Meet The Newest North Carolina Sports Mascot
A professional North Carolina sports team debuted a new mascot for the franchise on Tuesday. The Greensboro Grasshoppers introduced the world to Guilly the Grasshopper. Guilly is a pirate grasshopper (because of course those exist). According to the Grasshoppers organization Guilly has spent many years at sea. However, the green pirate insect has decided it was “high time to hop on home to the shores of Greensboro”. Why? Well, he was ready to reunite with his distant relative, current Grasshoppers mascot, and lovable landlubber Guilford.
The Greensboro Grasshoppers are the triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Guilly joins a host of other North Carolina professional sports mascots including Sir Purr (Carolina Panthers), Hugo (Charlotte Hornets), Homer (Charlotte Knights), and Stormy (Carolina Hurricanes). I recently ranked (and roasted) the Major League Baseball mascots. You can find those rankings at the end of this article. And after looking at those the majority of which were weird muppet-like characters that didn’t represent the teams, I have to say I’m in favor of Guilly. While I don’t quite get the pirate angle (Greensboro is landlocked), and least he is a grasshopper. For a team named the Grasshoppers. He’s also fairly normal looking and not at all as creepy. So go Guilly, welcome to the Carolinas. And Go Grasshoppers!
A Mathematical Ranking Of MLB Mascots From “WTF Is That Creepy Thing” To “That’s Adorable”
I think I was just spoiled with the teams I attended games for growing up. Between Sir Purr of The Panthers, Hugo The Hornet, Homer The Dragon of the Charlotte Knights, and Mr. and Mrs. Wuf of NC State, these are some pretty normal mascots. The first wow that’s ridiculous mascot I remember seeing was Otto The Orange from Syracuse University. It’s just an orange ball, that I have personally witnessed get on the ground and roll. Then I was at the uptown Charlotte tree lighting one time ahead of the ACC Championship Game. And each of the ACC mascots was there. It was at that moment I realized how creepy some of these mascots can be. But even the worst of those ACC ones, Otto included (I actually kind of love the ridiculousness of him), are better than most MLB mascots. Which is why I’m ranking the MLB mascots.
What My Ranking of MLB Mascots Is Based On
But instead of just best to worst, we are going from WTF to cute. Because when I decided to do this, I had no idea just how bizarre the vast majority of MLB mascots are. Most of these make no sense and have nothing to do with the team name. At all. So for these rankings, I gave each mascot a score in two different categories relevancy (aka does it have anything to do with the team name) and a creepiness score. Each mascot was ranked 1-10. In terms of relevancy, 10 is the most relevant. Let’s use the Carolina Panthers NFL team as an example. The team name is Panthers, and the mascot Sir Purr, is a panther, therefore they would get a 10. And creepiness score 1 is I would have nightmares over this thing, and 10 is that’s cute I’d get a picture made and maybe by the plush for my future child.
Disclaimer I am a casual baseball fan, who honestly had never seen any of these mascots until this ranking. And this is all in good fun. So with that being said enjoy my mathematical ranking of MLB Mascots from “WTF Is That Creepy Thing” to “That’s Adorable” except in reverse order.
**Note that the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, and Los Angeles Dodgers do not have official mascots and were not included in this ranking of MLB Mascots.
