Listen, I understand that MLB teams have multiple mascots and for example here are a few for your taste buds.
Red Sox: Wally and Tessie
Brewers: Bernie the Brewer, Barrelman and all of the Sausages
Reds: Mr. Redlegs and Gapper
Pittsburgh Pirates: The Pierogis and Pirate the Parrot
And then there’s the Tampa Bay Rays- DJ Kitty and Raymond. I did some recon and found out the following.
According the The Rays MLB website Raymond is as follow:
Background
In early 1998, Rays scouts on a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico spotted a strange looking animal. The creature, apparently drawn to the boat by the smell of hotdogs on the hibachi, climbed aboard and soon won the scouts over with his silly antics. During the excitement, a scout had a brilliant idea: make this fun loving fuzz ball the mascot for the new baseball team. “Raymond” as the scouts dubbed him, immediately accepted their contract offer of all the hotdogs he could eat, all the high fives he could handle, and the ability to shake his groove thing to countless Tampa Bay fans.
Here’s DJ Kitty’s profile.
DJ Kitty’s Stats
- Full Name: DJ Kitty
- Birthplace: Tropicana Field (found out back near dumpsters)
- Age: Nine lives
- Position: DDJ Designated Disc Jockey
- Throws: Down the hottest scratches
- Catches: The beat, throws it right back
- Bats: Are great delicacies
DJ Kitty’s Favorites
- Food: Caviar, sushi, mullet
- Songs: “Year of the Cat” by Al Stewart
- TV Show: Josie and the Pussycats
- Books: A Book of String Figures
- Movies: “Diamonds are Forever”
I’m sorry. These two mascots for the Rays are fucking stupid. There’s absolutely no relevance of these mascots to the team at all. Rays scouts on a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico spotted a strange looking animal? And DJ Kitty was established by someone spotting him behind a dumpster at Tropicana Field? Come on Rays, you can’t come up with something else?
There’s a lot of mascots in Major League Baseball that are flat out stupid, but ultimately, mascots are to keep the fans engaged. How does a furry creature named “Raymond” get the fans hyped up? And how does “DJ Kitty” spinning the hottest tracks get fans pumped up when there’s barely 10,000 fans in attendance during home games? Doesn’t make sense and I never understood the reasoning behind these two mascots. I will never understand and for some reason the both of them really bother me. Raymond is a completely forgettable mascot and DJ Kitty looks like a thuggish punk. Fuck the two of them. If there’s any Rays fans reading this blog and you have any sort of intel, please let me know.
P.S. Don’t ask me why I have several Raymond and DJ Kitty bobbleheads because I myself, don’t even know.
I don’t know why their mascot isn’t a sun? Rays…Sun…makes simple sense to me.
Is a sun the coolest mascot? No. But it makes way more sense than a made up creature & a weird cat.
As far as the low attendance at games, I think they need to move their stadium to Tampa, and they’d get a lot more atendees.
If we are being completely honest, these make total sense to represent Florida. We already have a fish… The Marlin being represented. However when the rest of the country thinks of Florida; a weird beach bum that will work for food and a creature found behind a dumpster are kind of how you guys see us. I am a Floridian and we stab people with squirrels.(seriously look it up on google)
These oddly and shamefully represent the Tampa bay metropolis perfectly.
As for moving the teams location I am not sure what is for the best. We have crazy weird people and Tampa is only a 15-30 min drive depending on traffic, if we had more fans I am sure they would make the drive …
But once again this is Florida and what people do here doesn’t make sense to sane people.
Im a Rays fan and im totally agreed those mascots doesn’t make any sense lol
Maybe things that are just silly and fun aren’t entertaining to you. Some people have to make sense of it, and analyze it until all of the fun is squeezed out in the cold grip of logic. In other words, lighten up. Raymond and DJ Kitty are a lot of fun at the games. As silly as it may sound, when I go a game, I like to have fun. DJ Kitty started as a viral YouTube video, look it up, it’s hilarious.