Yes, It's Hot in Here: Adventures in the Weird, Woolly World of Sports Mascots
Yes, It's Hot in Here explores the entertaining history of the mascot from its jester roots in Renaissance society to the slapstick pantomime of the Clown Prince of Baseball, Max Patkin, all the way up to the mascots of the slam-dunk, rock-and-roll, Jumbotron culture of today. Along the way, author AJ Mass of ESPN.com (a former Mr. Met himself) talks to the pioneers among modern-day mascots like Dave Raymond (Phillie Phanatic), Dan Meers (K. C. Wolf), and Glenn Street (Harvey the Hound) and finds out what it is about being a mascot that simply won't leave the performer.
Mass examines what motivates high school and college students to compete for the chance to wear a sweaty animal suit and possibly face the ridicule of their peers in the process, as well as women who have proudly served as mascots for teams in both the pro and amateur ranks. In the book's final chapter, Mass climbs inside a mascot costume one more time to describe what it feels like and, perhaps, rediscover a bit of magic.
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"A witty and wild ride narrated by a sharp writer with a big heart and beautiful soul." --David Ritz, bestselling author of The Man Who Brought The Dodgers Back to Brooklyn
"As a professional fantasy sports analyst, I usually overlook the impact mascots can have on a player's performance. But after learning that AJ Mass, a former Mr. Met, once inspired Bret Saberhagen to pitch a five-hit shutout and that his performance once distracted Braves slugger Fred McGriff to the point he was nearly decapitated during infield practice, perhaps I shouldn't. Yes, It's Hot in Here is a fascinating and fun look at a part of the sports world that everyone is aware of but few people really know." --Matthew Berry, New York Times bestselling author of Fantasy Life
"Mass, a nice Queens boy and current writer for ESPN.com, lifts the proverbial and physical mask to explore what he calls the "certain weirdness" of being a major league mascot. The result is a memoir-cum-Mr. Met-genealogy which traces the roots of the character and the intersection of his own turn in the role through a taxonomy of mascotdom, from the royal courts of Renaissance Europe to keg-saturated college campuses. It is studded with profiles of mascots Mass has known and those he has searched out, the quiet practitioners of the art of mugging for a crowd in an anthropomorphized animal suit." --Gelf Magazine
