Stomper, the Oakland A's Elephant Mascot

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a sports fan, and that although I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm still pretty clueless about the baseball leagues here. (I've been to one pro game in my life, and that was at Yankee stadium in New York.) So when I saw this cute little elephant logo for the Oakland Athletics baseball team on a gift card at the Safeway checkout counter, it was a surprise to me. I was only familiar their traditional green and gold "A" logo.

When I got home and announced to my husband, a die-hard NY Yankees fan, that I was now an Oakland A's fan, I thought he might boot me out of the house. Instead, he looked at me with some measure of shock that I was declaring a team affiliation at all, and totally understood that if they have an elephant mascot that of course, they're my team. It also helped that his second-favorite team is our local Oakland A's. He never much paid attention to the elephant logo before though. For some mysterious reason, he's more interested in the sport of baseball, where I'm only interested in elephants in baseball.

Curious about the history of their elephant mascot, I did a little online research. Apparently, the A's white elephant mascot has been around since 1902. He's come in and out of use, but in recent years he makes public appearances at the games and goes by the name of Stomper.

Here's the fun part though. I was thinking that if he performs at games, then someone must have uploaded a video online. Yes, of course! What's so charming about Stomper's performances is that he is totally quirky and eclectic as the city of Oakland. His official theme song might be from Disney's Jungle Book, but his pre-game shows include get-up and get-down music by James Brown and Kool and the Gang. Stomper is also a totally hot hip-hop dancer.

I just love living in the Bay Area. Go A's!

If you're reading via RSS feed or email, click these links to watch Stomper's YouTube videos.

Stomper grooving on some James Brown and Morris Day.

Stomper dancing to "I Go to Work"

Comments

[Nayah]

Stomper is the best

[quee]

In 1901 Connie Mack and his Philadelphia Athletics became one of the original founders of the American League. In 1902 New York Giants Manager John McGraw dismissed the A's with contempt, by calling them "The White Elephants." He meant to imply that Mack shouldn't be allowed to spend money without supervision. Well, Connie Mack took up the gauntlet and defiantly adopted the White Elephant as the team insignia. That year, 1902, the A's won the American League pennant -- much to the unvoiced chagrin of John McGraw. This is from the A's history page.... To be simple... It's the Oakland Athletics' oldest logo.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_the_elephant_on_the_left_sleeve_of_the_Oakland_Athletics_uniform_represent#ixzz26oJs0S2s