Billy the Marlin

Billy The Marlin is the official mascot of the Florida Marlins baseball franchise. At 8 feet tall and 250 pounds, he is "a natural-born clown and good-natured prankster" [Billy The Marlin [http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/community/billy_the_marlin.jsp Home page] ] . He attends at every home game performing his routine middle of the 5th inning [Florida Marlins glossary [http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/ballpark/guide.jsp Marlins' A-Z guide.] ] .

Early history

Of unknown age, the character debuted on February 25, 1993. According to his employers, Billy The Marlin "was handpicked not only for his skill, cunning and great competitive nature, but most of all for his outstanding sense of humor and great rapport with baseball fans of all ages." [Billy The Marlin, Florida Marlins [http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/fan_forum/billy_the_marlin.jsp Biography] ] .

His name was picked by original owner Wayne Huizenga because a marlin is a type of billfish and in tribute to former Yankee Billy Martin. Reportedly Mr. Huizenga wanted a name that was different from the baseball-type names of other mascots.

U.S. Navy SEAL parachutist, Lou Langlais, dressed as Billy The Marlin, lost the costume's five-pound head ("not meant for jumping out of airplanes" sic) to a gust of wind while parachuting towards Pro Player Stadium on Opening Day of the 1997 season, April 1 (Langlais altered his course to land outside the stadium allowing the "real" Billy to make a regular appearance on the field) ["Scorecard" Sports Illustrated, April 14, 1997 [http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1009860/index.htm (web archive)] ] . The head was recovered in good shape, apart from a scratch to the neck, exactly two months later by Victor Rowe and Mike Zinniger at the side of Florida's Turnpike [San Francisco Chronicle, June 2, 1997, page E4 [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/06/02/SP63214.DTL&hw=mascot&sn=043&sc=307 (web archive)] ] .

For the first ten years in the major leagues he was played by John Routh until he was fired in 2003 as part of budget cuts. Routh was reported to have been earning in excess of $80,000 p.a. at the time [Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, October 21, 2003 (story by Ross Newhan)] .

During Routh's tenure, Billy The Marlin launched a tightly wadded T-shirt out of a pressurized gun accidentally hitting an elderly man in the eye, temporarily knocking him unconscious ["A history of bizarre mascot incidents", SI.com, Posted: Thursday July 10, 2003 [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/2003/07/10/mascot_timeline/ Sports Illustrated story] ] . The man later filed an unsuccessful $250,000 law suit. [p198 in "Managing Sport Facilities" by Gil Fried, published by Human Kinetics, 2005, ISBN 0736044833.] .

After Routh

September 13, 2004: Billy The Marlin makes a home game appearance at Chicago White Sox's U.S. Cellular Field! The Florida Marlins, displaced because of hurricane Ivan, beat the (now defunct) Montreal Expos 6-3 [Lee Jenkins, New York Times, September 14th, 2004 [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/14/sports/baseball/14marlins.html Marlins Making Themselves at Home in Chicago] ]

In 2005 Billy The Marlin made some 450 appearances a year outside of games, the Marlins charging $350 an hour. In contrast to the Routh era when he was allowed to keep all of his off-field income, the Marlins split appearance money with the mascot - the team's portion going to the team's charitable foundation. [Scott Soshnick and Danielle Sessa, Bloomberg, October 24, 2005 [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aWTU0cNoj9kA Baseball's Other World Series Pitch: Hire the Mascot] ]

Topps featured Billy The Marlin in their 2007 Opening Day Baseball series [2007 Opening Day, The Topps Company Inc. [http://www.topps.com/product/CardDetail.aspx?sportsid=1&Product_Id=1200&card_id=218749 Card #198] ] as card #198, released 03/14/2007.

Current activity

Billy The Marlin was nominated for the Mascot Hall of Fame's "Golden Silly String Award" in August 2008. His opponents in the professional category were Globie (Harlem Globetrotters), Hugo (New Orleans Hornets), Rocky (Denver Nuggets) and Slider (Cleveland Indians). In spite of winning the readers' on-line poll, Billy ultimately lost the inductee position to Slider.

Billy's Bunch [Billy's Bunch (Florida Marlins) [http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/fan_forum/billy_bunch.jsp Fan club] ] is an official fan club for kids ages 12 and under.

Billy's Bunch is also the name of a thirty minute SunSports/FSN TV show [Billy's Bunch (show) [http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/schedule/billys_bunch.jsp 2008 TV schedule] ] . Formerly Billy's Bunch Show, the new format premiered April 5, 2008. [Sunsports/FSN News [http://www.sunsportstv.com/news.jhtml?method=view&news.id=539 FSN web page.] ] .

Notes

*"The" is capitalized on the official Florida Marlins website, as in a middle name.
* BILLY THE MARLIN is a registered "service" mark owned by Florida Marlins, LP [Registration Number 1973074, US Patent & Trademark Office.] .

References

ee also

*List of Major League Baseball mascots