The Innings and Outs of Racing Mascots

On June 27^th, 1993 the gates opened on the warning track at the Milwaukee Brewer’s County Stadium, releasing a gang of sausages that would soon become permanent icons in baseball. Since then, each Brewers home game features the Johnsonville Hot Dog, Bratwurst, Polish Sausage, Italian Sausage, and Chorizo. These mascots challenge each other to a foot race from 3^rd base to 1^st base, always between the top and bottom of the 6^th inning.

Despite Milwaukee being the first, many other teams have incorporated racing mascots into their game day festivities. In the nearly 30 years since they took the field, teams across the MLB, semi-pro leagues, and collegiate conferences have adopted their own creative versions of the racing mascots.

As for Today:

The league boasts a variety of mascots that compete to be the fastest; from the National’s Racing Presidents, where Abe Lincoln squares off with George Washington and a variety of other past presidents, to an assortment of Pepsi products at the Tampa Bay Ray’s home games. Even the semi-pro leagues have them, like the Inland Empire 66er’s with their Racing Pineapples! In other words, racing mascots have become a common part of the baseball experience at all levels of baseball. Heck, people love them so much that they’re starting to show up at weddings!

Lucky for you, Olympus has tons of experience with racing mascots! We’ve made dozens of racers for teams all over the country. This all started out with our first iterations of the racing sausages nearly 30 years ago! It is safe to say we know a thing or two about racing mascots, and if you find yourself wanting some racing mascots of your own, we have some tips and tricks that may be able to help you get off to the races.

Developing your racers:

Before you do anything, you need to decide what exactly will be racing at your ballgames:

What kind of characters will you and your fans relate to? The Houston Astro’s team name comes from the world-famous NASA facility, located in Houston. Their racing mascots are 3 spacemen named Apollo, Doc Rocket and Squeeze.
When will you be racing your mascots, and how often? Some teams run during the 2^nd inning; others run during the 7^th inning stretch. Will you be racing every home game? Or just a special few?
Who will be racing your mascots? Some organizations get their fans to participate, while others hire a staff that are dedicated racing mascots for an entire season. This decision will affect how you design your racers.

Designing Your Racers:

We certainly don’t expect you to have every detail lined out perfectly, but our expert design team will have some questions for you once we get the ball rolling. To help you out, here are some examples to help you prep for the mascot design process:

What body type do you expect your actor/actress to be? People come in all shapes and sizes, but mascot costumes are usually tailored in a general height/weight range for their user.
How active will your mascot need to be? It will be racing so keep that in mind. Some mascot costumes have open bottoms allowing the legs to be unaffected. This is the system that the Milwaukee Brewer’s Racing Sausages and many others use.
What material will it be made from? Most mascot costumes are made from foam, which is light and flexible, but is less rigid than those made from molded plastics.

For a more in-depth look into the mascot design process click here!

Marketing Your Racers:

Organizations come to us with a variety of budgets. If you’re on a smaller budget, or need ideas on how to generate ROI (Return on Investment), we have just the guide for you! Otherwise, here are a few quick tips:

Racing mascots are prime opportunity for corporate sponsorships. Your sponsor may even help you finalize what mascots you want to use. A perfect example of this is the Cleveland Indian’s Sugardale Hot Dog Derby.
Racing mascots can help you appeal to children and sell more tickets in the process. As we know, baseball games can run for a long time, racing mascots are a wonderful way to keep children’s attention span and build lifelong fans!
Racing mascots can do more than just race! You can certainly attend events outside the ballpark, like picnics, fun runs, or your local marathon!

Mascot races are an undeniably fun part of the baseball and ultimately improve the ballpark experience.

If you are interested in getting a mascot project started, please click here or fill out the form below to speak with one of our mascot experts!