It's a mad, mad, mad mascot world

It’s a mad, mad, mad mascot world

Jeff and Maria Nace along with children, Olivia, 3, left, and Bianca, 1, from Rancho Cucamonga pose for a photo with a Dodgers character as they arrive to the left field pavilion area at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers aren't calling it a mascot though -- they prefer the term "performance character."

By Adam Tschorn

April 9, 2014 5:54 PM PT

According to an article by Steve Dilbeck in Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times (“Big Face in the Crowd”), the Los Angeles Dodgers have a new personality on the team -- a crisply uniformed, big-headed not-mascot they’ve dubbed a “performance character.” You can read Dilbeck’s entire is-he or isn’t-he (a mascot) piece here, but it got us thinking about some of the strange, silly and controversial college and professional sports mascots we’ve read about over the years. Put that huge ball cap on your head, break out your pencil and take a deep whiff of team spirit and see if you’re a major leaguer in the mascot department -- or if you’re destined to flounder on the farm team -- with a quick sports mascot quiz.

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Adam Tschorn

Senior features writer Adam Tschorn is a former small-town newspaper editor, game-show question-and-answer man and fashion scribe who joined the Los Angeles Times in 2007. He currently covers a wide range of pop-culture topics with a focus on cannabis culture. Holding a B.A. in philosophy and an M.A. in journalism, he feels perfectly suited to looking at things, asking “why?” and writing down the answers.