The brand new mascot of the Atlanta Braves is Blooper, a very tall and furry creature with ears that look like the handles of two bats. Blooper is brand new at the job, having just begun in the 2018 season. Blooper is a personable critter who visits with and entertains fans at SunTrust Park. He is also active in the community, visiting schools, hospitals, and other community events. Through no fault of his own, Blooper has had difficulties in bringing die-hard Braves fans over to his side.
Blooper follows a long-term mascot, Homer the Brave who had the job since 1986. Homer the Brave was a guy dressed up in a Braves uniform with a large baseball for a head. He certainly was not a cute as Blooper but fans liked the idea of a mascot named homer (as in home run) as opposed to Blooper (as in a weak single over the infielders’ heads). Going back even further, the Braves had “Chief Noc a Homa.” Again, the mascot brought to mind home runs which were plenty when Hank Aaron played and surpasses Babe Ruth’s lifetime home run record.
The issue with the previous mascots was the use of a native American as a mascot and so we are now in the era of Blooper and fans will just need to get used to the idea of a furry guy with bat-handle ears!
Blooper is new to the Braves but he is proud to be part of the oldest sports organization in America and one of the two remaining original National League franchises (along with the Cubs). The Braves had one of the most impressive strings of winning years from 1991 to 2005 when they won their division every year, the National League Pennant five times and the World Series against the Cleveland Indians in 1995. With wins as the Boston Braves and Milwaukee Braves as well, the team is the only major league team to have won the World Series with three different cities as their home.