Two Designers Walk Into A Bar

Episode 20: Oranges in Syracuse, Sausages in Milwaukee and the Origin Stories of Sports Mascots

Released September 1, 2021
© 2021 Two Designers Media, LLC

Speaker 0: I don't know. That was alright. Oh,

Speaker 1: that was great.

Speaker 0: I'll do one's great. I'll do one more. Real quick. You don't need a day. Keep you. 
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The best thing about hosting a podcast is where you don't gotta do nothing. 
Todd, would

Speaker 1: you

Speaker 0: like best about hosting the podcast? Man, just hang out. Alright.

Speaker 1: Getting to talk to Allie at every night's

Speaker 0: time.

Speaker 1: Welcome to two designers walking to a bar, a place where a pop culture created, to stow her design icons make us too, and we share a few cocktails in the

Speaker 0: process. You may consider them funny, bizarre, or annoying, but there's no question that they are the biggest fans of their home team.

Speaker 1: No. We don't mean little league parents. Today, we're talking sports mascots.

Speaker 0: So grab your batting helmet that holds a couple of cold beers, a box of cracker jack in your favorite foam finger. Let's

Speaker 1: all give three cheers as we belly up to the bar. Well, Elliot, here we are. Back around the bar, man. Happy summer. That's when we're recording this. 
It will probably play a little bit later. Hopefully, it'll play a little bit later.

Speaker 0: My time machine's broken, so I don't think it's gonna play sooner.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 0: Tellurian's still in the shop, unfortunately.

Speaker 1: One of the great things about summer is all of the activities that you go to. You know, those You go to like a park and you see characters dressed. They do funny things. You can get your photo taken with them. Get autographs.

Speaker 0: Oh, you mean an amusement park. Right?

Speaker 1: Well, I was thinking more actually today about like sports park like a like a baseball park or something like that. Something like sports mascots, not the creepy mascots that you may see. At a theme park. But creepy mascots you might see at a sports park.

Speaker 0: Well, that that clears it all up then.

Speaker 1: Okay. Good. Good. Good. Good. 
So you you got any that might be on the top of your head today.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Actually, I do. And this is I won't say a mascot. It's actually a collection of mascots that I'm not sure are popular really outside of their hometown, except for a little bit of a a legal incident that happened that I will get into later in the episode.

Speaker 1: Interesting. This is not anything to do with the seven dwarfs. Right?

Speaker 0: No.

Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. Good. I just thought that might not be who people would expect. That's interesting. 
Well, I've got I got one that's really well known and has kind of a crazy backstory to it that I don't think a lot of people are familiar with, and it happens well, I I I don't know if I wanna give it away yet, who mine is, because I might want you to try to guess, but I could give you one clue and you would get it.

Speaker 0: Oh, okay. Well, I'll tell you what. You mentioned guessing. So how about we jump in with mine first? Just because it's a little bit oddball. 
Okay. And I I'm not gonna have you try to guess the mascot because or were mascots in this case? Because I think that might be that might be a bit unfair, a bit challenging. I'll admit it was, for me, I I knew of these guys loosely before doing the research. But what I will do is we'll see if you can guess the city. 
How about that?

Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. And

Speaker 0: then maybe from that, you can try to guess the team. Is that fair?

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 0: Philadelphia. Okay. I I'm

Speaker 1: just going right for the team.

Speaker 0: Yeah. You're going for the muscular. Okay. Yeah. I like Right. 
For

Speaker 1: the the the city with with the craziest mascot.

Speaker 0: Now, I will admit this was tough because you were spot on in terms of veering in on Philadelphia. Philly fanatic, gritty -- Yeah. -- we know about both of these. Right? But

Speaker 1: -- Right. Right. --

Speaker 0: but they're again, they're nationally known. They're both very nonsensical WTF, kinda like, what are these guys all about? And as you know, pretty has been involved with the law. You know, there was the lawsuit that he pushed the kid down from behind. Somebody

Speaker 1: fought the law in the law Actually,

Speaker 0: I think gritty one. I think he was a a rain put in. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 
I'm not sure if it was ever dramatized as a law and order episode. You know, I'm not sure if there's a gritty rip from the headlines episode. We'll need to double check

Speaker 1: on this. There should be. There

Speaker 0: should you know, Dick Wolf, if you're listening, you can just send

Speaker 1: us the ideas. Right? Yeah. Just send

Speaker 0: us the residuals once it's made. But anyway, no. So not filled Delphia.

Speaker 1: Okay. That's Philadelphia.

Speaker 0: But Philly, of course, known for its cheese steak, you and I have both been to Philadelphia. Mhmm. And this is another city known regionally for, you know, certain types of foods or actually known for a specific type of beverage. How about that? Oh.

Speaker 1: Okay. And give me just a general region.

Speaker 0: Okay.

Speaker 1: So I like East Coast, West Coast -- Yeah. -- Midwest South. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Let's just say there's a collect of lakes near this particular city. Would

Speaker 1: it happen to be Minneapolis?

Speaker 0: No. It would not happen to be Minneapolis. No, but that's a great Land of ten thousand lakes, we've both been there too.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And Thousand Island dressing. Oh, that's in Canada, actually, I think. I

Speaker 0: thought that was Hidden Valley.

Speaker 1: Hidden Valley Ranch is in the south, buddy.

Speaker 0: Oh, okay.

Speaker 1: You know that. Saint Louis. Saint Louis. I don't know if it's in your legs. It's in your body.

Speaker 0: That is so Close, of course, Anheuser Busch. So you're zero you're zeroing in on it because -- Okay. -- it's beer. I will

Speaker 1: say that's a beer. You guess, well, Yeah. Okay. So okay. It's not Saint Louis. 
I'm gonna take a a a run and say it's not a big city like Chicago, but perhaps another one very well known as a beer capital of the US, Milwaukee.

Speaker 0: You're staying some home of shots brewery and also home of the baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 0: Okay. So being a Midwesterner, I had to turn to a Midwestern city. So hello? I'm Milwaukee.

Speaker 1: Hello. Milwaukee. Yes.

Speaker 0: HassonFebvre Incorporated. Exactly right. So as it

Speaker 1: Look that up, kids. Yeah.

Speaker 0: As it we'll put a link to that in our

Speaker 1: episode page. Yeah.

Speaker 0: So as it turns out, the brewers in fact have several mascots. Okay?

Speaker 1: Oh. Yeah.

Speaker 0: I mean, you know, why bother? Why why at only one when you can have a bunch. Right? So their main one is Bernie Brewer. And this makes sense. 
Right? So he's sort of a German Mac type character who is you guessed it, a mustachioed beer brewer. And actually, you know, so he's going around spreading the good cheer. I'm not sure if he's actually giving away free beer at the ballpark because that's not a recipe for profitability. No.

Speaker 1: That's a liability, Susan.

Speaker 0: Yes. It is. Then, of course, there is the lesser known barrel man. And barrel man kind of hard arkens back to our Ad Mask Scots a little bit.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 0: Yeah. So he is an anthropomorphic beer barrel carrying a bat. So I'm guessing that this name is sort of a pun in part on the barrel of a bat as well. So of course, the the keg that makes a barrel man's body. Mhmm. 
Okay. But let's forget about those. Let's let's push a Bernie Brewer and Barrel man off to the side because today -- Mhmm. -- the group of mascots that we're highlighting are the famous racing sausages.

Speaker 1: Say say what?

Speaker 0: Apparently, they're not that famous. I'm

Speaker 1: not familiar with this.

Speaker 0: Well, apparently, you've never been to a brewers game.

Speaker 1: So, no, I haven't. And I don't know how Well, I can see how sausages may have a role in Milwaukee, but I don't know what they would have to do with baseball or anything like that.

Speaker 0: Did you just purpose use the word sausage and roll in the same sentence.

Speaker 1: I I did not, but it really just, you know, it really played out just beautifully.

Speaker 0: You're just that magically brilliant.

Speaker 1: It's just magically brilliant.

Speaker 0: Okay. Yeah. So the big question, right, how does sausages figure in a baseball? These are not I mean, you know, you have hot dogs that a ballpark, right, kinda loosely, but that's a far stretch from saying, hey, you know what we ought to do. Let's turn this into our mascot, especially when they're not the Milwaukee hot dogs or the Milwaukee sausages. 
Right? So what what happened here? So As we all know, baseball has always had wacky promotions. You go to especially minor league games and there's all kinds of crazy stuff that goes You know, there's always gimmicks to keep the crowd's attention, get fans on the field, And of course, celebrate local sponsors. Right? 
Mhmm. So the brewers played at Milwaukee County Stadium from nineteen seventy to two thousand. And for movie buffs out there, here's a pop culture reference. Growing up in Cleveland for me, I love the film major league with Tom Behringer, Charlie Sheen. And when that was filmed, the exteriors were municipal stadium, which was at the time where the Indians played. 
But the stadium was so dilapidated. On the inside, the movie crew said, uh-uh, this ain't happening here. And so they actually filmed the interior scenes in Milwaukee County Stadium. So there's your little bit of Trumi about that. Oh. 
So it has had its Hollywood moment. Okay? So while the brewers were playing there, in the early nineties, there was a local sausage company called Clement's sausage company, and they wanted to push the sausages that they were selling at the ballpark. Right? You know, they wanna

Speaker 1: Everybody always wants to push the sausage, man.

Speaker 0: I'll leave that alone. Okay. Yeah. I think so. So they decided that a fun thing to do at the bottom of the six inning would be a scoreboard animation with three sausages racing across it. 
Right? Mhmm. So you remember you know, seventies, eighties, he probably went to baseball games. And and again, that that scoreboard is also a major league. They have, you know, it's, of course, Indians animations, So if anyone wants to see the scoreboard just watch the first major league movie and it's featured prominently in there during the scenes with games. 
Okay. So it all began with three characters representing three different types of ausages. There is broth, which, of course, was the broth worst. I'm sure you could figure

Speaker 1: that out. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 0: There's Polish sausage, so he was a kilbasa.

Speaker 1: Mhmm.

Speaker 0: And then there was Italian sausage. And I think I guess his name was self explanatory. There's no other, you know, name a pretty Italian sausage like it wasn't called Mario or something. So for a while, there was this animation and it was pleasing to the fans. And then one fan actually had an idea. 
So in the fall of nineteen ninety two, Milwaukee graphic designer Michael Dillon, so a guy named Michael Dillon of Dill design, a local firm in in Milwaukee, presented an idea to Gabe Paul, who, at the time, was the VP of Operations for the brewers. And Dylan wanted to transform the race from a scoreboard animation to live action. So he actually wanted to see this play out on the field. So up until that point, the animation always played out on the scoreboard. But on June twenty seventh nineteen ninety three, as the sausages approached Milwaukee County Stadium on the scoreboard video, the left field doors swung open and much did the surprise of both the players and the fans. 
Out came these larger than life mascots racing around the field. Mhmm. So they the three made their way to home plate with a brought worse and Dylan Michael Dylan was in fact a brought worse -- Oh. -- winning the first ever live race. This is sort of when I don't know when Fantasy meets reality. 
Right? You know? Yeah. This guy just had this idea and boom. There it is. 
Play down on the field.

Speaker 1: Yeah. You think it was rigged that the Dylan won?

Speaker 0: I I don't know. We maybe we can find him and ask him.

Speaker 1: I guess that's a whole other podcast there.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're always looking for the legal angle, Todd.

Speaker 1: I know. I know. I know the drama. But that's that's very cool. I'm sure the I'm sure the fans and the players were sort of blown away by that.

Speaker 0: Yeah. Hundred percent. So for the remainder of that season, the nineteen ninety three season. The sausages race live only at games with high attendance. You know, they weren't gonna bust these guys out, probably had to, you know, pay them in if not sausages, actual money to run around the stadium. 
So what there were a handful of games. Popular teams would swing through town, and so they would have the sausages make an appearance. So the live sausage race resumes on Sunday, May twenty ninth nineteen ninety four. The day the brewer retired Robin Young's number nineteen Jersey, so baseball fans. I'm sure certainly in Milwaukee will remember when that happen. 
So after that day, they became a fixture at every home game since then. So up until current time, they've there's always been the sausage race. So the people inside the costumes are brewers' employees, but there have been some celebrities from time to time wearing the costume students, including former baseball and football players and the Sportscaster Dan Patrick and his crew. So that would be pretty funny to see.

Speaker 1: Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Speaker 0: So the race then expanded as time went on to include two more sausages. So there was hotdog, who was introduced in the mid nineties, and I think that only makes sense if anyone's ever been to a baseball game. Later in nineteen ninety six, Teresa was introduced, and he was introduced to celebrate Cerro's stay at and that's a Spanish word for beer maker. So beer maker's day. Mhmm. 
So the Latino community was being celebrated for their contribution to baseball and he became a permanent member of the race in two thousand and seven. Okay? Okay. Okay. So we have five sausages. 
But wait, there's more. Right? In the in the famous words of Rampopeel. In two thousand and four teen. A stray dog wandered into the park, and the team adopted him and named him Hank. 
After Hank Aaron, So for baseball buffs, you know, what does that have to do with Milwaukee? So Hank Aaron originally played for the Milwaukee Braves. Before they move to Boston and then they move to Atlanta. So Hank the dog usually doesn't win the sausage race, but apparently he's very popular on Twitter.

Speaker 1: Mhmm. And

Speaker 0: then also, there's a group called The Little Weenies. And so these are smaller versions of the costumes that kids dress up in. And then they're on the field as well hanging around with the the, I don't know, the Big Weenies or the Adam. I guess the as sausages. I mean, sounds illegal, but it's it's all in good fun.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 0: Now there are a couple of crazy stories. You know, we can't be sad by just talking about something. There's always kinda mean these crazy stories. So I feel like I've gone on long enough talking about these sausages. So, Todd, I wanna have a guessing game with you. 
Alright. And then maybe we can spill the tea with one another stories. How about that?

Speaker 1: Great. Well, let me get into a a a clue here. I'm gonna give you the biggest one that you will probably guess. Well, you'll narrow it down. You'll have a fifty fifty chance. 
This is a university mascot for one of the universities I attended.

Speaker 0: Let's see.

Speaker 1: So you got you got a fifty fifty chance.

Speaker 0: Okay. Well, I mean, I know it's either gonna be a pirate?

Speaker 1: A pirate. Yeah.

Speaker 0: For East Carolina or Syracuse, which is an orange, which is strange, though, like ECU, I understand, because it's kinda near the outer banks. Yeah. Right. But Syracuse in New York State, Northern New York. Not

Speaker 1: not a lot of citrus, but

Speaker 0: not not citrus groves, apples maybe, but not Yeah. I I don't know. Okay. So I'll I'll I'll I'll take a shot in the dark and just say the orange. How about that?

Speaker 1: You're okay. Bingo. Right. And you nailed it. That's exactly why I wanted to look into the Syracuse orange because I couldn't really understand what was so big about citrus and upstate New York. 
And so I did attend there, but when I attended the they did have this character named Otto the Orange, but they were still known as the Orange Men. And around campus and and in sort of the the the main street there in Syracuse, right, near campus. You saw some illustrations, some illusion to native Americans too.

Speaker 0: Which makes a lot more sense given the region of the country.

Speaker 1: It does and it makes you feel a little icky, you know, that they were called the Orange Man. But let me let me tell you a little bit about I'm gonna tell you the story a little bit in reverse. First of all, Otto the Orange is who I'm talking about. And to describe him, he literally is a fuzzy round orange, sphere, kind of androgynous. Nothing gender wise, unique about auto. 
He wears a baseball cap. He slightly evolved over the years. But what I was really captivated by, as I said, it's an orange ball. And I had growing up, you know, being a big basketball fan. I had heard of Syracuse, and I had seen the other mascots that they had that was a Native American. 
When they were known as the Orange Men. So, obviously, that was changed and for good reason, But here's a little bit of the history, which is really interesting. First, let me let me give you a little bit of geography. Syracuse in upstate New York, it was named after the ancient city on the eastern coast of Sicily. Called Sarakusa. 
And Sarakusa was heavily influenced by both the Romans and the Greeks. It was a major trading port. So the founders of Syracuse, New York looked at the Rolling Hills, looked at the canals, the rivers, and and thought, you know, classic Saracosa. Actually, they did wanna name it Corinth, but then learned that there was another corn. So anyway, that's a different story. 
Alright. So that's part one. Now, the Native American tribe that was very prominent in that area. It's called the Anadaga nation. And they're one of five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. 
And what was cool, the the way Syracuse got started was the Anadoga Nation invited a group of Jezois priests some soldiers and a French coure d'Ivoire, which literally means wood runner. Or fur trader to set up a mission among the Iroquois in upstate New York. So this kind of diverse group with the support and the foundation of the Anadagination set up the first mission there. Alright. So that lays the groundwork a little bit. 
Now let me talk about the university. So the university began in eighteen seventy. And they're widely known now as Syracuse Orange. Right? But unfortunately, in the early days, their school colors were pig green and rose pink, which sounds like if you've eaten bad soup, something that might come back to to visit you. 
So those colors thankfully didn't last long. They were quickly changed. And in eighteen ninety, the colors and the the mascot theme was chosen to be orange to represent the Dutch House of Orange. Which were also major settlers of the upstate New York area. So now, they're called Syracuse orange. 
In honor of the Dutch House of Orange. And so they thought after that, well, we need a mascot to go with this. So Elliott, Question for you. Sure. With a nickname like Syracuse Orange and a city founded through the generosity of the Anadaga, native Americans.

Speaker 0: What

Speaker 1: would be a great mascot? You're right. You're right. Orioles. Obviously, Orioles.

Speaker 0: That would be great, actually.

Speaker 1: That lasted a bit, and then they changed to the Syracuse hill toppers. Okay. And that was a little of like, none of that was really ringing true. Now, that brings us up to a report in nineteen thirty one about the findings of the remains of a great chief His name was Ogiceta, Hashin Nagata. It's

Speaker 0: a great Japanese name of American chief.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Okicata, Horstin Nagata. And the chief's remains were found when they were removing the an old women's gym. So with such who blah. This inspired the school and the supporters to honor mister Okigata portion Nagata by adopting the translation of his name as their mascot. 
So then they became known as the Syracuse salty and warrior.

Speaker 0: And that's when the Nabisco money started pouring in. Right?

Speaker 1: I I think that would make sense. Right? But salty warrior I mean, where what is that?

Speaker 0: Right. Right. Because Syracuse is near the great lakes. Right? So

Speaker 1: Well and I didn't know this, but Syracuse is colloquially known as Salt City. Due to prosperous salt harvest. Mhmm. And it's not from salt mines. It's from saltwater springs that they harvest. 
Really. So Yeah. Yeah. And they sold it. Like, you know, it it was huge, very prosperous. 
As a matter of fact, rumor has it that Syracuse salt is one of the reasons that the north won the Civil War because they were able to preserve their foods better than the Southerners did. There was just such an abundance of Syracuse salt.

Speaker 0: I bet the syrupy salt would taste great on a Milwaukee broth.

Speaker 1: I bet that would. Okay. So If you're keeping score, Syracuse's athletics is built from Native Americans, a Dutch royal family, and salt.

Speaker 0: But

Speaker 1: there's more to the story, Elliot. It doesn't come out as easy as that. And I'm gonna Hold on to that little cliffhanger till I hear a little bit more about the famous sausages.

Speaker 0: Okay. Alright. Yeah. I like it a cliffhanger for the audience. Okay. 
It makes makes total sense because I'm still not connecting the dots with how we get to a physical orange. Todd, this might be our worst episode yet. Get it?

Speaker 1: Yeah, Elliot. I get it. Now that we've lost all of our listeners, we may as well head to the bar to grab the next round. See you in a minute. Hi. 
While we have your attention, if you wanna learn more about us and the podcast, there are a few ways to do it.

Speaker 0: Visit our website at two designers walk into a bar dot com. All of that is spelled out. No numbers.

Speaker 1: Kind of a long URL. So do yourself a favor and bookmark it. Once you're there, you can find links to more information about the subject in this episode, our episode archive, and information about both of us. Wade, we do want people to visit. Right? 
Wait. Oh, and look for us on social media. You can find those links on our website as well.

Speaker 0: And while we're at it, if you have a friend who you feel will dig on our rambling.

Speaker 1: Tell him or her what we're up to.

Speaker 0: While we can't guarantee that they will remain your friend, we can guarantee that they will listen to at least thirty seconds of whatever episode you send them the link to.

Speaker 1: That's being a little shameless.

Speaker 0: And speaking of being shameless, it wouldn't be a proper ask. If we didn't mention that if you like what here, you can also make a donation via our website. We have a Nigerian prince handling all transactions for us.

Speaker 1: In fact, he told us to mention that we have stickers to mail to anyone who donates ten dollars or more. Are we done? We're done. We're done.

Speaker 0: Okay. So remember how earlier I mentioned a little bit of legal trouble or, you know, a little bit of a ruckus involving the sausages. Okay. So this is known informally as the Randall Simon incident. Alright. 
So let me lay this out for you. And PS, there will be footage of this on our episode page so you guys can witness it or relive it if you're in the greater mailbox area, a baseball fan or both. So on July ninth two thousand and three, Randall Simon, who was then first basement of the Pittsburgh Pirates, decided to play a joke while sitting in the dugout between innings. Right? So visiting teams that come to Milwaukee and over time, they all became familiar with the sausage race because this would be run at the bottom of the six innings. 
So this was very well known. So he tapped Mandy Bloch who is wearing the Italian sausage costume with a bat as the sausage, you know, the cluster ran by, the five sausages ran by in the race that we mentioned. He just kinda like loosely tapped her and he didn't hit her hit, you know, the top of the the sausage costume because it's much taller than six feet. Right? But you can imagine, due to that, the center of gravity is pretty wonky, so it ended up knocking her over. 
And then she ended up kinda like bowling pins. She had ended up taking out the hotdog too. So I

Speaker 1: just love hearing you say that she ended up taking out the hotdog.

Speaker 0: That's right. That's right. So then the Polish sausage helped the Italian sausage up and all the sausages finish the race. So that's teamwork. That's that's the spirit right there. 
Right? So

Speaker 1: Man, that's the United Nations. Right?

Speaker 0: That is. That is in in in meat product form. Okay. So you're thinking, you know, it's a prank. No harm, no foul, no big deal. 
Well, Simon was arrested. He was fine. And he was suspended by Major League Baseball for three games. He ended up later apologizing. Yeah. 
Yeah. Because it was this was considered to be assault. So Oh. Yeah. So what did Mandy block one? 
Right? You know, so she was the one who got knocked down, took out her teammates in the race. Like like, what was, you know, what was what was the end game here. Right? Uh-huh. 
So she asked only that the offending bat, the bat he used, the autograft given to her. So she wanted the actual that that knocked her down autograph. So, Simon, Randall Simon actually went ahead and did it. So he he obliged. You know, I think he was genuinely sorry. 
And then later that year, Mandy Block also received a complimentary trip to Curacao, which was where Simon was from, from the Curacao tourism board. So that's not a bad deal. I hope she also received some blue carousels out because that's delicious.

Speaker 1: And I hope she received sausages too.

Speaker 0: To eat with a blue carousels out.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Well,

Speaker 0: you gotta have some to eat on the plane on the ride down.

Speaker 1: That's right.

Speaker 0: So since the incident, t shirts and other memorabilia have been sold with a slogan. Don't whack our weiner. I love that. And

Speaker 1: I've gotta be at.

Speaker 0: And This is the best part. Karma. Pittsburgh ended up losing the game two to one.

Speaker 1: That

Speaker 0: is correct. So later on -- That's great. -- what happened to to Simon aside from it it's obviously, he, you know, was a joke that that went a little far. Right? So he was later traded from the pirates to the Chicago Cubs, but that was was apparently unrelated to the sausage whacking incident.

Speaker 1: Sausage bing.

Speaker 0: He later returned to Milwaukee with a clubs for a series against the brewers. So this is actually great. So during the first game, Simon's teammates, so on the Cubs, you know, so they're in the visitor dug out. They playfully held him back as the sausages race past, and manager Dusty Baker guarded the bat rack, so he is standing around the bat rack. Like, don't even think about a pal. 
And then in the same game, Simon purchased Italian sausages for a randomly chosen sect of the crowd. So I think this guy, you know, this is this is a make good. So he was genuinely sorry. Autograph's a bat. Gives it to the gal. 
He buys a whole section of the stadium sausages, sends her on a trip to Carousel, which their far worse faith than that if, you know -- Oh. -- you know, you happen to get an accident at the workplace. Kinda like that a time I pulled the chair out and you only realized that when you were falling to the ground. You remember that?

Speaker 1: I didn't go anywhere as nice as care. So yeah.

Speaker 0: I do remember No. You you just you just you just if I remember all you did was sort of you just folded inside yourself a little it.

Speaker 1: I did. Yeah. I I went I went into a ball of shit falling and asked first on here.

Speaker 0: So we'll we'll talk about that story another time, everybody. Okay. Okay. Anyway, so that is the mainly Eagle Scandal. But wait, there's more. 
There's always gotta be more. You know, whenever sausage is involved, you always want more. Yep. So the second scandal, the Italian goes missing. So again, this isn't a law and order episode. 
This isn't an episode of Monc or Psyche. This is real life people, so you need to take this seriously. Alright. On February twenty seventh two thousand and thirteen, local news outlets reported the Italian sausage costume was missing. Alright? 
So all the other ones are hanging around, but the Italian was gone. And according to police, eyewitnesses saw someone wearing the costume leaving the Milwaukee Curling Club in Cedarburg, which is a town about twenty miles north of Milwaukee on the evening of February sixteenth. So this is two thousand thirteen. Mhmm. So someone's wearing the costume they leave. 
I'm trying to figure out how they would have fit into a car where they like riding in the back of a pickup truck? Like, did they catch a cab? Was there a sunroof involved at a convertible? I'm trying to figure out how this happened because it's February. Like, it's not like this is summer time. 
So anyway

Speaker 1: Is the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile?

Speaker 0: Yeah. Maybe, although, you know, I've seen that and there's not a lot of headroom in there either. Anyway, anyway. Okay. So he proceeds to visit several bars in the Greater Milwaukee area and posed for photographs with the patrons before disappearing again into the night. 
So, reward words were offered for the costume safe return. You know what I think this is one of those no questions asked sort of situations.

Speaker 1: Right. Right.

Speaker 0: The reward, you know, to answer your your earlier question about, did did she get sausages, you know, did out did Mandy Black get the sausages? Well, she may not have, but a perfect stranger, could have gotten a year's supply of mustard and sauerkraut from local businesses. But these went unclaimed, like nobody fessed up and wanted to claim the prize. But there was a happy ending. Okay. 
So the costume was ultimately dropped off in a hurry at a Cedarburg bar on February twenty eight, by two unidentified men. So for twelve days

Speaker 1: -- Mhmm. --

Speaker 0: they had the costume and they're having fun doing god knows what with it, but ultimately it was delivered safely to the Milwaukee Brewers. And, you know, I feel like I only need to use this pond once with a sausage outfit tied, but let's just say there was a happy ending.

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Okay. So the Italian sausage found its way back home

Speaker 0: -- Yes.

Speaker 1: -- back to the back to the the home of all the sausages. Alright. Good. And as we are talking today, Elliot, can we say that all sausages are still accounted for?

Speaker 0: As far as I know, yes.

Speaker 1: Okay. Fantastic. Okay. Good. That is a happy ending. 
Okay. So where I last left you in talking about Syracuse orange, Do you remember the story I told you about finding the remains of the great chief Okigueta or Shinanaga on campus? As they were digging up a women's gymnasium.

Speaker 0: I remember that vaguely, actually, once we started talking about salteens, I I left for a few minutes to go get a snack.

Speaker 1: Well and and just as a reminder, the great chief, his name, translated to salty

Speaker 0: mother. Yes. Now firefire.

Speaker 1: And so that captivated the imagination of students alumni faculty. Finally, we've got this this really historical tie in to our university, on the campus of our university and we can honor the on a daga tribe, native Americans that helped us found Syracuse. There was just one tiny little problem with that.

Speaker 0: Alright. What is it?

Speaker 1: That whole story was a hoax. It was completely made. Really? Yes. And however, that didn't stop them from being known as the Salting Warriors for almost fifty years. 
From nineteen thirty one to nineteen seventy eight. They were still known as the salty moor

Speaker 0: They

Speaker 1: When was this Even after Yeah. When was it? When

Speaker 0: was it discovered that this is a hoax?

Speaker 1: It was in the fifties, the nineteen fifties.

Speaker 0: And so for another So

Speaker 1: about halfway through the the forty seven year wave.

Speaker 0: Yeah. For another two decades, they just said, well, let's just ride this wave into the shore anyway.

Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah. That's right. They're like, hey, it's too popular. Everybody loves the Salting Warrior. 
Except they didn't. In nineteen seventy eight, alumni, students and faculty protested the exploitation of Native Americans for sports mascots, which, you know, there's a a a fair amount of that conversation going on now in two thousand twenty one. And this was nineteen actually nineteen seventy seven when they had those discussions and it changed in nineteen seventy eight. So they quickly pivoted from a salting warrior to something that, you know, what could really represent upstate New York with all of that history in the House of Orange. You're right, Elliott. 
A gladiator. I

Speaker 0: was thinking a windmill.

Speaker 1: Were like, a gladiator. And that was met with a huge thud. It didn't even last a year. And then they tried a troll, an orange troll.

Speaker 0: An orange troll.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Before actually giving up and not having an official mascot for seventeen years.

Speaker 0: Were they known as just the orange sort of like the Stanford

Speaker 1: -- The orange. -- like

Speaker 0: the color?

Speaker 1: Yep. Yep. They were just known as Syracuse or -- Okay. And so there was a little bit of some native American imagery still around, but it was pretty much being taken out. At that time, during that seventeen years when they didn't have an official mask got. 
Someone crafted this idea at a cheerleading camp of this round cartoonish ball orange ball. And so he started showing up and they were trying to pick out a name and they had a couple OB as in, you know, OPI Taylor from the Andy Griffin show, and auto.

Speaker 0: And

Speaker 1: the cheerleaders believing that Opie might remind people of the word dopie they decided to go with the name Otto the old

Speaker 0: one. Is this is this your seven dwarfs reference from earlier?

Speaker 1: It it might be. Yeah. Opie and Otto, and and they're all orange. So, you know, Otto kind of became this grass roots thing around campus and students really fell in love. And like I said, for seventeen years, Now we're going up into the nineties now, the nineteen nineties. 
For seventeen years, they didn't have an official mascot until the chancellor appointed a student group to design a new one expecting to get something like a lion or a

Speaker 0: woman. Okay. You

Speaker 1: know, something something that would fit with the the strength and the character of orange. The student said, oh, hell no. And said, we are sticking with auto. And in nineteen ninety five, the chancellor made it official. Otto the orange was the official mascot of the Syracuse orange.

Speaker 0: I love it. Power to the people. Yeah.

Speaker 1: And he's become really, really popular out side of just the, you know, the college. In twenty sixteen, Otto the Orange was named in the top ten college football mascots by Sports Illustrated. And the top mascot in the ACC.

Speaker 0: I've seen him in ESPN spots too, I think.

Speaker 1: Yeah. So the thing is from the outside looking man, we are all like, really, you know, it's an orange, goofy looking, fuzzy ball. It doesn't mean, you know, it's not a lion, it's not a bear, it's not a thing, it's not, you know, it's it's it's not a running sausage, you know. It's just What is it? Well, what they have fallen in love with is that auto is a kinder and gentler type of mascot. 
He's mischievous. He's you know, he brings fun like mascots, dude. But he's no fighting something or something. He's no demon, whatever. And the fans just love that this character represents them. 
As a matter of fact, Nike wanted to redraw auto. Nike were invited to come in and do an athletic rebranding. And one of the first questions was, okay, we find this character pretty odd looking and we wanna redo him for you. And the committee and Syracuse that was involved with the whole redesign project said, nope, back off, auto is not up for discussion. So It's a really a thing that kind of it started as at a cheerleader camp. 
They made just a round orange costume and it started showed up in other places. And before long, it was the the talk of the town as it were.

Speaker 0: That's awesome. I love that story.

Speaker 1: So so there's a so there's some connections here. You know, both of the mascots we talked about I see. They really fed off of fans. Mhmm. You know, there were a couple sausages that started as animated on a scoreboard that became real. 
And then they grew to a family of sausages because obviously they were popular. And same thing in the case of Syracuse Orange. They listen to the fans and the students and the faculty and in moving away from a native American to represent the sports and certainly not being called the Orange Men. And they stuck with something that was really popular. They gave people plenty of chances to say, we wanna redo something different. 
But they love it. So I think that's really great in both of our stories. It's about the fans. It's about people listening to the fans. Yeah.

Speaker 0: I think so. And I also like that it's with both teams. They're not taking themselves overly seriously through the mascot.

Speaker 1: Right. Right.

Speaker 0: I've watched some Syracuse games, football games, basketball games on TV. And when you're talking about the orange being mischievous, you're exactly right. It's really funny for example. You'll watch a basketball game and all of a sudden there'll be this orange streak that sort of goes by across the top of the screen and you realize it's the orange, like running through the stands, just causing General mayhem. And if you're willing to indulge me, I actually remember, and I'll try to find this link and make sure it's on our episode page. 
But there is a a hilarious bowl game footage or scene involving the Syracuse Orange, and it involves John Groden, who is the --

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. -- you

Speaker 0: know, he's the coach of the Raiders, Las Vegas Raiders. And he was the color guy calling this Syracuse game. It might have been a bowl game of some sort. I don't remember off the top of my head. But basically, the orange was doing something like he was either hassling the visiting team itself or visiting band, I believe it was the team because I think in college, the band is usually in the stands. 
And he was on the sideline. And So what happened was one of the players almost like the sausage incident, actually. The player, like, bombed him on the head, like, with his fist, or with his helmet or, you know, something like this. And the sausage pretenses concussed, and he kinda starts wobbling and walking all around. And he staggers over to a garbage can that's on the sideline member tends to be puking in it. 
And and then John Groden without missing a beat says, fresh squeezed orange juice. The time that was brilliant, just on the spot comedy. I loved it. I laughed out loud. For a I was crying when he said that it was because he just said it off the cuff. 
It was so brilliant.

Speaker 1: Yeah. You know? That's amazing.

Speaker 0: But then you know, a couple other things I was thinking about, Todd. I think you have an obsession with orange balls because we've talked about the seventy six sign Now we're talking about the Syracuse orange. So I'm starting to sense a through line in some of these picks for our different episodes.

Speaker 1: I'm consistent. That's you can just point to that. I'm just consistent. If there's an option to pick an orange ball You're gonna do

Speaker 0: it. Okay.

Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. And you know why? It's because it reminds me of fresh squeezed citrus like the kind that goes on a beautiful techie which we should be ordering more.

Speaker 0: Oh, I like that. I like that. And maybe we'll get a side of sausages to go with our beverages.

Speaker 1: Sounds awesome. Okay. Until next

Speaker 0: time. Alright. Let's go.