The San Diego Chicken Off the Field: A Brief Overview of Baseball’s Ambassador To The World

I am only being somewhat facetious when I say this: The Famous Chicken may be baseball’s greatest ambassador of the last 35 years or so. Sure, plenty of actual baseball players have done great things and a few of course have even become mainstream stars of American culture. But tell me… has any baseball player, or really any baseball-related person period… known as few bounds as the Famous San Diego Chicken known?

After all, most people in baseball only do baseball, but the Chicken, he’s a multi-sport mascot. He’s done football, basketball, hockey, soccer, softball, arena football, racing… and the list goes on. But, that just scratches the surface.

For the Chicken, the chicken is above all about entertainment, no sport can hold him, for sure, but neither can sports hold him. Ted Giannoulas’ footprints have gone beyond that. In fact, they come from “beyond that”, as the Chicken’s first official appearance was merely to entertain and hand out easter eggs to children at the San Diego Zoo. It would only grow from there.

Consider how…

In music, the Chicken was at concerts by some of the greatest music acts of the times. His own website’s biography mentions Jimmy Buffett, Paul McCartney, the Ramones, the Doobie Brothers, Cheap Trick, Chuck Berry, and even Elvis, who is said to have doubled over in laughter so much at the Chicken that the concert was briefly halted. The Chicken himself would also release a cover of “Do You Think I’m Sexy” while he was still employed at KGB in San Diego.

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On television, The Chicken would star in “The Baseball Bunch”, make appearances on “Simon & Simon”, “Malcolm in the Middle”, multiple appearances with WWE (including two Wrestlemania, one of which where it was revealed that Pete Rose was actually behind the beak), and did stunts for a Disney Channel movie called “Hatching Pete”.

He also appeared in commercials for things such as McDonald’s.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMon4aAT9pA]

ESPN (where it turned out that he was…Pete Sampras in disguise).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXlZrtfUmG4]

And, most recently, Sony.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jzr1SkQG1g]

The San Diego Chicken has even gone into educational television, appearing in an Economic Primer named “Chickenomics”, which is totally destined to be on my website, Baseball Continuum, one of these days.

But, above all, we must remember The San Diego Chicken’s fight against evil, which may qualify him for The Hall of Very Good in ways nothing else can. No, I do not just mean the many times he’s beaten up the hellspawn that is Barney the Purple Dinosaur.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGVRubnAYug]

I speak of his role in defeating the great Killer Tomato invasion of 1977, as covered in the film “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”. Amazingly, that final scene cannot be found anywhere on the internet, but I can remember it. You may well remember it too, even if you’ve blocked out the rest of that purposely-terrible movie. At the climax, after it is found that the tomatoes are vulnerable to the song “Puberty Love”, the people of San Diego march to Jack Murphy Stadium to trap them there. After unleashing “Puberty Love”, they stomp the tomatoes to bits, freeing humanity from their scourge.

And who was helping lead that charge?  Who, when the police and National Guard had fled, was there to help save us all?

Why, The San Diego Chicken, of course.  Godspeed, Famous Chicken. Godspeed.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dan Glickman writes and operates Baseball Continuum, including its best-known feature, “Bizarre Baseball Culture”, where he takes a look at some of the more unusual places baseball has reared its head in pop culture and fiction.

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The Hall of Very Good™ Class of 2014 is presented by Out of the Park Developments, the creators of the wildly popular baseball simulation game Out of the Park Baseball.  Out of the Park Developments has made a generous donation to The Hall.