Red Sox Mascots

This one's for you, Denise.

So the All-Star break is upon us (go American League - 11 in a row!), and the Red Sox have a double-digit lead after (just over) half of the season. These three days are referred to by many as the slowest time in sports as not much else is going on, and they subsequently cause many a sports talk show to bring up some of the more peripheral topics as talking points.

How can resist peripheral topics?

TLM and I were at a game a week ago and at several points watched as at various times Wally the Green Monster (the Red Sox mascot) was parading around waving a flag, standing up on top of of the dugouts throwing out t-shirts, or just getting the fans excited in general. This is nothing new, of course, as it's been over 10 years since Wally was introduced to us back in 1997. What did surprise us, however, were a pair of big red velvety socks with arms, legs, hats and batting gloves marching up and down the lines. They were even in on the picture taken with Wally and the kid who threw out the first pitch.


Were these odd-looking creatures also Red Sox mascots, like Wally? Did they have a blog, a back-story, several children's books, and small plush versions of themselves for kids of the Nation (and Jerry Remy) to play with? Did they even have names?

The answers to all three questions is yes, they are new "friends of Wally" (though he didn't seem too excited to be with them when we were there), and you can even book "Righty" and "Lefty" for an appearance at your next birthday party if you'd like. One might ask how to tell the difference between the two...well, there is a big (though not very noticeable) "R" and "L" on their respective backs to avoid confusion. To me they looked out of place, though that may be simply because I'm used to Wally and not these two. Then again, maybe it's because the Red Sox management is only letting them out now and then to test the waters, having seen what happens when you formally introduce a new mascot to the Fenway faithful, i.e. Wally's debut.

I was at that first ever "kids opening day" with my father and watched as Wally was introduced with much fanfare, then greeted by an enormous and borderline comical hail of boos and mockeries - truly one of the Fenway moments I'll never forget. For a great recount of the moment, read the first comment on this post at deadspin.com.

What do you think of this new pair of Red Sox symbols? Should they be promoted more or kept in the sock drawer?