way.  The bullpen was solid behind Danny Graves and Todd Jones.

Griffey, Casey, Graves and Barry Larkin made the All-Star game that year.  Though the Cardinals had pretty much put the division out of reach, the Reds (47-41) were only 1.5 games out of the Wild Card at the All-Star break.   A strong 2nd half could have meant a playoff berth.

The biggest moment of the season in St. Louis on Father’s Day.  With his dad at the game, Griffey connected for the 500th homer of his career.

That was the 19th homer, and unfortunately, he’d hit only 1 more the rest of the year.  And the Reds’ fortunes turned for the worse.  Griffey had a partial hamstring tear the day before the All-Star break and couldn’t play in the game.  The Reds went into a slide at that point, losing 11 of 12 at the end of July.  A month later, Griffey came back, but he tore his hamstring completely off the bone in his first game back and was done for the season (this injury, more than any of his others, came the closest to putting his career in doubt).

The second half became a complete tailspin.  They finished the season with a 76-86 record, 29 games behind the Cardinals and 16 games back of the Astros for the Wild Card.

Dunn and Casey were the 2 bright spots of the 2nd half – both finished with some impressive numbers.  Casey hit .324 for the year, nearly matching his career bests with 24 homers, 99 RBI and 101 runs scored.

Dunn’s season was even more notable.  He smashed 46 homers, walked 108 times, knocking in 102 runs and scoring 105.  Unfortunately, he had a more dubious distinction.  Dunn struck out 195 times, which broke the previous single season record of 189 held by Bobby Bonds.  He also hit one of the farthest homers in recent times.  On August 10th he hit a ball that left the stadium in center field and rolled into the Ohio River.  The river is (officially) part of Kentucky, so this is (somewhat unofficially) the only ball in baseball history to land in a different state.  It’s the longest ball in the history of Great American Ballpark, and probably in all of Cincinnati baseball history.  You can’t fully appreciate it in the video below due to the camera work, but I figured it’s still worth showing it.

Team MVP:  Adam Dunn (.266/46/102)

Best Pitcher:  Paul Wilson (11-6/4.36/117)

Award Winners:

none

All-Stars:

Sean Casey, Barry Larkin, Ken Griffey Jr., Danny Graves

2004 Topps Wire-to-Wire Reds Cards

The number of guys from the 1990 World Series team was down to just 2 for the 2004 Topps set.  That’s a decrease of 1.  The 1 player who was gone after having a card in the 2003 set was Jose Rijo.

• Rijo came back after 5 years off to pitch two seasons for the Reds as a reliever.  He is one of two players to play after having received Hall of Fame votes (Minnie Minoso).

Lou Piniella and Barry Larkin were both back in the Topps set – this would be Larkin’s last Topps card, while Piniella basically had cards through the 2009 season for his time with the cubs and Devil Rays.

2004 – Barry Larkin, Lou Piniella

They had 3 parallel cards as well – Topps Gold, Topps Black and 1st Edition.

Larkin also was featured in the 2004 Hit Parade insert set, as he was 7th on the active hit list at that point.

Piniella was also featured in the Series Seats Relic set, for his days with the Yankees.

Finally, Paul O’Neill was also featured with the Evil Empire in a World Series set – you could find him in the Series Stitches relic set – though his “stitches” was a bat piece.

2004 Topps cards – Big Red Machine

Big Red Machine members were done being in the Topps set after 2002 when Tony Perez finished his final managerial stint.  But, there are quite a few insert cards of Big Red Machine members in every year after that.  In 2004, it was only Johnny Bench.  Bench was included in the World Series Highlights insert set.  You could find a regular insert, or an autographed version honoring his 1976 Series MVP award.

He was also in the Series Stitches relic.

It’s worth noting that 3 of the “Great Eight” members were included in 2004 Topps Retired Signature.  This used the same design as 2004 Topps.  It’s not the same product, so I don’t count it – just thought it was worth pointing out you could find Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion and George Foster in that product.

2003 Cincinnati Reds season

After Riverfront Stadium (aka Cinergy Field) was demolished in December, 2002, the Reds looked forward to a promising new venue.  Great America Ballpark opened on March 31, 2003.  The Reds’ hopes hinged on the return of Ken Griffey Jr. from 2 previous injury-plagued seasons.  Griffey did notch the first hit at GABP, doubling off of the Pirates’ Kris Benson.  But that was the highlight of the baseball game for the Reds as they notched just 3 more hits and lost, 10-1.  The Pirates unfortunately returned the favor the Reds had paid them in 2001, beating Cincinnati in its park’s opener.

It was also a harbinger of what was to come that year for the Reds.  Griffey dislocated his shoulder in the 5th game of the season.  He actually got back to the field in a remarkable 6 weeks, and the Reds overcame a bad start to play well through mid-June.  They were a game above .500 on June 19th, only 3 games out of first.  But the team lost 15 of their next 19 games to fall out of contention.  To make matters worse, Junior tore up his ankle on the first game after the All-Star break.  It was his sixth major injury in just 4 seasons with the team, limiting him to just 201 plate appearances.  They season spiraled downward from there; without Griffey the team no longer had a respectable offense, and the pitching staff was even worse.  The team’s other future hall of famer, Barry Larkin, also suffered through injuries, playing in only 70 games.

Jose Guillen was the most significant bright spot of that offense.  Signed as a free agent at the end of 2002, he hit .337 with 23 homers in just 91 games.  When the Reds fell out of contention, they traded him to Oakland for youngster Aaron Harang.  Aaron Boone was probably the team’s second best hitter, hitting .273 with 18 homers.  He was also traded in July, and ended up hitting one of the biggest postseason homers in history.  You’re welcome, Yankees.

Their pitching was abysmal.  They almost knocked Colorado off their annual perch of giving up the most runs in the NL.  Great American Ballpark played a part in this, but their pitchers just performed below expectations.  Well below.  Jimmy Haynes was the opening day starter, and he went 2-12 with an ERA over 6.  They converted Danny Graves to a starter, with terrible (4-15, 5.33 ERA) results.  Scott Williamson took over the closer role, and did pitch well.  Which meant he became trade bait, as the Reds sent him to Boston.  Ironically, if the Sox had brought him in to pitch against his former teammate, Boston may have made the series a year earlier.

Right before they traded Boone, Guillen and Williamson, the Reds cleaned house in the front office, too.  They fired longtime General Manager Jim Bowden and skipper Bob Boone on the same day (July 28th).  Dave Miley was promoted from triple A to lead the club, and Dan O’Brien took over as GM.  Needless to say, it wasn’t the best way to open a new ballpark.

Team MVP: Jose Guillen (.337/23/63)

Best Pitcher: Scott Williamson (5-3/3.19/53, 21 SV)

Award Winners:

none

All-Stars:

Aaron Boone

2003 Topps Wire-to-Wire Reds Cards

The number of guys from the 1990 World Series team was at 4 players in the 2002 Topps set.  2 players had their last card that year, though one Reds player came back in 2003.

There were 2 players gone after having cards in the 2002 set:

• Paul O’Neill played his last game in game 7 of the 2001 World Series.  He was in the 2002 set with his full stat line.
• Eric Davis also played his last game in 2001, and he pinch-hit in the game where Barry Bonds hit his 71st homer to break the single season HR record.  He also got a full stat line in the 2002 Topps set.

There was 1 player back in the Topps set after a long hiatus:

• After 5 years out of the big leagues due to injury, Jose Rijo came back to pitch two seasons for the Reds as a reliever.  He is one of two players to play after having received Hall of Fame votes (Minnie Minoso).  This was his first Topps card since 1997.  This was his final Topps card, as he retired after the 2002 season.

Lou Piniella and Barry Larkin were both back in the Topps set – Larkin had one more year after this.  Piniella basically had cards through the 2009 season.

2003 – Barry Larkin, Jose Rijo, Lou Piniella

Each guy had 3 parallel cards – Topps Gold, Topps Black and HTA.

Larkin and O’Neill were both featured in the Farewell to Riverfront Stadium relic set.

Larkin also was featured in the 2003 Hit Parade insert set.  At the end of 2002, he was 10th on the active hit list.

Piniella was also featured through the buyback promotion.  9 of his old cards were inserted into 2003 Topps and then stamped with buyback embossing.

• 1971 Topps #/2
• 1972 Topps #/1
• 1974 Topps #/2
• 1974 Topps Traded #/1
• 1975 Topps #/6
• 1976 Topps #/8
• 1977 Topps #/8
• 1978 Topps #/15
• 1979 Topps #/10

Larkin was also in the Kanebo Japan set that is kind of ancillary as being related to Topps 2003.  On that note, O’Neill was in the 2003 Topps retired set as well.

2003 Topps cards – Big Red Machine

After Tony Perez was in the base set as a manager in 2002, we were back to no more Big Red Machine players in the base Topps set.  But, as would pretty much be the case going forward, there were quite a few insert cards of Big Red Machine members.

First, it’s worth noting that just about all of the “Great Eight” as well as manager Sparky Anderson were included in the Topps Retired Signature product.  This used the same design as 2003 Topps, except with a white border.  It’s not the same product, so I don’t count it – just thought it was worth pointing out.

Most of them were involved in the Vintage Embossed inserts.  You could argue this isn’t even really an insert, but I’ll list the cards that were bought back and the announced quantities.

• 1968 Topps Joe Morgan AS (#/2)
• 1971 Topps Johnny Bench / Tony Perez / Billy Williams LL (#/7)
• 1971 Topps Johnny Bench / Tony Perez / Billy Williams LL (#/6)
• 1973 Topps Johnny Bench / Dick Allen LL (#/8)
• 1975 Topps Johnny Bench / Dick Allen MVP (#/13)
• 1975 Topps Johnny Bench / Jeff Burroughs MVP (#/4)
• 1976 Topps Johnny Bench (#/4)
• 1977 Topps Joe Morgan (#/10)
• 1980 Topps Joe Morgan (#/13)
• 1981 Topps Joe Morgan (#/45)
• 1982 Topps Ken Griffey Sr. / Tom Seaver TL (#/9)
• 1983 Topps Joe Morgan SV (#/5)
• 1983 Topps Johnny Bench (#/10)
• 1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars Johnny Bench (#/1)

OK, so now we can move on to real cards made for the 2003 Topps product.  Three of the guys were in the relic set “Farewell to Riverfront Stadium”.  Bench, Morgan, Perez and Concepcion all had cards in this set.

George Foster made it into a different set.  He was in the Record Breaker set for both series 1 and series 2.

He had an autographed version as well.

My final All-Star adventure – the Nasty Boys!!!!!!

This is my last post about the whole All-Star experience.  For my post last Friday – I pointed out that I got quite a few autographs on my 1990 Reds pennant.  I held off my last 3 autos because they were also the ones I was most excited about.  As you can tell from above, I’m talking about the Nasty Boys.  They signed at CEI’s Cincy Fest.

They were one of the big reasons the Reds did so well in 1990.  Unlike the team they swept in the World Series, the Reds needed a lock-down bullpen.  That bullpen also included guys like Tim Layana, Tim Birtsas and Scott Scudder, but its success was anchored by Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble and Randy Myers.

Here was my tease of the World Series pennant in my post last Friday.  No Nasty boys are seen.  Other than Jose Rijo (hard to see in this picture – but its the silver sharpie over the World Series logo), all of the autographs are in blue.

I had Rijo sign in silver, which shows up better on a dark background.  Same thing with the right side of the pennant, where I had the Nasty Boys sign.  This was a blue background, and it turned out great.  Inscriptions came with the price, so I had Dibble and Myers add NLCS MVP to theirs.  Randy had the idea to add “Nasty Boys” at the top – and who am I to argue!  More on that later.

I still have some autographs to get – most notably Paul O’Neill, Hal Morris and Tony Perez (who was the hitting coach).  Rick Mahler and Tim Layana have passed away, so those are 2 guys I’ll never get.  Jack Armstrong may be the toughest – I’ve never heard of him signing.  But I got quite a few this week, and I am sort of running low on room!

But getting the autographs from the Nasty Boys and it turning out well wasn’t the best part about it.  These 3 guys were great to interact with.  They all signed together – Charlton first, Dibble next, Myers last.  All 3 of them shook my hand, asked my name and chatted for a few seconds.  Charlton said “nice to meet you, I’m Norm Charlton”, which was funny because, well, of course I know who he is!  I told Myers I was at game 2 of the 1990 Series, and he looked at me and said “Really?  So Was I!”  They’re a cast of characters for sure.  As I mentioned, Myers had the idea of putting the Nasty Boys above the spot they signed.

And they let each fan get a photo with them.  After getting your item signed, you could go to the side and wait.  They’d sign 15-20 items, then go take photos with those 15-20 people.  Charlton said they asked to do this because they wanted it to be a better experience for people than just walking through a line and leaving.  It certainly was for me.

Here’s the full pennant.  I have another pennant signed by the Big Red Machine.  It’s probably worth more, but they were for a different generation.  They were my dad’s team, or at least the team for someone in between the age of me and my dad.  This was my team, and this is my prized sports possession.

Monday Mascots #4: Mr. Red

A week ago today I was at the home run derby!  I’m letting my homage to the Reds for the All-Star festivities last week leak over into this week.  On that note, here’s my 4th mascot post.  This is actually the first post about your more “traditional” mascot – meaning there’s a guy who is paid by the team to dress up in mascot attire.  I’ve done a post about Babe Ruth’s personal good luck charm, and one about the Angels’ Rally Monkey.

But, this particular mascot is actually retired.  So I guess I still haven’t done a post about an active mascot yet!

Mascot/Team:   Mr. Red (Cincinnati Reds, 1968-2007)

Background:   The Reds first came up with a mascot known as Mr. Red in 1953 as part of the Crosley Field All-star game logo.  The character with a baseball head and a handlebar mustache and a bat.  The same character then appeared on either a primary or secondary logo for the team from 1954 through 1967.

However, this mustachioed gentleman isn’t the guy really known as Mr. Red – the Reds would later dub that guy “Mr. Redlegs” when he came back in 2008.  He’s a mascot for another post!

The clean-shaven mascot known as Mr. Red first appeared in 1968 as part of the “Running Man” logo.  This became the team’s primary logo in 1972.  He donned the number 27, and the Reds were apparently hesitant to hand #27 out to an actual player due to this.

The creation of this Mr. Red generally coincided with the Reds’ new ownership; Francis L. Dale bought the team in 1967 and committed to keeping the team in Cincinnati by building a stadium downtown by the river.  This was during the best days in franchise history.  From the Big Red Machine to the 1990 Wire-to-Wire World Champions, “Running Man” saw 3 World Series wins, 5 pennants and 7 division titles before he was replaced by the primary logo in 1992 (he functioned as an alternate logo until 2007).

The “live” mascot first showed up in 1973, when Dick Wagner purchased the team from Dale – he was there for the 3 home games in the 1975 World Series.  In the 1980’s, Marge Schott did away with him in favor of her dog Schottzie, but he returned in 1997 with a more modern look as Schott was on her way out of baseball.

Mr. Red was joined by Gapper in 2003, and he officially retired in 2007 to make way for the return of Mr. Redlegs and a female mascot named Rosie Red.  Those guys and gal will get their own post someday in the future, but this post is for the Mr. Red I was used to growing up!  His retirement didn’t completely last – he came back for a part-time gig in 2012 and can now be seen on selected dates helping the with the Reds’ mascot duties at Great American Ballpark alongside Rosie and Mr. Redlegs.

Outside of baseball:   Like any good mascot, Mr. Red could be found off the field at parties, etc. during his days as the lone Reds mascot.  According the Reds website, when he retired you could expect to find “this Running Man sunbathing, vacationing and coaching in Sarasota, Florida”.

Baseball card connection:  I was surprised to see there were only 2 cardboard versions of Mr. Red.  He was featured (with the same photo) in the 2000 and 2001 annual Kahn’s set that was given out as a promotional item at a specified Reds’ home game.

This year there was a Mascot set associated with the All-Star Fanfest.  Five cards of the Reds’ 4 mascots, and Mr. Red was featured on one of them.  I didn’t get this card when I was down there – just Gapper and Mr. Redlegs for me.

My other adventures in All-Star Weekend

 

I’ve got two more posts about my experiences from All-Star weekend.  First, as I mentioned at the end of my post yesterday, I went to Mike and Mike Monday morning.  They broadcast from Moerlein Lager House, which is right next door to Great American Ballpark.  Coincidentally, I’ve done a Saturday Suds blog post about this establishment.

On the outside chance anyone reading this doesn’t know (it’s possible, but the demographics would surprise me), Mike and Mike is ESPN’s national morning sports talk show.  It’s the most popular sports talk show in the country.  And it showed on this day.

The Lager House opened at 5 in the morning for a breakfast buffet.  My dad and I left my parents’ house at 4:30 in the morning, and were parked downtown before 5 AM.  And the above picture was the line when we got there.  Now, when you wake up at 4:30 and see something like that – you immediately wonder if you made a mistake.  But we were already there so we waited in line.  We couldn’t get into the restaurant – they were over capacity and the line was only about halfway whittled down.  It worked out OK in the end.

There was a good spot on the lawn to wait and watch their show, and you could even grab a 6 AM beer for your troubles.  Dad and I stood there until about 7:45 listening to the show.  I had one beer, and listened to them interview Barry Larkin and MLBPA president Tony Clark.  It was fun.  And when we left, we realized that plenty of people had left and it was now feasible to go into the restaurant to partake of the buffet.  I had another beer – this time one of the two special brews that Moerlein had made for the event.  I had the Mike Golic rye – which seemed more appropriate for breakfast than the Greeny light ale.  But those are for another Saturday Suds post!

So that was Mike and Mike.  We left to head back home around 9, and I was on less than 4 hours of sleep, so I took about an hour nap or so.  But I had to get up at 11 to head down to another event surrounding the Cincinnati extravaganza.  This was me doing some autograph seeking.  I got a few free ones at All-Star Fanfest, but CEI Sports was putting on something called Cincy Fest across the river in Covington.  This was of the “pay for it” variety, and I went a bit overboard.  I was trying to add to a 1990 Reds collection I have, and I also started a new one this past weekend.

The first collection is a World Series pennant where I’ve gotten as many guys on the team as possible.  I mentioned Chris Sabo in a previous post – he was the one guy I needed on the pennant that I was able to get at Fanfest.  Tom Browning and Ron Oester I had autograph their 1990 Topps card – which is the collection I’m just starting.  Every player from the postseason roster has a 1990 Topps card, if you factor in Traded and ML Debut.

At CEI’s Cincy Fest, I found a few more.  Billy Bates was the first one; I actually had to go down to Covington Sunday just to get his autograph.  It was worth it though.  Bates played a total of 29 regular season games in the Majors, with 3 more in the 1990 postseason.  In fact, his last appearance in the Majors was when he scored the winning run of World Series game 2.  That was the game I attended, and I told him as much when I got his autograph.  It was $40 for his autograph, which was well worth it in my opinion.  He’s hard to find – and he told me as much when I mentioned I’d been hoping to get his auto for quite a while.  I was excited to get his signature on my pennant.  Also, for on 10 bucks more he signed my card as well – which is from Topps ML Debut.  This is the only 1990 card for the 25 postseason players & manager that doesn’t feature a Reds uniform.

I forgot to scan Billy’s card – so I’ll post it another time.

On Monday, the first autograph I got was Danny Jackson.  I needed his signature on my pennant, and since I’ve read he doesn’t sign much either, I had him to sign his 1990 card.  That was $30 for each auto.  Jackson’s line was low by the time I got there, so I was able to chat with him for a minute.  I had seen him at the Futures game the night before, and assumed he was there with his family.  He said he was impressed with the seats at Great American, in that the seats were geared to face Home Plate so you don’t have to turn your head.  It was neat to know that a former player was enjoying himself as an All-Star spectator!

I also got Glenn Braggs autograph on his 1990 Topps Traded card.  He already signed my pennant, so I just wanted to get this since he was in town and it was only $20.  He’s a friendly guy as well – and is still clearly in phenomenal shape!

The next autograph was Jose Rijo.  I needed him for the pennant as well, and I thought about buying two of his autographs.  But his auto was $40, and getting two seemed more than I needed right now.  I had him sign the pennant in silver (the other autographs are in blue), and it honestly didn’t turn out as well as I’d have liked.  I’m starting to run out of room for it, so I had him sign over the World Series logo.  I should have had him do the upper right corner.  It’s not perfect, but it’s still great to get Rijo’s autograph!  He added an inscription “MVP 10/20/90”.

The next autograph I got was Luis Quinones.  He was a utility infielder for the Reds, and another guy who’s autograph I didn’t have yet.  He signed it on the underline portion of the World Series logo.

This is a picture of my pennant, though I’m not showing the last three autographs I got at Cincy Fest.  Those are for tomorrow’s post!