No More Chicken?

The San Diego Chicken is thinking of retiring – says so right in the SinCity newspaper. If you don’t know who or what the Chicken is, then you’re either not from San Diego or haven’t been to a minor league baseball game in many, many years. The Chicken was perhaps the first and certainly the most iconic of baseball mascots. All the others – the Fanatics, the dinosaurs, the Indian chiefs, the bratwursts, etc. – have one thing in common: they owe their existence to the Chicken.

MLB was floundering around, trying to rebuild flagging fan interest; NFL teams had their cheerleaders in skimpy get-ups a la Dallas Cowgirls to catch attention. Ted Giannoulas convinced the San Diego Padres that his crazy Chicken would boost attendance and fan loyalty, and it did. So much so that it was his undoing. Other MLB teams began developing their own mascots – some good, some lame, some really bad – and frequently hired the Chicken to “train” the newcomers. Even the San Diego Padres came up with a fat Friar as a mascot (who, by the way, was one of the really bad ones).

The Chicken soon found himself relegated to minor league games, county fairs, second-tier rodeos, and other similar events. But for 35 years, the quality of his performances has never suffered – just look at the faces of the hordes of children who trail after him and reverently reach out a small hand, just for a quick little touch. Over 100 of his gags are copyrighted and remain fresh and funny each time he uses them.

Our family spent many happy hours at the San Diego stadium, watching baseball and laughing at the Chicken. In later years, after GolfGuy and I became thoroughly disenchanted with MLB and the spoiled, drug-abusing, money-grubbing brats employed by it, we would travel about an hour to attend minor league games at a small town north of us. By then, that team had its own mascot – something that was supposed to be a tornado, as I recall – but NOTHING could replace the Chicken as far as we were concerned.

If the Chicken does decide to hang up his feathers, he will be missed by more people than he could possibly imagine.