Rockies Mascot Dinger Under Fire for Obesity, Bad Behavior, Lack of Humor

by Nick Coman on Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 7:20AM

The Rockies will have a significant task retooling their roster after selling players down the stretch and finishing third in the NL West. They may, however, have questions to answer about creatures in Rockies uniforms as well.

Rockies mascot Dinger has come under fire in a letter to the Denver Post for being obese and thus encouraging children to make poor lifestyle choices.

Dinger was also maligned for not being creative or funny, and for being a narcissistic creature who tried to steal too much of the spotlight from the game.

It's hard to give much credence to the argument that Dinger is fat — nearly every mascot is. Those costumes are big because that's how fans see them. Still, the Rockies purple dinosaur has caused some controversy over the years.

In 1994, Dinger and Rockies broadcaster Jeff Kingerly had an altercation involving shoving and cursing after Dinger bumped into Kingerly during a broadcast.

In 2009, the purple dinosaur was spotted behind home plate in the 9th inning of the NLDS-clinching game for the Philadelphia Phillies. Dinger was apparently making distracting gestures to try to prevent Brad Lidge from closing out the game.

It remains to be seen what Dinger's fate will be as a result of the criticism.

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