Beware of the Rally Monkey!
Posted On Sunday, October 18, 2009 at at 11:31 PM by Francis Isberto
The Rally Monkey is an icon and an important figure of the LA Angels. Her role is to show up in the big video screen in the Angel Stadium and holds the banner "Rally Time". She bounces up and down to the House of Pain song "Jump Around". And in some unexplainable way, the Angels managed to come back from those games. The Rally Monkey was so effective that since her arrival on June of 2000, Katie, a white haired capuchin monkey, was hired by the Angels administration to star in original clips for later games.
What is this got to do with the Yankees? Although the Rally Monkey is not even close to shut down the Yankees offense, the monkey can get the crowd and the Angels pumped up. We don't want that. As much as possible shut down the Angel batters as early as possible. Easily said than done I know, but the Yankees should be aware that the Angels are capable of comeback games (Games 3, 4, and 5 if necessary will be at the Angels Stadium).
Through out the years, the Yankees have not been known to have a team mascot. They use to have a mascot named Dandy but he doesn't exist anymore. Mascots makes sense to a team that have few spectators. That doesn't apply to the Yankees (a team that won 26 World Series championships). Yankee fans don't come to view their mascot, they come to watch their team play.
How about Pie? Pie is not a mascot but a trophy or reward that the Yankee pitcher AJ Burnett gives to their winning team-mate. It became a habit whenever the Yankees had a walk-off win. They have 17 walk-off wins this year. 15 from the regular season and 2 from the post-season. That's a lot of pies. This is just to show how big the heart of the Yankees when it comes to winning games and coming from behind wins. The "Pie" will be a hot commodity not only this year but to the following years to come.
If the Angels are known for their running game and "Rally Time" from their prized monkey. The Yankees are proud to have a powerful team with a ton of homers and RBI's. Their specialty: Walk-off wins, Their prize: Pie.
So would you go for the energetic monkey or the famous pie?
