Anaheim has its Rally Monkey, the mystical creature known as “Marcel” who jumps up and down on the Angel Stadium video scoreboard whenever the Angels are in need of a late-inning comeback.
Chicago has its Rally Mayor, the savvy politician known locally as “Richie” who wears white socks to work whenever the White Sox are in need of a postseason victory.
Though the Rally Monkey and our own Mayor Richard M. Daley may have little more in common than their devotion to baseball, both are hoping to spur on the home team in this year’s American League Championship Series.
May the best man, or monkey, win.
As most baseball fans know through constant re-tellings on Fox’s pregame shows, the Rally Monkey came into being during an Angels home game in 2000 when an employee working the scoreboard showed a video clip of a monkey jumping up and down from the movie “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.” The video was accompanied by the House of Pain song “Jump Around,” exhorting fans to cheer.
The Angels posted a comeback triumph, and a wacky tradition was born.
The Rally Monkey really took off in 2002 when the Angels posted 43 come-from-behind victories in the regular season and wound up winning their first World Series. By this time, Angels management had hired its own capuchin monkey, one named Kate, who had played “Marcel” in several episodes of “Friends.” They spliced her into clips from famous movie scenes and audiences howled at the most absurd marketing stunt.
A magical moment occurred during Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, when Dusty Baker’s Giants were one victory away from winning a championship and had a 5-0 lead going into the seventh inning. Enter the Rally Monkey, and exit the Giants, who blew Game 6 and then lost Game 7 the next day.
The Rally Monkey’s magic didn’t work against the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the 2005 AL Division Series, despite being inserted into the movie “Jaws” and “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”
In Game 2, the Rally Monkey returned as late rock star Freddie Mercury in the video of Queen’s classic ’70s song “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The Angels came back and won, leaving the Rally Monkey with a .500 record in the ’05 postseason.
With the Yankees falling behind early in Game 5, the Rally Monkey wasn’t called upon, resting up until the ALCS.
The Sox are taking no chances. Hank Konerko, father of Sox slugger Paul Konerko, was once so sure that a souvenir rally monkey his wife bought was contributing to his son’s slump that he gave it a ritual beating, burning and trashing.
“I told my wife before the series, no rally monkeys,” Hank Konerko said.
Whether the Sox’s Rally Mayor can outperform the Angels’ Rally Monkey in the 2005 ALCS is a question most baseball prognosticators are reluctant to address. At this stage of the series, it’s still too early to call.
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