Mr. Red
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mr. Red is the first mascot of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, known as baseball's first professional franchise. He is a humanoid figure dressed in a Reds uniform, with an oversized baseball for a head. Sometimes, Mr. Red is referred to by the team as "The Running Man" for the way he has posed on the logo circa 1970.
Mr. Red made his first appearance on a Reds uniform as a sleeve patch in 1955. The patch featured Mr. Red's head, clad in an old-fashioned white pillbox baseball cap with red stripes. The following season, 1956, saw the Reds adopt sleeveless jerseys, and Mr. Red was eliminated from the home uniform. He was moved to the left breast of the road uniform, and remained there for one season before being eliminated entirely.
In 1999, the Reds re-designed their uniform and "Mr. Red" was reintroduced as a sleeve patch on the undershirt. He remains there to this day.
A human version of the mascot didn't appear until the early 1980s. The mascot disappeared in the late 1980s for unknown reasons; many say he was a victim of then-owner Marge Schott's penny-pinching ways. The costumed mascot was reintroduced in 1997.
Mr. Red was joined by Gapper, a new furry mascot created by David Raymond (the original Phillie Phanatic), as the franchise moved to Great American Ballpark in 2002. In 2007, the current Mr. Red will be replaced by a retro 1950's version, complete with handlebar mustache and old fashioned baseball uniform.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Red wore uniform number 27.
