Tom Burgoyne was selling computer supplies for six months after graduating from Drexel when he saw a listing in the newspaper that said “mascots wanted.” It didn’t say who was looking for mascots or where the job would be located. Burgoyne, who was the mascot in high school at St. Joe’s Prep, didn’t need to know.
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“I sent my resume to the P.O. Box,” Burgoyne said. “I thought I’d be like the Hamburglar or the Statue of Liberty at tax time. And then the Phillies called.”
Burgoyne aced his audition and spent five years as the backup Phillie Phanatic before becoming the main man inside the flightless bird from the Galápagos Islands.
But Burgoyne has long protected the mascot like a professional wrestler protecting the business.
He’s not the Phanatic but the Phanatic’s best friend. He talks about the mascot in third person — “The Phanatic will be busy on Tuesday,” Burgoyne said of the All-Star Game — and does his best to separate the man from the bird. He knows another big-league mascot who is a teacher during the day but keeps his other job so secretive that people in his school don’t know he’s a mascot.
“I respect the hell out of that,” Burgoyne said.
So Burgoyne, who is participating in his 30th All-Star Game, needed some convincing to peel back the curtain for a documentary expected to premiere later this year about the mascot he brings to life every summer. But then Burgoyne remembered watching a documentary about the Muppets that showed Jim Henson pulling the strings for Kermit The Frog. If Henson could do that, then Burgoyne could talk about what he does.
The documentary — which is titled Big Phan — is directed by Flourtown native Hoag Kepner, the brother of longtime baseball writer Tyler Kepner. It tells the history of the mascot, Burgoyne said, and “has a lot of heart.” And it allowed Burgoyne a chance to admit that he’s more than just a friend of the Phanatic.
“You never want to think that there’s someone in the costume,” Burgoyne said. “I can look at an old clip of the Phanatic and I’m not thinking, ‘Oh, that’s me in there.’ I’m just thinking ‘That’s the Phanatic.’ You want that magic to stay alive.”
Burgoyne’s first All-Star Game was in 1996 at Veterans Stadium when Major League Baseball invited every mascot for the first time. The mascots were told to dress across Pattison Avenue at the Spectrum before the Home Run Derby, but the locker rooms were under construction when they arrived. So they took over the Vet’s umpire dressing room, which equipment manager Joey Dunn had already set up for the next day’s All-Star Game.
“Here come the mascots trashing the place on Monday,” Burgoyne said. “MLB has learned a lot over the years.”
The game has become the annual gathering of the mascots as they didn’t have a reason to come together before MLB started to invite them each July.
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Baseball’s biggest stars are descending on Philadelphia for the 96th All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park on July 14. Follow all of The Inquirer’s coverage here.
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- Kyle Schwarber joins Bryce Harper in the Home Run Derby
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Burgoyne was in Boston in 1999 when Ted Williams returned to Fenway Park. He was in Pittsburgh when Ryan Howard won the 2006 Derby, and he was in New York in 2008 when they played 15 innings. But his favorite memory is the one that leaves him wondering what could have been.
The mascots were taking turns sliding down Bernie Brewer’s slide in Milwaukee during the 2002 Home Run Derby when the Phanatic took his turn.
“I think someone had to give him a shove with their foot,” Burgoyne said.
The big, feathery green thing neared the bottom of the slide just as Sammy Sosa homered off it. The Phanatic could have made a play.
“I’m telling you, the Phanatic was coming down the slide and it just missed,” Burgoyne said. “If the Phanatic slid two seconds earlier, he could’ve caught it on the fly in the slide. It’s such a regret. It would’ve been the ESPN Play of the Day.”
The mascot arrived in Philadelphia in 1978 and was brought to life by Dave Raymond, who retired after the 1993 season. The schtick has been fine-tuned in nearly 50 years but the main elements have remained unchanged. Burgoyne makes fans allow themselves to believe that what they’re seeing is real. Because he’s not in the costume. He’s just a friend. And he has no plans of stopping.
“I’m still having fun,” Burgoyne said when asked how much longer he has in the gig. “I’ve been thinking of David Montgomery a lot and when they announced the All-Star Game so long ago for him, I was like ‘2026? Someone else can do that.’ But here we are. When you’re having so much fun, why not?”
Ryan Howard was a three-time All-Star and champion of the 2006 Home Run Derby in his legendary run with the Phillies. With the baseball world coming together in Philadelphia for the 96th All-Star Game, Howard sat down with Phillies Extra to discuss his All-Star memories, his expectations for a Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park, his outlook on the Phillies’ season, Kyle Schwarber’s chances of breaking his single-season franchise mark for homers, and more. Watch here.
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