If it’s South Carolina, it’s not really the Red Sox
That must be what Theo Epstein is telling himself this week, after the ugly stench of scandal wafted out of the Red Sox single-A affiliate, the Greenville (SC) Drive. The team has been a breeding ground for the Next Great Red Sox Arms, namely starting-pitcher phenoms Michael Bowden and Clay Buchholz, who will likely succeed Jon Lester and Jon Papelbon. But earlier this year, the Drive had a less glorified form of breeding going on. Cecil Amick, 37, was dismissed from his job last week following his arrest on molestation charges. Who is Cecil Amick, you ask? Only the understudy-in-waiting to Wally the Green Monster — the Drive’s frog-themed mascot, Reedy Rip’It.
RIP IT UP: The Greenville Drive’s frog-themed mascot, Reedy Rip’It, has the furries in the news for the first time since the Phillie Phanatic’s forcible-hugging lawsuit. |
Amick was arrested after a female fan claimed he fondled her breast under the stands in April. The ensuing investigation revealed that the man under the mask already had a criminal record. He was busted for burglary several times in Columbia, SC, and was on probation at the time he was hired by the Drive. The team was apparently unaware of Amick’s rap sheet; perhaps their judgment was clouded by his superb mascot experience, having served as Cocky, the University of South Carolina’s Gamecock-themed kabuki.While mascots, unsurprisingly, have been charged with all manner of mischief in the past, sexual misconduct has not been a common beef. The closest thing to a sex crime in mascot history I could find was a lawsuit against the Phillie Phanatic, involving a woman who claimed she was forcibly hugged by Philadelphia's notorious, furry Jungian archetype. The Phanatic was also famously warned once by secret servicemen not to “pull any shit” during an appearance by former president Bush. Apparently, another mascot once tried to put Bush Sr.’s head into its mouth.
Amick has been charged with “molesting or disturbing persons” and is free on bond awaiting trial.
Strange days in Buffalo
In a crime that has personal significance for the author of this column, a former Buffalo scholastic football star was arrested recently for a bizarre series of robbery/homicides in Downtown Buffalo. One of the victims, George Pitliangas, was the owner of a restaurant called Tony’s Ranch House. Tony’s was the first establishment to distribute my old newspaper, the Buffalo Beast.
Buffalo is one of the most notoriously segregated cities in America. The city is divided down the middle between East and West sides, with Main Street serving as the dividing line. East Buffalo is black; West Buffalo is white. (Buffalo’s legendary idiotic ex-mayor “Jimmy Six-Pack” Griffin once told a radio-talk-show caller that East Buffalo was the last part of the city to be plowed in a snowstorm because residents in the rest of the city had to go to work.) As such, Main Street has always been a tense place. Tony’s is located right on the east side of Main Street, along the racial dividing line.
