in like a lamb

In Like A Lamb....

Giants vs Cubs in Dothan!

Quiet on the Biscuits front, too quiet.
This team's ownership simply needs to do more for its fans, both in season and during the offseason. Not hearing from the team from October thru March would certainly explain why they have seen their business fall off. Come on guys, step up!

MAX CAPITOL CITY CLASSIC

The college game wasn't much to speak of, a cold night probably kept the crowd down. I never go, as I can't really get into that level of the game. Hard to explain, just not my bag.

IN OTHER BISCUIT NEWS

The organization is holding auditions for the National Anthem and tweeted about it. I suggested they should go with the old recording of the Air Force Band doing it as instrumental. Kate Smith also has a popular recording that could be used less painfully than some of the folks that end up being selected. I hate to think who gets rejected!

THE OTHER GUY

Speaking of being jilted by the minor leagues, lets not forget that the subject of last weeks post is not the only mascot in town! In fact, as far as height is concerned, Big Mo is rather dwarfed by the actual namesake mascot - Monty the Biscuit.

Monty the Biscuit

Monty appears in more places than Big Mo at the ballpark. Once the season starts I will take a tally of which mascot is used where, but I am sure that the Monty sitting on the giant scoreboard is at least ten feet tall and looks down on the field with goo goo googlie eyes!

Monty in foreground on dugout & background on scoreboard (upper left)

Monty is all over the ballpark and website, but never as an actual person in a suit. While it must have been discussed early on and dismissed, since walking food with a face can border on spooky side of Puff-N-Stuff, I think there are some obvious advantages worth considering.

It would give Big Mo a foil, a competing mascot for races and promotions, and another option for Biscuit fans to snap a pic or two. How tough is it to get someone in a Biscuit costume to wander around the park?

Too Flaky?

What are Montys origins?  That depends on who you talk to, here is one side of the story.

required "intelligent design" theory option

I havent checked the facts personally, but it sounds pretty much like how things work down here, so we can probably take that account as "mostly factual" concerning the giant baked goods beginnings.





FACE OF THE FRANCHISE

Monty got the trophy, not Mo

As for me, I am more fond of Monty than I am of Big Mo. The reason I find Monty more appealing than Mo is that I dont see any other teams using baked goods as the face of the franchise. And Monty is the face of the franchise, have no doubt. Monty appears on the uniform and the tickets and many other aspects of the teams materials made for both public and private consumption. Let me put it another way, when you get a business card from someone that works for the team, you dont see Big Mo but you do see Monty the Biscuit.

Monty peeks out from behind the M on Desmonds cap

There are many interesting features about having an anthropomorphic baked goods mascot. He has hands in the tradition of mickey mouse - white three finger and a thumb gloves. Im okay with the hands, but I wonder how Monty fares without arms.

Or legs, though he has feet. Monty wears white baseball cleats that have yellow stripes and blue laces. He never takes them off because he has such trouble tying the laces, having no arms and only three fingers on each hand.

Oh, and he is all face. He has googlie eyes, sitting at the top of his crusty biscuit head, crossed at the center which must affect his depth perception. His lips are turned up in a flaky smile revealing the buttery pat that is his tongue.

Must be a smooth talker with a butter tongue

WBC ADDICTED

Man those games in Japan start late! That is some serious baseball though, and I love seeing the teams with totally different styles trying to adapt quickly in tournament play.  However I do have a few suggestions for the next time they have it.

He es no Semi-Pro

I think the team that wins the world series should represent the USA. As the reigning champ, there's no reason to drag a bunch of stars out of camp when the team that holds the trophy would be able to show the WBC what the top team looks like. Well, okay, what the top team looks like three or four months after winning it all in the big leagues.


Although, it is great to see AllStar teams like Samurai Japan and team USA face the "semi-pro" guys and have trouble with them!

BASEBALL, I LOVE YOU

By Charlie Grimm

A very nice read, not exactly graduate level writing but a view into a managers mind in a different age. The references Grimm makes (probably thru ghostwriter) to the Chicago Cubs are so drastically differently slanted that its hard to admit that hes writing about the same organization that inhabits Wrigley Field today.

In fact, he states flat out that the Cubs had won 17 pennants between 1876-1945, which means they topped the league about once every four years. Thats in stark contrast to the no world series Cubs since 1945, who have been turned away annually since the end of the second world war. Futility and lovable losers are the catchphrases of todays Cubs, along with curse, billygoat and Bartman. Not so much in Jolly Chollys time, when the lighthearted team won more games than it lost as it took trains instead of planes across the league, which at the time extended only as far west as St.Louis and as far south as.... St.Louis.


Grimm relates stories of the Cubs spring trainings spent on Catalina Island, most of which was owned by the Wrigley family. He tells of breaking camp for spring in 1936 and making stops to play exhibition games along the way. One of those stops was in Dothan Alabama against the Red Sox (internet check says it was the NY Giants). I have a hard time seeing those great teams here, but its true, they played in Selma and Dothan - with no game listed in Montgomery. Ain't that typical?


A good read about the Cubs in their winning era! Hack Wilson stories abound, as well as the truth about how many times Grimm was fired as Cubs manager.