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Constable: Cubs teams can't bear real mascot

After Wednesday's double-header loss, it seems a tad early to orchestrate the Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series Champions team photograph. But we need to make sure the result is better than last time. The 1908 team, led by Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown, Frank Chance, Johnny Evers and Joe Tinker, posed with the mangiest-looking mascot in baseball history - a man (or possibly woman, child or actual bear) wearing a dingy polar bear suit.

Yet, that horrendous image serves as a high point during a sordid history of team mascots that includes a fatal shooting.

Founded in 1876 as the Chicago White Stockings, the franchise now known as the Cubs swept a home stand from New York for a 23-4 record by the time Gen. George Armstrong Custer dropped his last stand on the road against the Indians. The White Stockings went on to win the 1876 pennant with a 52-14 mark. But finding a mascot for a team named after pale hosiery is tricky, as evidenced by the White Sox's 1980s mascot duo of Ribbie and Roobarb.

In 1890, as fans lamented four long years without a championship, the White Stockings changed their name to the Colts. The Colts fared even worse. After a disastrous 1897 season, player/manager Cap Anson left the team at age 45. Playing without their father figure for the first time in team history, the Colts became known as the Orphans. After a 1902 season in which the Orphans finished fifth, the franchise picked up a future Hall of Fame shortstop in Joe Tinker, embraced a youth movement, were dubbed the Cubs and flirted with the idea of a mascot.

While it might have been easy to find a mascot for the Colts or even the Orphans in turn-of-the-century Chicago, the Cubs moniker proved a natural.

"Sports writers were a little 'squirmish' on the names they would use," says Peter Alter, archivist and longtime historian with the Chicago History Museum. Some writers held onto the Orphans name, and others pushed for the Cubs. The players formerly known as the Orphans warmed to the idea of being the Cubs.

"We do have a picture of a cub at a game," says Alter, referring to the black-and-white photograph of an actual bear cub on a leash being led out on the field of the West Side Grounds in 1906. "It looks like a bear cub rounding third base. That era was the first time they attempted something like that."

The team's star first-baseman put the question to rest at the start of the 1907 season.

"Frank Chance basically declared, 'I want us known from this point forward as the Cubs,'" Alter says. Not only did the team pose with the mangy polar bear in that 1908 photo, but a flag hanging above the box office at the start of the 1909 season featured the familiar likeness of a bear cub holding a baseball bat.

Teams of that era often embraced good-luck charms, Alter says. The 1908 Cubs reportedly took a liking to a Boston terrier puppy named Bud, and a terrier named Toy apparently hung around with the 1915 Cubs. But the idea of having a living bear as the Cubs mascot wouldn't die, even if the bears did.

One bear, named Clara Maduro, was so nasty that team officials were going to have it executed until a public outrage forced them to donate it to a bartender, who later turned it over to a zoo.

Under the headline "Bear, Cub Mascot, Is Shot to Death When It Throws Girls into Panic," a front-page story in the Jan. 27, 1916, edition of the Chicago Examiner told how another bear cub escaped while being transported to Weeghman Park. The bear ran up the stairs of a tailoring factory and was shot dead after reportedly frightening female employees.

A replacement bear, named Joa in an apparent tip of the cap to team shareholder and meatpacking magnate J. Ogden Armour, lived in a cage outside the ballpark for a while. Joa did not endear himself to fans or players and was sold to the Lincoln Park Zoo. In 1916, zoo director Cy DeVry brought Joa to the first National League game at Weeghman Field, says Alter.

"Maybe having a live wild animal as your mascot in the close quarters of a baseball park isn't a good idea," Alter says.

Cubs Manager Joe Maddon brought a couple of young bear cubs to spring training in Arizona this March. Wrigley Field used to be home to the Chicago Bears, and the team now has a costumed bear named Clark, who is said to be a descendant of his great-grandbear Joa and spends more time at children's hospitals than he does at ballgames. But the Friendly Confines have been bear-free for decades.

The only other historical mentions of animals at the ballpark are from the 1945 World Series. "Of course, the animal most associated with that 1945 Series is the billy goat," Alter says.

Nope. We Cubs fans would rather be mauled by Clark than rehash anything related to goats.

After the 1908 Chicago Cubs won the World Series, the team started using a logo with the lovable Cub holding a bat. In this 1909 photograph of the ticket window at the West Side Grounds, the Cub adorns a pennant commemorating the National League Champions. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum
As the 1908 World Series champions, the Cubs probably could have found a better mascot than someone wearing a dingy polar bear costume. At least this mascot, unlike some others, wasn't threatened with execution or shot to death. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum
More than a century ago, Chicago Cubs pitcher George Pierce pets a bear cub while catcher Roger Bresnahan holds the animal's leash. The idea of using live bears as mascots was rarely this comfortable. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum
During spring training in Arizona this March, Cubs Manager Joe Maddon brought in a couple of bear cubs from the Bearizona wildlife park to entertain the players. Anthony Rizzo, center, cradles one of the cubs. Courtesy of Jason P. Skoda
Although no one is quite sure what happened to 1980s White Sox mascots Ribbie and Roobarb, this front-page story in the Jan. 27, 1916, edition of the Chicago Examiner tells the story of a Cubs mascot that was shot to death. Courtesy of Chicago Public Library
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