A Bird makes the Hall of Fame

[WillyM]

The Bird, to be precise.

In a virtual ceremony, the Mascot Hall of Fame in Whiting, Indiana, inducted four new honored members today.

Oriole fans can be happy to know that the Oriole Bird was one of the four.

Boomer (the Indiana Pacers' mascot) and Youppi (formerly the Montreal Expos' mascot, who changed sports and became the Canadiens' mascot after the Expos left for Washington) were two of the other three.

The fourth (somewhat bittersweet for Baltimore fans) was Blue, the mascot of the Indianapolis Colts.

Edited June 15, 2020 by WillyM
choice of words

[SteveA]

Cool, I have a hat he signed.  "The Bird".  Maybe that will be worth something now!

[BohKnowsBmore]

13 minutes ago, WillyM said:

The Bird, to be precise.

In a virtual ceremony, the Mascot Hall of Fame in Whiting, Indiana, inducted four new honored members today.

Oriole fans can be happy to know that the Oriole Bird was one of the four.

Boomer (the Indiana Pacers' mascot) and Youppi (formerly the Montreal Expos' mascot, who changed sports and became the Canadiens' mascot after the Expos left for Washington) were two of the other three.

The fourth (somewhat bittersweet for Baltimore fans) was Blue, the mascot of the Indianapolis Colts.

Read this “formerly the Montreal Expos' mascot, who changed sports ” as Youppi having had a profound impact on all sports as a whole. 

[DrungoHazewood]

They have a Hall of Fame for pretty much everything, don't they?

I thought this was largely an American phenomenon, but apparently there are things like Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Australia Rugby League Hall of Fame.

Was Baseball's the first?  I'll answer my own question: No, apparently the Baseball Hall was inspired by the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at what's now the Bronx Community College.  Which, in turn, was inspired by the Ruhmeshalle (translated literally as Hall of Fame) in Munich, which I've walked by but never went inside or understood the significance of.  Apparently that was built in the 1850s, but there is an even earlier German Hall of Fame called Walhalla near Regensburg.

And I'm guessing all of these took some cues from the Panthéon on Paris, and the Pantheon in Rome.

So there you go, a direct lineage from the Roman god Neptune to Youppi.

[SteveA]

Of course you could have been talking about THIS GUY.   It's too bad there can't be a second type of Hall of Fame for people who don't have the qualifications of greatness for the MLBHOF but who are memorable in some way that makes it worth commemorating them for posterity for future baseball fans (if baseball continues to exist)

[ScGO's]

about time!

[foxfield]

On 6/14/2020 at 10:44 PM, SteveA said:

Cool, I have a hat he signed.  "The Bird".  Maybe that will be worth something now!

Im holding out for "The Bird HOF '20"

[Frobby]

On 6/15/2020 at 1:17 PM, SteveA said:

Of course you could have been talking about THIS GUY.   It's too bad there can't be a second type of Hall of Fame for people who don't have the qualifications of greatness for the MLBHOF but who are memorable in some way that makes it worth commemorating them for posterity for future baseball fans (if baseball continues to exist)

How about the Hall of Fun?   Fidrych definitely goes in.    Jimmy Piersall.   Germany Schaefer.    Rip Sewell.   Eddie Gaedel.    Jim Abbott and Pete Gray.   Pat Venditte.    Steve Dalkowski.