A recent survey of MLB fans settles the Dinger debate once and for all
Jun 2, 2021, 3:14 PM
Ask an 40-year-old curmudgeon about Dinger and they’ll roll their eyes, throw up their hands and provide a 20-minute diatribe about how the dinosaur is the bane of their existence. They forget, however, that they aren’t the target audience for the Rockies mascot.
Kids love Dinger. One glance at the line in the centerfield bleachers for a photo with the mascot is evidence of that fact, as it stretches more than 100 deep for almost every game.
That hasn’t kept the debate from raging, though. The anti-Dinger crowd just won’t let it go.
Perhaps the latest piece of evidence will quiet them, however. It proved that the Rockies mascot is extremely popular.
Play USA recently surveyed 2,000 MLB fans from across the country to ask them to rate every official MLB mascot from No. 1 to 5. The results were great for Colorado’s polarizing dinosaur.
In the end, Dinger finished as the third-most popular mascot in all of baseball. Only Clark the Cub (Chicago Cubs) and PAWS (Detroit Tigers) finished above the Rockies lovable supporter.
Dinger also did the Rockies proud in the National League West. He finished 11 spots ahead of Lou Seal (San Francisco Giants), 13 up on Baxter (Arizona Diamondbacks) and 23 in front of Swinging Friar (San Diego Padres).
Speaking of Swinging Friar, he actually finished in second-to-last place in the survey. Blooper (Atlanta Braves), Raymond (Tampa Bay Rays) and Billy the Marlin (Miami Marlins) were in the bottom five, with Slider (Cleveland Indians) finishing in dead last.
That seems pretty irrefutable. Dinger wasn’t anywhere near the bottom of the barrel. In fact, he’s one of the top-three mascots in all of Major League Baseball.
That’s a home run for the pro-Dinger crowd and a major strikeout for the anti-dinosaur contingent. It’s official: Dinger is awesome.