Animal baseball? Via muppet.wikia.com

…And you thought the only animals at baseball games were polyester-furred mascots. Or Dbacks fans in frighteningly realistic horse masks.  Or, the Giants giant hybrid, Panda Sandoval.

Each week, Throwback Thursday concerns the intrinsic Human Craving for nostalgia. Paying homage to the Good Old Days*, back when animals were animals, and people were people?

*AUTHOR’S NOTE: Also see, “Ye Goode Olde Days.”

Yeah, life was good back then. Like, back in 2011…

Remember the rally squirrel that scurried about the St. Louis stage of the NLDS last year? Holy rabies, Batman- that guy was cyuuute. He became an instant hit. From T-shirts, to memes, to stuffed animals, to his own Wikipedia page (and that’s how you know you’ve made it big time) he scampered into the hearts of baseball fans aplenty.

Well, you should know, even waay wayy back in 2004, squirrels were going nuts over baseball. (ha, ha.) And then is when the first Rally Squirrel frolicked by fans with his skiddish antics. The squirrel materialized at an Indians-Yankees game, and interrupted not only Derek Jeter’s at-bat, but also interrupted a losing streak for the Tribe.

In spite of the aforementioned warm-blooded, rodentia examples, mammals are certainly not the only of our friends from the Animal Kingdom to make special surprise appearances on our diamonds. Of course, also last season, was our favourite baseballian insectoid invasion: the unfailingly hilarious LoMo vs. Praying Mantis incident that took place in the Marlins dugout. [VIDEO]

Even so, one cannot say the partially made-up words “insectoid,” “invasion,” and “baseballian” in one sentence without also mentioning the Indians-Yankees game of the 2007 ALDS that was plagued by insects, Jeterian downright silly dance moves, and a cameo by bleach blonde sensation Billy Idol. [VIDEO]

And finally, it is likely that most of you, all avid baseball fans I presume, are aware of the following unbelievable anomaly that went down in a flurry of feathers in 2001. If you are not familiar with the incident, then pencils out, and please take note:

Randy Johnson, meet Fastball. Fastball, meet Bird.

SPOILER ALERT: Bird meets Death. [VIDEO]

Rest in peace, Bird. Our condolences.

I don’t feel I need any other reasons to rationalize my nightmarish fear of Randy Johnson, but, I have them.