Minnesota’s International League affiliate (AAA), the Rochester Red Wings, has named Stan Cliburn their new manager.
Cliburn, 48, had been managing the Twins’ Eastern League farm club, the unfortunately named New Britain Rock Cats, for the past 5 seasons.
i went to a rock cats game this year and had a pretty good time — ‘famous christopher,’ who dresses up like one of the village people and attaches four mannequins dressed like the others to him via dowels and pulleys, performed between innings — but i was confused by their four mascots, including blooper, the walrus.
I went to a few New Britain games between ’94 and ’96, the highlight being an Eastern League playoff game between the Binghamton Mets and the club that was then known as the New Britain Red Sox. Paul Wilson started for Binghamton, but many of those in attendence were too star-struck by the presence of ESPN’s Steve Levy to pay much attention to the game.
this was during the era in which New Britain employed blind color commentator Don Wardlow. I think there was a long line of kids who wanted their picture taken with his dog. But perhaps I was hallucinating.
“but i was confused by their four mascots, including blooper, the walrus.”
Stupidly enough, the extra New Britain mascots are all from defunct teams/organizations. The eagle-looking one with the red, white, and blue uniform is the former Sammy Spirit, from the Waterbury Spirit. The walrus-looking one is from a local AOR station (WHCN) that dropped their mascot (“The Walrus”– a Beatles reference, I guess) when they went Clear Channel and switched formats.
Scouring “going out of business” sales looking for mascot uniforms seems pretty dopey to me, but what do I know.
WHERE’S THE STUPID WHALE THEN?!?!?!?
None of the Carvel stores around Connecticut have actually gone out of business, so I’m guessing that a leftover “Fudgie the Whale” mascot costume hasn’t been on the market yet.