Texas Monthly: State’s minor league mascots ranked

Minor league baseball is a curious world. Sure,at the Triple-A level, with MLB affiliation, some of the guys on the team have sizable contracts and the expectation that they’ll be moving up to the majors.But if you go lower down the ladder, the odds that the guys on the field are doing much more than making around a thousand dollars a month to chase a dream goway down. Even the name “minor league” is kind of a tempering of expectations.

But “will they make it to the big leagues” isn’t the reason that people love minor and independent-league baseball. They love it because it’s a part of their communities—a good excuse to cheer, stretch, eat hot dogs, and root for the local boys. And nothing exemplifies that more than the mascots, who take photos with kids and dance on the field in a heavy head-to-toe suit even during the sweltering days of the Texas summer.

But even as we agree that all minor league baseball mascots are beloved parts of their communities, we must also consider that some are better than others, because that is true of everything in the world. To that end, we’ve assembled rankings of the mascot of all elevenminor and independent-league baseball teams in Texas, ranked by our own methodology, which is secret. (We’ve left out the mascots for the United League Baseball teams, since the league folded in January—sorry, WildWing, Casey the Colt, and Dodger.)

Texas Monthly ranks the El Paso Chihuahuas’ Chico second behind the mascot duo of Ballapeo and Henry the Puffy Taco of the San Antonio Missions.

To see the complete list, click here.