Dandy (mascot)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dandy was a short-lived mascot of the New York Yankees. He was a large pinstriped bird that sported a Yankees hat. He had a mustache that gave him an appearance similar to that of former Yankee pitcher Sparky Lyle. His name was a play on the classic American folk song Yankee Doodle Dandy. He appeared at the start of the 1980 season and was so unpopular that he was quickly cancelled. Aside from this brief experiment, the Yankees have never had an official costumed mascot roam the stands or perform on the field.
The likely reason for the rapid and abysmal failure of the Dandy Mascot owes to the fact that the Yankees are a tradition-rich team, a fact not lost on the fans. Fans certainly received Dandy as a manipulative and shalow gimick which in the minds of the Yankee fan threatened to put the yankees in an essentially inferior class of Baseall Teams, which have relied upon gimicks to earn fan affections. To the Yankee fan, fan affection historically was earned on the field of play, and remains preserved on the field of play. Finally, the very absence of a Yankee mascot is testemonial of the extraordinary standing of the team amongst all other teams. So, to introduce a mascot to a team so-described risks to seem insulting to fans, and risks debasing the very tradition and history which makes people love the Yankees to begin with.
