When going PC goes too far

The new Philadelphia Phillies Triple-A team, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, will begin playing in 2008. Naturally, they need a mascot. So they decided on a big furry pig whose moniker would be PorkChop. Sounds delicious. Or so I thought.

It turns out that naming the mascot PorkChop wasn't appreciated by a few local Latinos who claimed that the name was offensive. Huh?

Yes, it turns out (at least according to Urban Dictionary) that pork chop is a racist term used to refer to people of Puerto Rican descent.

However, Dictionary.com also tells me that pork chop is "the flesh of hogs used as food."

I don't want to sound insensitive here, but this seems to be going a bit too far. This isn't flying the stars and bars over the state capital or somebody wearing blackface. It's naming a pig mascot after a popular cooked food.

What is interesting though is that the IronPigs immediately decided to change the name of the mascot to Ferrous - from the Latin word "ferrum," or iron. No Romans were angry about the name change as far as I know.

But more seriously, the IronPigs quick response is impressive, considering we have a number of teams out there, most notably the Redskins and Indians, who really should have had their names changed years ago - because their names are unambiguous terms directly used to demean a specific ethnicity. Plus Chief Wahoo is a ridiculous mascot.

How people can succeed so quickly in changing a benign name, but can't affect the same change with a truly offensive name, is a bit of an enigma.

-WCK

Mr. Testicles, the Bo Jackson of mascots, returns

I know many of you are thinking to yourselves, didn't this blog mention last week that Mr. Testicles, the the Male Cancer Awareness Campaign mascot, was going to be participating in an event during halftime of the Everton v. Sunderland EPL tilt? Yes, yes we did.

And of course, there's now footage of his exploits. By the way, I think Sunderland could have used Mr. Testicles (literally). They got destroyed 7-1.


-WCK

Mr. Testicles is surprisingly athletic

You may remember a little more than a month ago we had a links post where we put up a picture from the Chicago Marathon of a giant testicle mascot. Anyway, Brazil Thrill in a comment on Deadspin let us know the mascot is actually Mr. Testicles of the Male Cancer Awareness Campaign. Which is good news, because I couldn't imagine anyone wearing that costume for fun.

But it turns out Mr. Testicles is a sports fiend, which I guess makes sense considering he's attempting to reach a male audience. It might also be a good idea to have a sign on him that says "Prostate Cancer Awareness" so people don't just think he's a weirdo in a testicle costume, but whatever. So what sports does Mr. Testicles enjoy? Well, let's take a look.


As you can tell, he totally digs snowboarding.



And skiing too.



And don't worry ladies, he has a soft side as well. By which I mean he figure skates.

But don't get the impression that he shrinks from non-Winter sports competition. As you know he ran in the Chicago Marathon. But he's also run in the NYC Marathon.
He also kept a blog of the Chicago run, if you can believe that. It contains everything you'd expect, like this quote: The volume of support was at times deafening, but it was my fellow runners who gave me the support I needed. “Go Mr Testicles, Go ball sack man!”

He even ran across the UK this summer.
"With my pubes flapping in the breeze, I marched my way forward from Lands End at the very bottom of the UK."

Um, thanks for the description.

And before this post gets completely out of hand, he'll be taking the field to play some soccer at halftime of the Everton v. Sunderland EPL match this Saturday.

Way to go Mr. Testicles. At least have the balls not to flop during the soccer game.

-WCK

Worst Mascot Name Ever

So, I know you were waiting with bated breath for the naming of the new Pittsburgh Steelers mascot. Well, here it is.

Steely McBeam.

You're kidding, right? This is the name they chose out of 70,000 entries?

I guess Beef Hardstick and Rod Steel were already taken.

-WCK