As the Blue Jays get set to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, thoughts turn to the team’s original mascot.
Kevin Shanahan, the creator of BJ Birdy, was there when the Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993.
Shanahan made his first appearance dancing and pumping up Blue Jays crowds at the tail end of the 1979 season. He remembered being offered an in-game audition by team executives after he was seen dressed in a bird suit on the pages of theToronto Sunand yearning to work for the fledgling ballclub, which entered the league in 1977.
“My father knew Barry Gray, a photographer who worked for theSunat the time,” Shanahan told theToronto Sunin September 1999.
“Barry thought it would make a good photo … My picture ended up on the front page.”
Shanahan, the cousin of NHL legend and former Maple Leafs executive Brendan Shanahan, had been dressing up in animal costumes at Ontario Place while he attended the University of Toronto as a 20-year-old student.
Shanahan said he created a bird suit for the audition at a cost of $250.
With the Blue Jays hosting the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 11, 1979, he climbed up the chain-link fence at Exhibition Stadium and into fans’ hearts.
“The Jays gave me a one-game trial,” he said. “If I didn’t perform well enough, I was out. I practically killed myself running around … I hadn’t yet learned how to pace myself.”
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Shanahan, who owned the BJ Birdy trademark under his company Shanahan Productions of Mississauga, was the longest-running major-league mascot at the time.
BJ Birdy was the only American League mascot to be kicked out of a game when umpire Jim McKean ejected him for challenging a call on May 22, 1992. Shanahan said he was innocent.
Three years earlier, Expos mascot Youppi! was thrown out of a game in Montreal against the Dodgers in extra innings after visiting manager Tommy Lasorda complained about fans yelling at him and his players.
However, it all came crashing down for Shanahan when the team told him to not show up for the final two games of the 1999 regular season after failing to purchase the trademark from him.
The asking price was reported to be around $150,000.
In December 1999, the team publicly announced they were dropping BJ Birdy for what they considered to be more hip characters.
Two months later, the Blue Jays introduced Ace and Diamond at a local elementary school.
“B.J. did a nice job for us, but he’s gone to the retirement home for fowls and it’s time to move on,” Gord Ash, the Blue Jays general manager, told theNational Postat the time.
That ruffled some of Shanahan’s feathers.
“Not even a goodbye and good luck,” he said. “Just get lost and see you later.”
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After his departure, the Blue Jays struggled to put a competitive team on the field. Two years later, Shanahan said his release from the team still left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“I have no interest in the ball game,” he told theNational Post. “After spending 20 years getting it for free, why would I pay for it?”
He said the Jays gave him nothing for all of the hard work he did over two decades of entertaining fans at Exhibition Stadium and what was then known as the SkyDome.
No fan appreciation day, no final farewell. He stuffed the costume away in a basement closet and moved on to other things.
“They figured out after 20 years that I owned the character,” he said. “That’s what I call clever people.
“Is there any animosity? No. I found what they did was goofy. Get rid of me, fine. But the way they did it, I thought there was, I don’t know, a certain lack of professionalism.”
