Among MLB teams, I'd say the best and most popular mascot is the Phillie Phanatic. Pretty easily too. Shout out to Orbit, the Astros mascot, but the Phanatic has been around for a lifetime and its routines are consistently fresh and hilarious. The Phillies are the gold standard of baseball mascots.
On the other side of the world, the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan recently unveiled an amazing and also kind of creepy fish mascot at their games. To wit:
謎の魚の第3形
— Jason Coskrey (@JCoskrey) June 11, 2017
Haters will say it's photoshopped (pic @sn_baseball_jp ) pic.twitter.com/9UADJshlv8
It's a giant fish that runs around the field and, for lack of a better term, barfs out its own spine so it can do a dance routine and other fun stuff. For example:
【報告】謎チョウチンアンコウ進化。#提灯鮟鱇対策本部 #提鮟対 #chibalotte pic.twitter.com/6O1tPVpdv3
— パ・リーグTV公式 (@PacificleagueTV) June 11, 2017
遂に姿を現した千葉ロッテのやべーやつ第3形態 pic.twitter.com/07uMIG3XIG
— のもとけ (@dnomotoke) June 11, 2017
Here are some clips of the fish mascot in action between innings:
— Steve@ロッテを優勝させるぞ!! (@lovelovemarines) May 31, 2017
ロッテの新キャラ「魚」ついに第3形態披露!
— とうぜん (@toouzen) June 11, 2017
ロッテ × ヤクルト
プロ野球 2017年6月11日 ZOZOマリン pic.twitter.com/0k8K41UyHq
I don't know what to think. But I love it. Here are some more images of the mascot:
So this just happened in Chiba. I have....questions. pic.twitter.com/1hA00X0h4Q
— Jason Coskrey (@JCoskrey) June 11, 2017
魚好きなみなさんへ pic.twitter.com/qoSksKnjmN
— ちーかま@勝ってみんなでえみるふを! (@ciikama) June 11, 2017
戻り方 #chibalotte pic.twitter.com/wRCiS9bKvC
— 美浜太郎 (@MihamaTaro) June 11, 2017
!?!?!? pic.twitter.com/uvPqx35zO9
— こじま@6/15ハマスタ (@koji_fighters_9) June 11, 2017
魚の第三型 pic.twitter.com/HnByfE4sU0
— Steve@ロッテを優勝させるぞ!! (@lovelovemarines) June 11, 2017
Alas, the fish mascot is not a permanent fixture at Marines games. The team is reportedly sending the mascot back to the sea for a few weeks.
Lotte's new mascot returned to the ocean for now, will probably be back at the end of this month https://t.co/IDVDvL6vrn #npb
— NPB on reddit (@NPB_Reddit) June 12, 2017
Sometimes less is more. I'm sure the giant spine-puking fish will be back with a vengeance at some point.