Come To Think of It: San Diego Chicken Crosses the Road to Retirement

Ted Giannoulas, the man behind the chicken costume, may be hanging up his beak for good.

What the cluck?

The Chicken is baseball’s best-known mascot, and perhaps the most famous in all of sports.

Some have confused The Famous Chicken as the mascot of the Padres. Although he does make appearances occasionally at San Diego sporting events, he has never been the official mascot of any San Diego sports team.

But you think he isn’t an important part of baseball lore? Well, consider that The Chicken was named one of the 100 most powerful people in sports for the 20th century by The Sporting News.

According to Wikipedia, the mascot “originated as an animated TV commercial for KGB-FM Radio in San Diego. Writer, cartoonist, and actor Brian Narelle...offered to animate a wacky acrobatic chicken as part of a commercial contract bid."

"Subsequently Giannoulas, then a student at San Diego State University, was hired to wear the first suit for a promotion to distribute Easter eggs to children at the San Diego Zoo. A redesigned suit followed that more closely resembled The Famous Chicken today."

Did you know that Giannoulas was once sued by the producers of the show Barney & Friends for beating up a Barney look-alike?

We all owe him a debt of gratitude for that.

But he won the case, with the court holding that his performance was satire protected by the First Amendment.

Also, were you aware that the official mascot of the San Diego Padres is not the Famous Chicken but the Swinging Friar?

The Chicken does a special dance following home runs. Chicks dig the long ball, and apparently so do chickens.

The Chicken was elected to the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2005.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I never even realized that there was a hall of fame for mascots.

What’s next, a hall of fame for beer vendors?

(By the way, if they ever have a hall of fame for beer drinkers, it will have my picture on the bust.)

The Chicken was a pioneer of sorts, helping to spawn mascots all over of the country (not literally; we'll leave the out-of-wedlock spawning to the players).

Actually, the tradition of the Major League Baseball mascot began with Mr. Met, introduced for the New York Mets when Shea Stadium opened in 1964.

But it was the popularity of The Chicken, who started appearing at San Diego games in 1977, that hatched mascots such as Phillie Phanatic (Philadelphia Phillies) and Slider (Cleveland Indians), both of whom have also been elected to the Hall of Fame.

You want to talk about having influence? You might say all other mascots taste like chicken.

Only four MLB teams do not have a mascot—the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the New York Yankees.

Despite The Chicken's popularity, no one should begrudge Giannoulas if he wants to retire. He has been performing at ballparks across America for 35 years.

Plus, the gigs just aren’t as plentiful as they used to be.

According to Shysterball, “Giannoulas said he’ll leave his San Diego home for just 50 appearances this summer...down from a high of about 250 games each year in his heyday.”

He hasn’t made the retirement decision official yet, according to Shysterball.

“At the end of this season, I’ll make a determination if I think I can go another season. I can’t say for certain. I’ll just see how my body feels, what my energy level might be going forward,” Giannoulas said. “The fun and energy is still at the ballpark. I still get a charge out of it.”

Be careful, Ted, coming home to roost might make you hen-pecked.

Hey, perhaps he could have a post-retirement career as a scout. I think he would make a great bird dog.

All right, enough's enough, no more bad puns, I promise.

Ted without his chicken suit just seems a bit fowl to me. He will be like a chicken with his head cut off, come to think of it.

Oops.