Mr. Trash is the best mascot in the world

July 12th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

All told, once you get over the age of say, 11, mascots sort of lose their luster. Where you once hunted them down in stadiums, fawning for an autograph or a warm embrace, you’re more likely to yell “down in front” at their oversized torsos and multicolored heads.

But, you know, this Mr. Trash guy, this is something I can get behind.

When the music fades, Mr. Trash whips out a plastic garbage bag - as if producing a dove from thin air. Then, as if that needed topping, he proceeds. To. Pick. Up. Trash. Slowly. He goes fan to fan, collecting mustard-smeared wrappers and empty cups.

This is not the sort of act that wows them at Carnegie Hall. But people love him.

“He’s great,” Eileen Boyer of Deptford said at the game Tuesday night. “I think he’s a good dancer.”

These days, it’s not just the team’s Finley the shark who gets invited to carnivals and Little League events. The Polish American barbecue couldn’t possibly proceed without Mr. Trash.

“It has gone to his head a little bit,” Cohen conceded.

How could it not? To be Mr. Trash is to live on the edge.

“In one sense, it’s terrific, because it’s a great public-service message: We’re eco-friendly. We’re trying to teach young people to pick up, to not be litterbugs,” said professor Robert Jarvis, who cowrote a study on mascots.

“On the other hand,” he said, “you open yourself up to all sorts of snickers and side comments. Does Mr. Trash take out the team if the team isn’t very good?”

Snickers? Side comments? You’ll find none here. Good day and good deed, Mr. Trash. Good day and good deed.

{HT: Shakedown Sports.}