Latest news with #ErieSeaWolves
CTV News
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
John Oliver's Erie Moon Mammoths debut in front of a record crowd
John Oliver and Fuss E. Mammoth, the Moon Mammoth mascot, are driven onto the field before a game between the Chesapeake Oyster Catchers and the Erie Moon Mammoths at UMPC Park in Erie, Pa., on Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Joe Reedy) ERIE, Pa. — Besides being a fan, John Oliver has had a certain affinity for minor league baseball. On Saturday night, the comedian and host of HBO's 'Last Week Tonight' saw his latest crazy creation set out into the world as the Erie Moon Mammoths made their debut in front of a record crowd of 7,070 at UPMC Park. 'We're sending our furry child out into the world and you are the custodian of it. Now, please be careful with our child,' Oliver said a couple of hours before the Moon Mammoths took the field against the Chesapeake Oyster Catchers. Oliver spotlighted Minor League Baseball promotions and alternate nicknames during 'Last Week Tonight' on May 4. At the end of the segment, Oliver invited teams to send in proposals on why they should get rebranded by the show's staff. Forty-seven teams sent in pitches, including the Erie SeaWolves, the Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. Erie president Greg Coleman sent a list of 11 reasons why they were the perfect candidate, including: 'The SeaWolves play baseball nowhere near the sea.' 'To have so many teams expressing interest was really edifying. I think it kind of validates the fact that we thought there was something special about minor league baseball. We thought this would be a group of people that would respond to the ludicrous idea that we had,' Oliver said. Erie was announced as the winner on May 18. After six weeks of research by Oliver and his staff, the Moon Mammoths were unveiled on June 29. That included the mascot named Fuzz, a purple woolly mammoth wearing a space helmet. 'Erie did stand out to us as being, you know, uniquely eccentric. And I say that as both a compliment and an insult, which is the biggest compliment there is,' Oliver said. 'There was something about the Moon Mammoth that spoke to us for being particularly odd. It felt like it could make a baseball team's theme. You could almost see the logo in your head and it felt like something to be extra surprising.' That this came together in less than three months is a minor miracle. It usually takes 16 months for a team to have an alternate identity approved and then take the field. 'I thought we had a good chance when I sent it in. And then when we were selected it was a little surreal,' Coleman said. 'And since then working with the 'Last Week Tonight' team, they've been wonderful and detail oriented.' The Moon Mammoths name was inspired by George Moon, who found the bone of a prehistoric mammoth while scuba diving in 1991. The remains are housed at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. Moon has become a regional celebrity since the rebranding was announced. He was at the game and caught the ceremonial first pitch from Oliver. 'It's fun. I'm enjoying it,' Moon said. 'From all those years ago to today, I would never have thought anything like this would've been possible. The newspaper did something on its 30th anniversary (in 2021). Other than that, I haven't heard much.' Coleman said that since the Moon Mammoths were unveiled, the team has done the equivalent of four years' of online sales in three weeks. The line of people waiting to get into the team store, which was located in left field, stretched out to near home plate in the concourse area. Karyn Drombosky and Sean Mizerski drove from Pittsburgh and were wearing homemade tusks as they waited to get into the team store. 'It's just great. We're big baseball fans. We see the Pirates all the time, and minor league games are fun. There's so much silliness,' Drombosky said. 'We watch John Oliver pretty regularly. We were like surprised but excited when we saw he picked the Erie team to take over.' In addition to throwing out the first pitch, Oliver was a batboy during one inning and led the crowd in 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' during the seventh inning stretch. The cap and jersey that Oliver wore for the first pitch are going to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Erie trailed 6-3 going into the bottom of the ninth but got within one run on Kevin McGonigle's two-run double. Chesapeake's Yaqui Rivera struck out Josue Briceño with the bases loaded to end the game. 'The atmosphere was great. Everything worked smoothly. It doesn't happen very often in minor league baseball to be able to have an event like that. It was a fun night for everyone,' Erie manager Andrew Graham said. The Moon Mammoths will be back on Aug. 19 as well as Sept. 12 and 13. Coleman said there will be at least four Moon Mammoths games next season. 'I love minor league baseball. There is a special eccentricity to it,' Oliver said. 'It felt like a nice fit with our show because minor league baseball, as you know, is willing to try anything. That was proven by the fact that over half the league was willing to sight unseen, rebrand and put their trust in the hands of a group of people who are objectively untrustworthy. That's a bad decision, and it's that kind of bad decision making that I love about minor league baseball.' ___ Joe Reedy, The Associated Press
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John Oliver's Erie Moon Mammoths debut in front of a record crowd
ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Besides being a fan, John Oliver has had a certain affinity for minor league baseball. On Saturday night, the comedian and host of HBO's 'Last Week Tonight' saw his latest crazy creation set out into the world as the Erie Moon Mammoths made their debut in front of a record crowd of 7,070 at UPMC Park. 'We're sending our furry child out into the world and you are the custodian of it. Now, please be careful with our child,' Oliver said a couple hours before the Moon Mammoths took the field against the Chesapeake Oyster Catchers. Oliver spotlighted Minor League Baseball promotions and alternate nicknames during 'Last Week Tonight' on May 5. At the end of the segment, Oliver invited teams to send in proposals why they should get rebranded by the show's staff. Forty-seven teams sent in pitches, including the Erie SeaWolves, the Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. Erie president Greg Coleman sent a list of 11 reasons why they were the perfect candidate, including: 'The SeaWolves play baseball nowhere near the sea.' 'To have so many teams expressing interest was really edifying. I think it kind of validates the fact that we thought there was something special about minor league baseball. We thought this would be a group of people that would respond to the ludicrous idea that we had,' Oliver said. Erie was announced as the winner on May 19. After six weeks of research by Oliver and his staff, the Moon Mammoths were unveiled on June 29. That included the mascot named Fuzz, a purple woolly mammoth wearing a space helmet. 'Erie did stand out to us as being, you know, uniquely eccentric. And I say that as both a compliment and an insult, which is the biggest compliment there is," Oliver said. 'There was something about the Moon Mammoth that spoke to us for being particularly odd. It felt like it could make a baseball team's theme. You could almost see the logo in your head and it felt like something to be extra surprising.' The fact that this came together in less than three months is a minor miracle. It usually takes 16 months for a team to have an alternate identity approved and then take the field. 'I thought we had a good chance when I sent it in. And then when we were selected it was a little surreal,' Coleman said. 'And since then working with the "Last Week Tonight" team, they've been wonderful and detail oriented.' The Moon Mammoths name was inspired by George Moon, who found the bone of a prehistoric mammoth while scuba diving in 1991. The remains are housed at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. Moon has become a regional celebrity since the rebranding was announced. He was at the game and caught the ceremonial first pitch from Oliver. 'It's fun. I'm enjoying it,' Moon said. 'From all those years ago to today, I would never have thought anything like this would've been possible. The newspaper did something on its 30th anniversary (in 2021). Other than that, I haven't heard much.' Coleman said since the Moon Mammoths were unveiled, the team has done the equivalent of four years of online sales in three weeks. The line of people waiting to get into the team store, which was located in left field, stretched out to near home plate in the concourse area. Karyn Drombosky and Sean Mizerski drove from Pittsburgh and were wearing homemade tusks as they waited to get into the team store. 'It's just great. We're big baseball fans. We see the Pirates all the time, and minor league games are fun. There's so much silliness,' Drombosky said. 'We watch John Oliver pretty regularly. We were like surprised but excited when we saw he picked the Erie team to take over.' In addition to throwing out the first pitch, Oliver was a batboy during one inning and also led the crowd in 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' during the seventh inning stretch. The cap and jersey that Oliver wore for the first pitch are going to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Moon Mammoths will be back on Aug. 19 as well as Sept. 12 and 13. Coleman said there will be at least four Moon Mammoths games next season. 'I love minor league baseball. There is a special eccentricity to it,' Oliver said. 'It felt like a nice fit with our show because minor league baseball, as you know, is willing to try anything. That was proven by the fact that over half the league was willing to sight unseen, rebrand and put their trust in the hands of a group of people who are objectively untrustworthy. That's a bad decision, and it's that kind of bad decision making that I love about minor league baseball.' ___ AP sports:
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
July full moon: What time is the 'Buck Moon?' When, how to watch
The first full moon of July and astronomical summer, called a Buck Moon, is on July 10. The Buck Moon will be one of the lowest hanging full moons of the year according to The only lower moon is June's Strawberry Moon. The moon will reach its full phase around 4:35 p.m. on July 10 which is when the moon is still below the horizon in North America. The best time to see the Buck Moon will be at moonrise at dusk. This is when the moon will appear on the eastern horizon and look more like an orange orb. The remaining July moon phases include the Last Quarter Moon on July 18, and the New Moon July 24. More: 11 reasons why Erie SeaWolves became the Erie Moon Mammoths The moonrise and moonset calculator predicts that the full moon will begin at 9:24 p.m. in Erie. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the name references the new antlers male deer, or bucks, are rapidly growing this time of year. Antlers can grow up to one inch per day during this period, and antlers will reach full size in late-summer. The July full moon also has other monikers. Other names for this moon, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, include: Thunder moon Berry moon Raspberry moon Salmon moon-a term referring to when the salmon returns to the waterways of the Pacific Northwest Feather Molting Moon The Buck Moon will appear larger to the naked eye than a normal full moon due to its closer proximity to the horizon. The moon's proximity to the horizon throughout the night will enhance its size and color making it appear larger than usual, which is called a moon illusion. This phenomenon occurs once every 18.6 years. More: Ice cream of mystery: what does Blue Moon ice cream taste like? Where to find it in Erie Skies in Erie County are predicted to be partly cloudy Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service in Cleveland, with an evening low of 67 degrees. Get the latest AccuWeather forecast details and radar images for your ZIP code at Download the GoErie app for iOS or Android for mobile-friendly forecasts. Tour Erie-area conditions by webcams. Contact Nicholas Sorensen at Nsorensen@ This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: July's full moon: When it is, how it got its name
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What to know about the Moon Mammoth that inspired an Erie SeaWolves alternative identity
A shaggy young male mammoth, weighing about the same as an ambulance, his tusks 8 feet long, once ate the grasses in what today is Erie County. He might have encountered humans, although it's unlikely they were what killed him when he was around the age of 30. Twelve thousand years later, give or take a century, his bones were discovered by diver George Moon in a local lake. Thirty-four years after that, he's become the new limited-time namesake and mascot for the Erie SeaWolves, an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers baseball team. John Oliver of HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" offered a total rebrand of one Minor League Baseball team in the country and the SeaWolves were selected. On his June 29 show, Oliver revealed the team's new identity as the Moon Mammoths. The SeaWolves will play as the Erie Moon Mammoths, with a giant purple mascot named Fuzz E. Mammoth, on July 19, Aug. 19, Sept. 12 and Sept. 13. The team's on-field jerseys will include moons and a patch of an illustrated woolly mammoth wearing a space helmet. Oliver is expected to attend the game and Moon has been invited, according to the SeaWolves. While the Moon Mammoth's path to newfound fame is known, how the original animal died and ended up at the bottom of Lake Pleasant is still mostly mystery, although there's been some speculation as his rare skeleton has been studied at universities. Since his first bone was pulled from the water 34 years ago, the public has only been allowed to see him for a single day, in 2012, spread out on a table in Harrisburg. He won't be standing at the ballpark for any of the games or even sitting in a suite. He's fragile. Putting him on display could jeopardize the bones that might reveal more to researchers in the future. Named for Moon, who pulled its nearly 3-foot-long shoulder blade from the bottom of the Venango Township lake, the Moon Mammoth resides at The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg after spending time at universities in Erie and in Michigan. Photos of the bones can be viewed in the museum's online collection. "It's one of the most complete mammoths we have from here in Pennsylvania," Linda Powell, a museum educator at the state facility, told the Erie Times-News in a 2021 story. About 80% of its bones, including both tusks, were retrieved from the lake's bottom. "Specimens as complete as this one are pretty rare," Powell said. It's also rare to get to see this one, even for its discoverer. Moon said in 2021 that he viewed it a few times when it was still in Erie at Gannon University, where it first went after he and four other divers brought more bones out of the lake in August 1991. Then he didn't see it again until Oct. 17, 2012, when the mammoth was displayed at the state museum for one day before going into storage for scientific study. A few people over the years have said it should be brought back to Erie County, where it lived and died, and be put in an exhibit, possibly at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. A museum spokesman said there's a simple reason why that hasn't happened. "It's just too fragile to put on display for any length of time," said Howard Pollman, director of external affairs for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, of which the state museum is part. "Our first responsibility is to preserve that mammoth indefinitely for future generations," he said in 2021. This particular mammoth lived about 10,000 B.C. Most other mammoths died out within a couple thousand years of that, possibly due to environmental changes and humans. The mammoths' closest living kin is the elephant. "We do know it was a male," Powell said about the Moon Mammoth. He was mature but young, believed to be in his mid-20s to early 30s, she said. Had he not died when he did, he might have lived to be two or three times that age. He was also a hybrid species, Powell said, a combination of mammuthus primigenius, or woolly mammoth, and mammuthus columbi, or Columbian mammoth. Alive, the Moon Mammoth would have weighed 5 or 6 tons and stood 9 feet or 10 feet tall at the shoulder. "In that respect, he's a pretty normal mammoth," Powell said. The mammoth from Erie County would have had a hump on his back and longish shaggy fur. Based on hair found with other mammoth remains, he likely would have been medium brown to dark brown in color, Powell said. As a herbivore, he would have grazed on grasses in the fields of what is now Erie County, she said. Generally speaking, prehistoric animals like the mammoth are just pretty cool, she said. Nothing like them exists naturally today in the state, where bears and elk are about as big as it gets. What caused the the Moon Mammoth's death and what led it to the bottom of Lake Pleasant aren't known for certain, although Powell said there has been speculation. She said there are marks on his bones that some observers believe could have been made by humans. She said there's been no confirmation of humans killing mammoths east of the Mississippi River. One theory was that, no matter how this mammoth died, humans processed his remains and stored them in the lake. Moon, who lives in Summit Township, said in 2021 that he didn't remember the date of his fateful dive in Lake Pleasant, other than it was the summer of 1991. He said he was maybe 75 feet to 80 feet from the shore, where it sloped from a depth of 11 feet to 18 feet. "Visibility back then was probably 4 to 5 feet," he said in a telephone interview. "(The) minute you touch the bottom and stir up the mud, it goes to zero." Moon, who was in his early 30s then, had just finished a dive with another man and had decided to take "a quick little relaxing dive by myself," he recalled 30 years later. Sticking up from the bottom of the lake was a piece of bone. "It was really big," he said. "I just pulled it up." Roughly triangular in shape and measuring 2½ feet to 3 feet long and about 1 foot at its widest, Moon at first thought it was a dinosaur bone. He took it to the surface and showed the other man before diving back down under the water and putting the bone back in the mud. Moon said he did that because he didn't want the bone to dry out and crumble. Later that day, he was at a friend's house with someone who worked at Gannon University who helped put him in contact with M. Jude Kirkpatrick, then a professor of anthropology at Gannon. They eventually met at Lake Pleasant, where Moon once again pulled out the bone. He said Kirkpatrick told him it wasn't from a dinosaur and took it to Gannon. It turned out to be the scapula or shoulder bone of a mammoth. How the Erie Moon Mammoths came to be: Inside the 'Last Week Tonight' rebrand of SeaWolves Moon said Kirkpatrick wanted to know if there were more bones down there in Lake Pleasant. Known as a kettle lake, it was created when glaciers receded from the area and is now owned by the state and managed by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. "I reached down in the mud and said, 'There's all kinds of bones down there,'" Moon recalled. He said they didn't bring them up right away, waiting to get permission from the commission and to arrange to preserve the bones. He said he and four other divers then spent the better part of August 1991 bringing up bones. "They went from the lake to Gannon," he said. The work was done without fanfare to protect the mammoth from souvenir hunters. As late as a July 1994 Erie Daily Times story about the mammoth, the site where it was found was still undisclosed and referred to only as a lake in southern Erie County. In that same story, Kirkpatrick talked about using technology to create three-dimensional images of the mammoth skeleton on a computer screen. He also said no one had approached him about the possibility of reassembling the skeleton for a museum. About 200 bones ended up being removed from Lake Pleasant. That included the other shoulder blade; both curved tusks, measuring about 8 feet each; and molars, the lower jaw, humerus, radius, ulna, pelvis, vertebrae, ribs and foot bones. The upper skull was never located. Moon said he dove in Lake Pleasant a lot after the the mammoth discovery but never found more of its bones or anything else nearly so exciting. "I think we pretty much cleared that site. One was big enough," he said about his discovery. "I didn't want to be greedy and look for two." At some point later in the 1990s, the mammoth bones were loaned to the University of Michigan for research. They were returned to Pennsylvania, which owns the skeleton, not long before their one-day display in 2012. Moon, who was 61 in 2021 and described himself as a union laborer who worked at nuclear power plants and did highway work, said he was on a job near Lancaster at the time of the exhibit in Harrisburg so he went to see it. His parents drove down from Erie. He said he likes having a mammoth skeleton named for him, especially since he doesn't have children. "That's my contribution," he said. "That's what I'm leaving behind." Powell said in 2021 that the Moon Mammoth was stored in The State Museum of Pennsylvania's paleontology section. Both tusks were kept in special encasements to protect them. She said the tusks were "quite fragile and flaking." She said one of the museum's roles is assuring the preservation of its collection. "It's very important to preserve these specimens and have them available for study and research," Powell said. She wasn't aware of any future efforts to display the Moon Mammoth. "I don't know of any plans right now for any of it to be put back on exhibit but that could change," Powell said at the time. She added that any display probably wouldn't include the tusks because of their condition. Pollman, from the PHMC, said that in general, only a small percentage of any museum's collection is on display. He said a purpose of such collections is "the protection of artifacts such as this" mammoth. The State Museum of Pennsylvania does have a mastodon skeleton that the public can view. Although often mistaken for one another, mammoths and mastodons differed in numerous ways, including their teeth and what they ate. Mammoths were also slightly larger. Pollman said the mastodon on exhibit was less delicate than the Moon Mammoth and still required a lot of money and effort to display, including construction of a steel superstructure to hold it in place. The Moon Mammoth is too fragile to put up like that. And Pollman said it would require a lot to make a cast of every one of its bones to display. So they remain in storage and are "available for study upon request," he said. George Moon hasn't pushed for the mammoth's return to Erie County and said he understood it could cost maybe even millions of dollars to create casts and display the mammoth that bears his name. He's really OK with not being able to stop into a museum and see it. "I'm sort of happy where it's at because I know it's being taken care of properly," Moon said 30 years after he found it. Dana Massing can be reached at dmassing@ This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Moon Mammoth discovery behind Erie SeaWolves' new name, mascot
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Big sixth inning propels SeaWolves over Curve
The Erie SeaWolves' six run sixth inning propelled them to a 5-2 victory over the Altoona Curve on Wednesday night. Erie remains in first place in the Eastern League's Southwest Division. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
