Photograph: Brandon Soto/Minor League Baseball by way of Getty Pictures
“We’re sending our furry little one out into the world and you’re the custodian of it. Now, please watch out with our little one.” So John Oliver ushered the Erie Moon Mammoth’s new mascot, Fuzz E Mammoth, into Erie, Pennsylvania. The mascot was only one half of a bigger rebrand Oliver was doing as a part of Final Week Tonight’s gonzo journalism on Minor League Baseball groups. In might, Oliver volunteered on-air to present a makeover to a Minor League workforce, and almost 50 groups stepped ahead. The Final Week Tonight workforce ultimately settled on the Detroit Tigers-affiliated Erie SeaWolves, who play nowhere close to the ocean. Now the workforce is known as after — not a cryptid — however a dude. George Moon found mammoth bones whereas scuba diving in Lake Nice, and thus the Minor League workforce title was born.
“Erie did stand out to us as being, you already know, uniquely eccentric. And I say that as each a praise and an insult, which is the largest praise there may be,” Oliver informed the Related Press. “There was one thing concerning the Moon Mammoth that spoke to us for being notably odd. It felt prefer it might make a baseball workforce’s theme. You can nearly see the emblem in your head and it felt like one thing to be additional stunning.” Together with bringing a mascot and throwing out the primary pitch (George Moon caught it), Oliver additionally handed out Moon Pies to the bought out crowd. Because the rebrand, the Erie Moon Mammoths have bought 4 years’ price of merch.