Rally Squirrel is the name given to an American
gray squirrel Gray squirrel or grey squirrel may refer to several species of squirrel indigenous to North America:
*The eastern gray squirrel (''Sciurus carolinensis''), from the eastern United States and southeastern Canada; introduced into the United Kingdom, I ...
(''Sciurus carolinensis'') which appeared on the field and ran across home plate at
Busch Stadium
Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III") is a baseball stadium located in St. Louis, Missouri. The stadium serves as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's Major League Baseball (M ...
during a
2011 National League Division Series (NLDS)
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
game between the
Philadelphia Phillies and
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...
on October 5, 2011. The squirrel captured American media attention, and was adopted as an unofficial mascot by the Cardinals and the populace of
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
.
The Cardinals would go on to win the
2011 World Series
The 2011 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2011 season. The 107th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Texas Rangers and the Natio ...
in dramatic fashion.
Appearances
On October 4, a gray squirrel appeared in the outfield during Game 3 of the Phillies–Cardinals National League Division Series,
causing an interruption in play.
During the fifth inning of Game 4 on October 5, a squirrel again appeared on the field.
Play was not interrupted, but the squirrel caused considerable confusion, running across home plate as Phillies pitcher
Roy Oswalt
Roy Edward Oswalt (; born August 29, 1977) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Oswalt played for the majority of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Houston Astros. He also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Texa ...
was delivering a pitch to
Skip Schumaker
Jared Michael "Skip" Schumaker ( ; born February 3, 1980) is an American professional baseball player, coach and manager, who is the manager of the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was an outfielder and second baseman for the St ...
. The squirrel then jumped into the stands.
Umpire
Ángel Hernández called the pitch a ball; Oswalt and Philadelphia manager
Charlie Manuel argued, unsuccessfully, that Oswalt had been distracted by the squirrel
and that "no pitch" should be called. Manuel later avowed that, if he had a firearm, he would have shot the obstreperous rodent. Some commentators speculated that the October 4 and October 5 squirrels were the same animal, but this was not proven.
[
Before Game 5 of the NLDS in ]Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, Oswalt was again accosted by a squirrel near the warning track at Citizens Bank Park
Citizens Bank Park is a baseball stadium located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the city's South Philadelphia Sports Complex. It is the home playing field of the Philadelphia Phillies, the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. The ...
. Philadelphia fans taunted the Cardinals by throwing a stuffed squirrel into the team's bullpen. Cardinals pitcher Octavio Dotel
Octavio Eduardo Dotel Diaz (born November 25, 1973) is a Dominican former professional baseball pitcher. Dotel played for 13 major league teams, the second most teams played for by any player in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB), setti ...
retrieved it, and kept it in his locker. The Cardinals defeated the Phillies in five games, and Dotel said he would keep the squirrel through the World Series. "They didn't know that it's our good luck; they gave us good luck to our bullpen and that's why the bullpen has been so great lately", commented Dotel about the Philadelphia fans.
On October 16 in Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
, Dotel and teammates toasted the stuffed squirrel and sprayed it with champagne and beer while celebrating their NLCS victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, which sent them to the World Series against the Texas Rangers.
Return
On June 19, 2015, the Cardinals were once again playing the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park
Citizens Bank Park is a baseball stadium located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the city's South Philadelphia Sports Complex. It is the home playing field of the Philadelphia Phillies, the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. The ...
in Philadelphia. During the fifth inning, a squirrel started climbing up the net behind home plate, ran along the guide wire, jumped on top of the Phillies dugout, and then appeared to jump at Chase Utley
Chase Cameron Utley (born December 17, 1978), nicknamed "The Man" and "Silver Fox", is an American former professional baseball second baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 16 seasons, primarily for the Philadelphia Phillies. ...
, the Phillies second baseman. Soon after, the appearance of the squirrel was called the return of the Rally Squirrel. The Cardinals won this game 12-4.
Public reaction
A Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account purporting to be that of the Rally Squirrel was activated on October 4, 2011;[ by October 6 it had 11,000 followers] and 27,000 by late October. By October 5, the squirrel had his own theme song, and by October 6 Rally Squirrel T-shirts were in production. Within a few days, these were reported as "flying off the shelves" with "thousands" being sold, while Rally Squirrel costumes were reported as becoming "one of the hot Halloween costumes" of the season.
On October 11, 2011, a different Rally Squirrel appeared at a press conference in Kiener Plaza
Kiener Plaza is a municipal park in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.
Description
Originally developed in 1962, Kiener Plaza was given a major redesign and amenities update in 2017 as part of the CityArchRiver project. The park has a wide stone ...
, where Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation announced that it had adopted the Rally Squirrel as its mascot for a fundraising drive. On the same date, the Cardinals announced that the Rally Squirrel would be participating in an October 12 team rally and that 40,000 rally towels with a squirrel motif would be distributed at that day's game of the 2011 National League Championship Series
The 2011 National League Championship Series (abbreviated NLCS) was a best-of-seven playoff pitting the winners of the 2011 National League Division Series, the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers, against each other for the National Leag ...
(which was Game 3, a 4-3 Cardinals victory). The Rally Squirrel, in the form of a performer wearing a squirrel costume with a Cardinals jersey, indeed joined the existing Cardinals costumed mascot Fredbird at pre-game rally events during the remainder of the postseason; this Rally Squirrel also assisted Fredbird and Team Fredbird in passing out T-shirts in the stands at Busch Stadium between innings.
By October 14, 2011, sales of Rally Squirrel T-shirts had generated approximately $210,000 for the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation.
The Rally Squirrel gained notoriety again in late January 2012 when it was announced that it would be immortalized with a Topps
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...
baseball card
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stad ...
. The special-edition card is actually that of Cardinals player Skip Schumaker but instead of the traditional "face shot" the card features only Schumaker's pant leg in the photo background as the Rally Squirrel is seen dashing across the batters box. The Rally Squirrel was also immortalized on the St. Louis World Series ring
A World Series ring is an award given to Major League Baseball players who win the World Series. Since only one Commissioner's Trophy is awarded to the team, a World Series ring is an individual award that players and staff of each World Series ...
s. St. Louis singer/songwriter, Randy Mayfield wrote the song, "Rally Squirrel" that was featured on Fox News and on Fox Sports during game 6 of the 2011 World Series.
Disposition
A squirrel believed to be the Rally Squirrel was captured at Busch Stadium on October 8 and turned over to the Wildlife Rescue Center for eventual release in Castlewood State Park
Castlewood State Park is a public recreation area and Missouri state park occupying which straddle the Meramec River in St. Louis County, Missouri. The most visited section of the state park lies on the north side of the Meramec; the park acre ...
. As of October 11, four squirrels had been captured at Busch Stadium. The squirrel believed to be the actual Rally Squirrel was eventually released near the Wildlife Rescue Center's facility in Ballwin, Missouri
Ballwin is a southwestern suburb of St. Louis, located in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 31,103 as of the 2020 census.
History
Ballwin was established in 1837. The community was named for John Ball, who settled a ...
.
Decline to obscurity
By the 2013 season, when the Cardinals again advanced to the World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
(although they lost to the Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...
), Rally Squirrel had faded into obscurity, with the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...
'' reporting that at the time of the World Series "you'd be hard-pressed to find any remnants of the squirrel today at the Cardinals store at Busch Stadium, aside from a pile or two of generic stuffed squirrels near the counter".
Other baseball squirrels
On May 13, 2017, also at Progressive Field in Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, a squirrel raced in from right field and reached the area around the pitcher's mound, forcing the umpires to halt play. The home team lost 4-1 to the Minnesota Twins. "Those type of things are funnier when you're ahead" Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...
manager Terry Francona
Terrence Jon Francona (born April 22, 1959), nicknamed "Tito", is an American baseball manager and former player who is the manager of the Cleveland Guardians in Major League Baseball (MLB). Previously, he was the manager of the Boston Red Sox fo ...
said. This squirrel was also referred to as Rally Squirrel.
On September 4, 2007, a squirrel darted onto the field at Busch Stadium. That squirrel, which was captured and released into the wild, was also nicknamed Rally Squirrel.
A squirrel which held up play several times at Progressive Field in Cleveland on August 25, 2004 was also called Rally Squirrel. Other squirrels have appeared on baseball playing fields from time to time, occasionally interrupting play or gaining minor press notice.
In August 2019, a squirrel interrupted play at Target Field
Target Field is a baseball stadium in the North Loop, Minneapolis, historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. The stadium hos ...
on two consecutive nights. On the second night, the interruption was followed by the Twins
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
scoring four runs in a game they went on to win 14-4, which led to this squirrel also being dubbed "Rally Squirrel".
See also
* Rally Monkey
*Rat Trick The rat trick was a celebration performed by fans of the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL) during their 1995–96 season, in which plastic rats were thrown onto the ice to celebrate goals. The term, a play on hat trick, was coi ...
*List of Major League Baseball mascots
This is a list of current and former Major League Baseball mascots, sorted alphabetically.
The tradition in the Major League Baseball mascot began with Mr. Met, introduced for the New York Mets when Shea Stadium opened in 1964. Although some masc ...
*2011 St. Louis Cardinals season
The St. Louis Cardinals' 2011 season was the team's 130th season in St. Louis, Missouri, its 120th season in the National League, and its sixth season at Busch Stadium III. The Cardinals began their season at home against the San Diego Padres on ...
References
External links
*
*
{{St. Louis Cardinals
Sciurus
Individual squirrels
St. Louis Cardinals
2011 in baseball
Individual animals in the United States