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Baseball Mascots and Clowns Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to start photo gallery:
Baseball Mascots and Clowns
“Lefthanders, hunchbacks and cross-eyed people were all considered (lucky). …Touching a hunchback was popularly believed to bring good luck!” –Harold Seymour, quoted in Baseball, The Golden Age.
My recent post about Eddie Gaedel got me thinking about some of the other “little people” who were on the periphery of the major leagues over the decades, namely baseball mascots. Probably the most well-known were Louis Van Zelst of the Philadelphia Athletics and Eddie Bennett of the Yankees. But there were others as well.
Ty Cobb had his own personal mascot, L’l Rautus, a little African-American orphan Cobb found hanging around the Detroit ball park in 1908. Cobb became the boy’s protector, feeding and housing him and eventually taking him to Georgia. Not to be outdone, Babe Ruth also his own personal mascot, Little Ray Kelly. One day the Babe saw this little three-year-old kid playing catch with his father and was impressed about how well the kid played. He invited the boy to Yankee stadium in 1923 and he became Ruth’s good luck charm for 10 years. Another mascot was Brownie Burke of the Cincinnati Reds. In the Negro Leagues, Richard “King Tut” was a mascot for the Indianapolis Clowns for twenty years.
Here’s a few words about the most famous of the baseball mascots, Louis Van Zelst, from the early decades of baseball with excerpts edited from an article I found on him:
“Legendary mascot Louis Van Zelst was born in 1895 and was disfigured with a “hunchback,” the result of an early childhood fall. After serving as a mascot for a few teams at the University of Pennsylvania, Van Zelst came to know some of the Philadelphia A’s players and their manager, Connie Mack. Van Zelst approached Mack in 1909 claiming he was lucky, and after giving him a tryout, Mack was sufficiently superstitious to believe him and bring him on. Van Zelst began as the Athletics’ mascot and bat boy in 1910, and, living up to his good luck billing, the A’s went on to win the 1910 pennant and World Series. Van Zelst was paid a nice bonus for his contributions to the team’s good fortune. The Athletics also won the World Series in 1911 and 1913, before losing in 1914. Van Zelst had four Series appearances and three championships to his name as a mascot, which is about as good as it gets for ‘mascots.’”
“In the day-to-day, Van Zelst was on hand for pretty much every home game and many road games. Prior to each game, players would walk over and rub his humpback for good luck. Such practices were not rare in those days. They stemmed from the rather out-of-control belief in superstitions which resulted in midgets, humpbacks and other unfortunates joining the ranks of youngsters in the dugouts of major league baseball teams. In Baseball: The Golden Age, Harold Seymour explains that …. Indeed, the crosstown Phillies would soon match the A’s with a hunchback mascot of their own. Van Zelst was popular with both Athletics players and visitors, and was even invited to second baseman Eddie Collins’ wedding. At one point Mack tried to send him out to coach first base before the umpire told him to return to the dugout. Unfortunately, Van Zelst fell ill after the 1914 season and soon died of kidney disease. After advancing to the World Series with Van Zelst in 1914, the Athletics finished in last place in 1915, the first of seven consecutive years they’d finish in the basement.”
Click on the link to see a photo gallery of baseball mascots. I expanded it to include baseball “clowns” as well:
-Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from public domain
Information: Edited from article on Louis Van Zelst, read more at https://cococrispafro.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/the-philadelphia-athletics-and-their-hunchbacked-mascot/
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