Merriam-Webster defines the term “obnoxious” this way:

“odiously or disgustingly objectionable highly offensive”

Taking that into consideration, a recent survey of 2,000 Major League Baseball fans resulted in the Phillie Phanatic being named the most obnoxious mascot in the game, just beating out four other mascots that are infinitely more annoying and pathetic:

The image is courtesy of PlayUSA.com, which asked a bunch of questions in the survey. Average age was 37 and 59% of respondents were men. 41% were women.

Here’s another relevant blurb:


Along with asking sports fans to rank MLB mascots, we were also curious to see how fanbases rated their own mascot. Even though the Phillie Phanatic ended up in the middle of our overall ranking, he is clearly beloved by Phillies fans who gave him a 4.41 rating out of 5.

When it comes to fans who dislike their team’s mascot, look no further than the Tampa Bay Rays who didn’t even give their mascot, Raymond, 3 stars.

This seems about right. Non-Phillies fans don’t like the Phanatic because he/she/it is a savage. You might get a pie in the face, or Tommy Lasorda might end up fighting the thing. The Phanatic is always very good at pushing buttons. He/she/it is kind of like the Brad Marchand or Tom Wilson of mascots. You absolutely can’t stand those guys when they’re on the other team but you secretly would probably love to have them on your squad.

And fans are right about Raymond and Slider. Both of those mascots are terrible. One is a furry blue thing and the other is a furry fuchsia thing. The Phanatic is a furry green thing, but at least knows how to entertain.