Latest news with #RallyMonkey
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
This Date in Baseball - Trevor Hoffman becomes the first major leaguer with 500 career saves
June 6 1918 — Casey Stengel, after being traded by Brooklyn in the offseason, made his return to Ebbets Field a memorable one. In his first at-bat, Stengel called time, stepped out of the batter's box and doffed his cap. A bird flew out and the fans broke into laughter. 1934 — Myril Hoag hit a major league record six singles in the New York Yankees' 15-3 rout of the Boston Red Sox. 1939 — The New York Giants hit five home runs in the fourth inning in a 17-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at the Polo Grounds. With two out, Harry Danning, Al Demaree, Burgess Whitehead, Manny Salvo and Joe Moore connected as the Giants scored eight runs in the inning. 1945 — In the first game of a doubleheader, Boston's Boo Ferriss scattered 14 hits to beat Philadelphia 5-2. Ferris, 8-0 on the year, tied the AL mark held by Chicago's John Whitehead for wins at the start of a career. 1975 — Cleveland manager Frank Robinson hit two three-run homers in a 7-5 win over the Texas Rangers. 1986 — San Diego Padres manager Steve Boros was ejected before the first pitch of the game with the Atlanta Braves when he tried to give umpire Charlie Williams a videotape of a disputed play in the previous night's 4-2 loss to Atlanta. 1992 — Eddie Murray drove in two runs at Pittsburgh to pass Mickey Mantle (1,509) as the all-time RBI leader among switch-hitters. 1995 — J.D. Drew of Florida State hit a record-setting three homers in his final three at-bats in a 16-11 loss to Southern California in the College World Series. Drew finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs and 12 total bases, also a series record. 1996 — For the second time in major league history and first in the AL, a cycle and a triple play took place in the same game. Boston's John Valentin hit for the cycle, while Chicago turned a triple play in the Red Sox's 7-4 victory. In 1931, Philadelphia's Chuck Klein hit for the cycle in the same game that the Phillies turned a triple play against the Chicago Cubs. 2000 — The Rally Monkey is born, thanks to the Anaheim Angels' video crew playing a clip from the 1994 film Ace Ventura, Pet Detective on the JumboTron. With the words Rally Monkey superimposed over a monkey jumping up and down in the Jim Carrey movie, the crowd goes wild as the Angels score two runs in the bottom of the 9th to beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5. 2003 — Insisting the corked bat, designed to put on home run displays during batting practice, was accidentally used in a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa is suspended for eight games by Major League Baseball. Bob Watson, baseball's vice president of on-field operations, agrees that the Cubs outfielder's use of an illegal bat was an 'isolated incident,' but one that still deserves a penalty. 2007 — Trevor Hoffman became the first major leaguer with 500 career saves when he closed out the San Diego Padres' 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. 2017 — Scooter Gennett hit four home runs, matching the major league record, and finished with 10 RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds routed the St. Louis Cardinals 13-1. Gennett became the 17th player to homer four times in one game. 2022 — Eduardo Escobar hits for the cycle in an 11-5 win over the Padres; he is the first Mets player to do so since Scott Hairston in 2012, and the first player for any team to accomplish the feat at Petco Park. _____
Chicago Tribune
07-04-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Column: After Wrigley Field's goose flew the coop, the search is on for a new Chicago Cubs' rally animal
I ventured out to the Wrigley Field bleachers Sunday to check out the new Chicago Cubs mascot, a goose that apparently decided to nest in a planter box in center field near the old scoreboard. The Cubs have been in dire need of a rally animal since the Billy Goat curse ended with the 2016 championship, and since the goose opted to make its home there, it was an obvious choice. The large bleacher steps leading up to the scoreboard originally were home to Chinese elm trees when Bill Veeck oversaw the bleacher construction in 1937, but they were later removed because they couldn't handle the harsh winds. Now the steps have planters with juniper bushes on top for the aesthetics — and to keep fans from lounging there. On Saturday, Cubs fan @BleacherJeff first reported the goose's existence on social media, which briefly became a phenomenon for a city previously enthralled with the Rat Hole, a section of sidewalk in Roscoe Village that featured an imprint of a flattened rat and drew hundreds of onlookers. Cubs Senior Director of Communications Jen Martinez told the Associated Press Sunday that the nesting goose and its friends were most welcome at the 'Friendly Confines.' 'We truly mean it when we say everyone is welcome, including the goose and her nest who took up residence in the bleachers,' Martinez said in a statement. Martinez added the Cubs were 'giving her space' and working with a wildlife organization to provide a safe habitat. 'In the meantime, we have blocked off the area to fans, and our featured guest is our top priority,' she said. But on Monday morning, Martinez told the Tribune that the goose had flown the coop. It was no longer seen in the bleachers, meaning fans going to Monday night's game against the Texas Rangers could sit in the seats that had been blocked off the previous two days. It's not known what caused the goose to leave Wrigley. It might have been the bleacher paparazzi that insisted on taking photos, or the bullpen implosion and fielding mistakes that led to Sunday's loss against the San Diego Padres. The goose, who was nicknamed PGA — 'Pete Goose-Armstrong' — by one bleacherite, was unavailable for comment. And now, the search for a new rally animal to pick up the slack begins. Animals and sports have gone hand in hand, or paw in hand, for many years. The 2002 Anaheim Angels ignited the trend with the Rally Monkey, a video board creation that began in 2000 and took off during the team's first championship season in its 42-year history in 2002. The St. Louis Cardinals followed up with a rally squirrel in 2011 after a gray squirrel ran onto the field at Busch Stadium during Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cardinals went on to win the World Series, and the squirrel got more credit than manager Tony La Russa. The LSU baseball team had a rally possum to credit in 2016 after one of the critters delayed a game at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., preceding a big comeback win over Arkansas. The Cubs famously were connected with a goat after Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy 'Goat' Sianis and his pet were barred from entering Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series, leading to the famous curse. The hex finally ended in 2016 when the Cubs beat Cleveland in a seven-game series to end a 108-year championship drought. The Cubs even etched a goat's head on the inner band of their World Series rings in a nod to 'a supposed franchise curse,' according to a press release Chairman Tom Ricketts repeatedly told media 'there is no curse,' but former president Theo Epstein, who also helped end Boston's 'Curse of the Bambino' in 2004, insisted on the goat's inclusion on the ring. The Cubs currently have Goose Island Beer as one of their official sponsors, so having a goose as the team's spiritual rally animal seemed like a match made in marketing heaven. But if PGA is gone for good, the search goes on. What could replace the allegedly golden goose? The rats that Ozzie Guillén made famous when he was White Sox manager never really caught on. Guillén claimed that the rats under the right-field bleachers were so big they were lifting weights, though Cubs Business Operations President Crane Kenney quipped to the Sox manager they were 'part of the ambience.' Seagulls, known to be frequent fliers at Wrigley — especially at the end of afternoon games, would seem to fit the bill. They like to feast on leftover nachos and hot dog buns discarded by bleacher fans, but they're typically dine-and-dash types, so there's never been one seagull who has made the ballpark home. The Cubs still have their official mascot, Clark the Cub, but he's never been as beloved as the Rat Hole rat, much less Chance the Snapper, the alligator from the Humboldt Park Lagoon, or Monty and Rose, the piping plovers from Montrose Beach. Epstein once threw a fastball at the mascot during a ceremonial first pitch at the Cubs' minor-league park in South Bend, Ind., saying they had a 'love-hate relationship.' Clark also does not wear pants. Perhaps the Cubs will find another goose to replace PGA in the bleachers and give fans a reason to believe this is their year. If not, they're on their own.
