There are many great resources to check out to learn more about the Crazy Crab our blog's name sake. Here are some brief experts but be sure to check out the sites for a more full history of the Anti-Mascot.
Rehab the Crab:
The year is 1984. The Giants had not yet succumbed to baseball’s mascot craze. The vast majority of Giants fans said they didn’t even want a mascot. But that did not stop the Giants – they came up with what many regard to this day as the greatest and worst, but definitely most original, sports mascot of all times: Crazy Crab.
Great mythology and divergent recollections surround the San Francisco Giants’ notorious Crazy Crab. Crazy Crab first appeared during his one year stint as the Giants’ mascot in 1984, a year that the Giants posted a forgettable 66-96 record and finished in dead last place in the division.
This pudgy, largely immobile mascot looked as much like a giant foam hamburger with legs as he did a Crab. Ingeniously, Crazy Crab was marketed as a satire of the other clownish team mascots.
In fact, he was meant to be hated, and was perfect in his role as the “anti-mascot”. The Giants would trot him out onto the field about once a game specifically to be booed and pelted with flying objects. The generally small and angry crowds at Candlestick Park that year obliged whole-heartedly.
We here want to continue the legacy of the Crazy Crab so that he is never forgotten. He may have been a one year wonder during a very dark season but he will always be the mascot that we love to hate. It is one of the great parts of Giants history that should preserved and told to all who will listen.
SF Giants History Timeline:
SF Giants History Timeline:
The creature they unleashed was the now-legendary (and infamous) Crazy Crab. The idea was to poke fun at traditional mascots, and television commercials depicted manager Frank Robinson having to be restrained from attacking the poor crustacean. Fans were encouraged to boo and hiss the phony mascot, who was portrayed by actor Wayne Doba...The Crazy Crab did a lot to take the pressure off a very bad team and for that we thank him.
Broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, both players during the year of Crazy Crab, were asked in an online chat if they ever had trouble with him. Their response: "No, we used to drill him with the resin bag daily, so he was scared of us."
The nightmare for the bug-eyed object of foam derision ended after just one season. The Giants would not attempt another mascot, "anti" or real, until 1997, when Lou Seal made his cautious debut. But no mascot will likely ever again as sharply define the term "love-hate" as the vaunted Crazy Crab.
