Friday, July 19, 2013

The Diamondbacks' New Mascot is a...Luchador?

Posted By on Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 10:00 AM

The Arizona Diamondbacks, the one "Arizona" pro team that appears to be doing it right, according to our sports columnist, unveiled a new mascot yesterday in time for the post-All-Star-Game home stand: a luchador.

The D-Backs Luchador
  • Jon Willey/Arizona Diamondbacks
  • The D-Backs Luchador

Why yes, that is a masked Mexican wrestler. According to the release the D-Backs sent along with this photo, he's apparently directly related to the original D-Backs lucha libre mask promotion from last year (which I don't have around me, unfortunately):

The Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) have introduced the D-backs Luchador as an official mascot of the team. The popularity of last year’s Lucha Libre mask, which was later followed by a Lucha Libre match, inspired the creation of the Luchador character and this year the mascot features a new look. In addition, the D-backs will give away 20,000 Luchador masks, courtesy of Circle K and Univision Arizona, as fans enter Chase Field next Saturday, July 27.

The D-backs Luchador speaks both fluent Spanish and English and represents a character that you would find at a Lucha Libre match.

Now, that's some stilted PR writing ("represents a character you would find at a match?" C'mon guys, way to suspend belief. El Santo was a national hero that was buried in his mask, for God's sake) for what seems to be an otherwise cool mascot — and even cooler, the guy apparently wrestles for a lucha libre promotion out of Glendale, so he's not just some cut Hispanic dude who they paid to wear tights, he's the real deal.

My hope? He hurricanranas D-Baxter the Bobcat out of the damn stadium and becomes the official, full-time D-Backs mascot.

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