Stomper

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Stomper is the mascot of the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team: An elephant adorned with an A's uniform of the number 00. Before each game, he rides around the field in a little red car while a song from The Jungle Book movie soundtrack is played. During games, he entertains the fans.

The use of an elephant to symbolize the Athletics dates from the early years of the franchise, when a group of Philadelphia businessmen headed by industrialist Benjamin Shibe became the team's first owners. When asked to comment, John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants of the rival National League said something to the effect that "Shibe had bought himself a white elephant." In response, A's manager (and future owner) Connie Mack selected the elephant as the team symbol and mascot. From time to time the elephant has appeared on the Athletic uniform, including 1986 to present.

In 1963, then-owner Charles O. Finley replaced the elephant mascot with a Missouri mule -- not a cartoon logo or a human wearing a mule outfit, but a live mule named "Charlie-O, the Mule." When Finley sold the team to San Francisco businessman Walter Haas in 1981, the use of a mule as team mascot was discontinued. Then, in 1988, the elephant was resurrected as team mascot, eventually personified by Stomper.