MLB’s Most Memorable Animal Mascots, Featuring Brewers’ Bobby Jr.

Baseball isn't boring to its participants, but that's also a phrase people tell each other to get through long major league seasons. It turns out that it's not just the Dog Days of August you have to beware, but also the Tortoise Days of April.

Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy, a man seldom afraid to try anything, recently paid a clubhouse attendant to acquire a turtle his team could adopt. The staffer returned from a Kansas City-area exotic pet shop with a sulcata tortoise. A little bit of a curveball.

"I'm learning about tortoises," Murphy told reporters at Kauffman Stadium.

Major League Baseball: Always up for a gimmick, especially if it means using a species that walks on more than two legs to the ballpark.

Brewers players came out of their shells to embrace the tortoise, which Murphy named Bobby Jr. after Royals star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. Trevor Megill, the team's closer, seemed enthusiastic as the critter crawled over a clubhouse rug toward right-hander Chad Patrick. If the players realized that Bobby Jr. had bitten Murphy "several times," it didn’t worry them.

The tortoise is tiny now (and moves surprisingly fast despite stereotyping) but Murphy has since found out that sulcatas grow to 100-plus pounds and routinely live into their 70s. Like humans.

Bobby Jr. turns out to be much more complicated than Murphy's "pocket pancake" made-for-TV gimmick of 2025. Those were just small pancakes you could store and pull from your pocket if you needed a quick bite. Caring for tortoises? There’s more to it.

Sulcatas are said to dislike loud noises, like those coming from stands with screaming fans, booming fireworks and clubhouses that play celebration music. And then there's airplane travel, even if charter flights can sidestep potential security and quarantine/immigration issues.

Oops?

"Maybe I didn't think ahead," Murphy said at one point. He's hoping to find a permanent home for Bobby Jr., because the tortoise won't be a recurring member of the team's traveling party.

Even if it was just for a weekend, the legend of Bobby Jr. the tortoise will live forever among other ballpark animals in MLB history.

• The tortoise was a call-back to the residency of Hank the "Ballpark Pup," a stray who wandered into Brewers' Spring Training in 2014 (and into our hearts), becoming a fixture for years. Hank, a Bichon Frisé mix, was of course named after MLB legend and Henry "Hank" Aaron.

• The modern inspiration of the living mascot trend was the Los Angeles Angels' Rally Monkey in the early 2000s. The Chapuchin was known mostly for its appearances on the home video board, though it also appeared in person at ballgames.

• Bobby Jr. isn't the first famous tortoise/turtle in major league history; New York Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. brought in Bronxie, a red-eared slider turtle, in 2021.

• What has six legs and tried to help the Kansas City Royals repeat as World Series champions? A rally mantis, which became the team's beloved insect and good-luck charm in August 2016. It first appeared on the hat of outfielder Billy Burns, and prompted a winning streak.

• Who knows how many different species the Oakland Coliseum hosted through the years? In 2014, a resident possum helped the Athletics win multiple ballgames, at least that's the story. More recently, before the A's moved to Sacramento on the way to Las Vegas, a possum nest prevented the New York Mets broadcast from using their usual booth at the Coliseum.

• Rally Squirrel! Squirrels live in about every ballpark, but only one -- an eastern grey squirrel -- got their own Topps baseball card, when the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series in 2011.

• The Cincinnati Reds of the late 1980s had Schottzie, a St. Bernard dog owned by club owner Marge Schott. Schottzie was less beloved by the players when he pooped on the field at Riverfront Stadium.

• The Chicago Cubs might have the deepest MLB history of animal friends, mostly because of a goat named Murphy. Back in 1945, a local Greek restaurateur brought a pet goat to the World Series for good luck (as one does), but was denied entry to Wrigley Field. So he cursed the franchise, which failed to win the '45 Series, or any World Series, until 2016.

• A Shea Stadium black cat in ‘69 killed the Cubs season and willed the Miracle Mets into existence. The Cubs also had an actual baby bear mascot that met a grisly end in the early 1900s.

Goats, cats, bears -- oh my! This live mascot business can get tricky. If you're a major league manager, be sure to think it all through before you commit to anything.