Mascots behaving badly: when giant furry fans overstepped the mark – quiz

The Phillie Phanatic gets into a spot of bother at MLB spring training. Photograph: John David Mercer/USA Today Sports

1. Why did Mr Met, the baseball-headed mascot of the New York Mets, make headlines in 2017?

   1. He got his large, spherical head stuck in railings at Citi Field

   2. He raised his middle finger to heckling fans

   3. He ran for governor's office in New York

   4. He was caught speeding while wearing his full costume

2. 

   Bertie Bee, Burnley FC's mascot, made a famous on-pitch intervention in 2002. But what did he do?

   1. Confronted the referee about a penalty decision

   2. Tried to drag an injured player off the field

   3. Tackled a streaker to the ground

   4. Cleared an opposition shot off the line

3. 

   This is Gritty, the Philadelphia Flyers mascot who has shaken up US sports. But why was he in hot water recently?

   1. He was accused of punching a 13-year-old boy

   2. He turned up in the jersey of local rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins

   3. He made an unauthorised entrance into the arena on a parachute

   4. He threw his helmet at an NHL official

4. Staying in the city of brotherly love, how did the Phillie Phanatic accidentally hurt a fan in 2018?

   1. He knocked her over while running from the stand to celebrate a winning home run

   2. He ran over her foot while riding his famous dune buggy

   3. She was hit in the face by a hot dog fired from the Phanatic's cannon

   4. She suffered whiplash after a car-park collision with the mascot, who was out of his costume at the time

5. 

   'The mascot is out of order, isn’t he? There’s contact. It wasn’t given.' Which manager put the boot into Watford's Harry the Hornet for suggesting his player had dived?

   1. Sean Dyche

   2. Sam Allardyce

   3. Roy Hodgson

   4. Ian Holloway

6. What did Aston Villa's mascot, Hercules the Lion, do to earn his P45 back in 1998?

   1. Grappling with John Gregory

   2. Going out on the town with Villa players

   3. Mooning Mike Riley

   4. Getting too close to Miss Aston Villa

7. 

   Berlino, the mascot for the 2010 world athletics championships, gave Jamaica's Melaine Walker a piggy-back after her 400m hurdles win. Why did he come to regret it?

   1. He dropped Walker, who damaged ligaments in her knee

   2. He ran straight into a pile of hurdles

   3. They collided with the runner up, Lashinda Demus

   4. Walker had actually been disqualified

8. Swansea mascot Cyril is, predictably enough, a swan. What's less predictable is his behaviour. Which of these offences are on his rap sheet?

   1. Kicking another mascot's head into the crowd

   2. Tangling with the opposition's assistant manager

   3. Dipping his beak in a referee's cup of coffee

   4. All of the above

9. 

   Former LA Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda had little time for mascots messing with him. In 1989, why did he have Montreal Expos mascot Youppi ejected?

   1. For walking on top of the Dodgers' dugout

   2. For goading him with a blow-up doll

   3. For crushing a Dodgers player's helmet

   4. All of the above

10. During the Oregon 'Civil War' college football game, the two sides' mascots memorably threw down on the field. What were the animals involved?

    1. A seagull and a squirrel

    2. A duck and a beaver

    3. A chicken and a hamster

    4. A cat and a dog

11. 

    How did the San José Sharks' mascot, SJ Sharkie, cause an NHL game to be delayed?

    1. He gave the coach a ride to the stadium, but his car broke down

    2. His zipwire got stuck as he made his descent onto the ice

    3. His giant foam head got stuck in a ticket barrier

    4. He drove a Zamboni machine into a barrier

12. And finally, a mascot on the receiving end. Which heavyweight boxer had to apologise for punching a mascot on TV?

    1. Tyson Fury

    2. Deontay Wilder

    3. Anthony Joshua

    4. Dereck Chisora

Solutions

1:B - The employee was stood down from mascot duties, although one fan backed him up, accusing fans of 'saying derogatory things about Mr Met’s mom, which led to the gesture', 2:C - The fan ran on with '2-0' written on his buttocks in order to taunt Preston fans. Bertie stopped him, and did the caterpillar to celebrate, 3:A - Gritty was cleared of all charges after a fan claimed the mascot 'took a running start' and 'punched my son as hard as he could' at an event, 4:C - 'It just came out of nowhere — and hard,' Kathy McVay said of the flying snack. 'It hit me like a ton of bricks.' The Phillies apologised for the incident., 5:B - Big Sam hit back after Harry mimicked a Wilfried Zaha 'dive' during Crystal Palace's 1-1 draw at Watford in 2016. Harry's antics stoked a rivalry between the sides, with Hodgson labelling his behaviour 'disgraceful' in 2018, 6:D - Hercules was shown the door after 'grappling with the club's beauty queen' at a home game, 7:B - Both the mascot and the athlete were thankfully unhurt, 8:D - Cyril the Swan, aka groundsman Eddie Donne, was once football's most notorious mascot. The Welsh FA brought in a 'mascot code of conduct' to stop his antics, 9:A - Lasorda has been on the receiving end of all three provocations, getting into physical altercations with the Phillie Phanatic and San Diego's Chicken mascot, 10:B - 'Puddles', Oregon's duck mascot, came off worse against Oregon State's Benny Beaver, 11:B - The Sharks' game against Detroit in March 1999 was suspended for 15 minutes as SJ tried to wriggle free. He eventually had to be winched back up, 12:B - Invited to throw a few playful jabs at an ESPN mascot, Wilder inadvertently floored him. Presumably the mascot's heavy costume put him at a disadvantage

Scores

1. 9 and above.

   Stick your flag in the centre circle

2. 4 and above.

   Not exactly diamond lights

3. 0 and above.

   Like answering questions in a foreign language