Fredbird Speaks!

     In almost a quarter century of backing up the St. Louis Cardinals as its number one cheerleader, Fredbird has been mum, never uttering a word — until now, that is!

     Offering an exclusive interview to the St. Louis Times, Fredbird at last reveals the details of his spectacular career as a Cardinal — well, as the world’s biggest Cardinal, at any rate.

     “Birdseed. Lots and lots of birdseed. That’s how I got the way I am today,” Fredbird chuckles.

So just how much do you weigh, anyway?

“You don’t want to know. I don’t even want to know!” he replies emphatically.

Okay, let’s see, Mr. Fredbird, you’ve been a part of the St. Louis Cardinals organization exactly how long now?

“Well, I was hatched back in 1978. It was on Opening Day that year that a Busch Stadium worker was finishing some last minute business before the game, and he found my nest in the rafters near Kids Corner.”

“I guess they figured since I was hatched on Opening Day that I should be the one to throw out the first pitch of the season. You know that’s quite an accomplishment for a newborn, if I do say so myself. Well, anyway, Busch Stadium has been my home ever since that day,” he declares, beaming with pride. 

So how come you’ve never spoken until now?

“Just nothing to say, I guess. I’ve always believed in that old adage that actions speak louder than words.” And in Fredbird’s case, his actions during the past 24 years have spoken volumes.

However, some may think the gigantic Cardinal is just a silly mascot.

“Silly? Who you callin’ silly?”

Certainly not you, Fredbird, at least not to your face. But, seriously, folks, Fredbird is seldom serious. But what does he enjoy most about his job with the Cardinals?

“Kids. I love kids. Kids are so special. It’s great to see and hear some of the stuff they do and say. They’re so innocent, and they have that special attitude about them. They’re just good-hearted, and it’s great to entertain them and to see them smile. You can actually feed off their actions. It’s not hard to make a child laugh. I love running around ‘beaking’ kids and shaking their hands, giving high fives, and sometimes even carrying kids around the ballpark with me. Kids are just the best!”

“I like to take kids’ hats and hide them to see what the reaction is to that. When they see I’ve put it on my head, for instance, they start laughing about it. Kids really love it when I play with them like that. Sometimes I like to wag my tail over their heads, and they really get a kick out of that, too. Just making the kids and all the other fans laugh — that’s what I like most about my job. I try. I really try. I work my feathers off.”

Fredbird is always ready to give autographs to kids and to pose with them for pictures. “Baseball and kids are my anti-drugs.”

     Okay, so what actually is Fredbird’s “job” with the St. Louis Cardinals? “Usually, I do lots of promotions with the Team Fredbird Girls like dances in different sections throughout the ballpark, and I do the Family of the Game, and, to get the crowd revved up, usually when the team might be behind by a run and has a man on base, I climb on top of the dugout and try to get them really into the action. That usually works to our advantage because when the team sees the crowd getting into the game, that usually pumps them into second gear.”

     “And I usually play in the crowd a lot. I don’t want to say I ‘pick on’ people, but if somebody tells me to pick on his wife, for example, and ‘beak’ their wife, usually I try to embarrass the guy more than I embarrass the wife.”

Fredbird really gets off on the fans’ laughter. And he’s in the business of making people laugh and enjoy themselves but not just at Busch Stadium. He makes guest appearances all around the St. Louis area, proving himself especially entertaining to the children.

“Sometimes I go visit children’s hospitals. I do a lot of walkathons, like the Heart Association’s and the Leukemia Association’s. I do lots of things for Make-A-Wish Foundation. I participate in all kinds of charity events to raise money to help sick kids. I don’t need the money myself — birds don’t have much use for money, you know — but these charities that help the kids sure need money, and I do whatever I can to help them and to make kids feel a little bit better. I also go to a lot of elementary and high schools, and I present a drug-free message. Joe Cunningham and Al Hrabosky and I bring up three messages: stay in school, get involved in sports, and say ‘no’ to drugs. I visit with about 24,000 kids a year. I’d like to do more, but even though I’m bigger — a lot bigger — than your average cardinal, there’s just one of me, and even a Super Cardinal like me can only be in one place at a time. All-in-all, I do about 300 appearances a year — plus being at every Cardinals home game.”

So what does Fredbird really like about being the Cardinals number one cheerleader?

     “Well, first off, the Cardinals have a rich, winning tradition, and they have the best fans in baseball. It’s just the best place to go and have fun with people — and I have a whole ton of fun at the ballpark and other places, too.”

     Besides working every Cardinals home game, he also goes to Kansas City each year for the Interleague games there, and he goes to the All-Star Game and meets and participates in events with the other Major League Baseball mascots from around the nation. “I do go to some of my [other mascot] friends’ birthday parties sometimes — like last year I went to Billy the Marlin’s birthday party in Florida.”

     “Every year, all the team mascots go to where the All-Star Game is being played, and we make lots of appearances around that city, and then we all get together on the field right before Home Run Derby and do a little skit in front of everybody, and the fans seem to really enjoy it.”

     Now only a few teams — including the Cubs, Dodgers, White Sox, and the Rangers — don’t now have team mascots.

     Like anybody else, Fredbird likes to “hang out” with his friends. “A couple of those that are really popular are the Philly Fanatic — who’s a good friend of mine — and the Slugger from the Kansas City Royals and Billy the Marlin from Florida.” One of the more famous mascots from years past is the San Diego Chicken who has flown the coop. “The Chicken is on his own.” Now, San Diego has the Swinging Padre. The Cincinnati team was joined just last year by Mr. Red as the team mascot.

Fredbird started traveling to Kansas City “when Interleague play started back in ’97, and at first it was kind of shaky, but when I was back there this year, it was like they just accepted me for the fun-loving bird that I am. But at our games there, I would say that about 60 percent of the people attending were actually Cardinals fans. So it was like Busch Stadium all over again, and I felt right at home.”

     Over the years, Fredbird has gained lots of friends and admirers. Especially the kids like to know his “stats,” so here goes: Fredbird bats “any way possible,” he says, “and I catch with my beak. I can’t use my wings; they’re no good for that.” And his favorite foods? What does he really like to eat? “Everything. Everything from pizza to nachos to kids’ heads. Whatever I can peck on, I’ll eat.” So forget the birdseed. Maybe that’s really the reason Fredbird got to the size he is today.

The Birth of Fredbird

     It was in the late 1970’s when Fredbird joined the St. Louis Cardinals, and he has been a favorite of fans young and old every since.

“I was the Promotions Director and Marketing Director when Fredbird was created — kind of on my watch, as it were. That’s something I usually brag about,” declares Marty Hendin, Vice President of Community Relations for the St. Louis Cardinals, who has himself been with the organization for 30 years. “Everyone wants to credit me with inventing him, and I didn’t. He was sort of put under my wing, so to speak.”

“Fredbird was our mystery guest Opening Day first-ball pitcher for the 1978 season. Basically, the idea had been broached by many different people, since that was the heyday of the San Diego Chicken,” Hendin continues. “What many people don’t know is that we had the Chicken here, and we really gave him the idea of making his act a traveling show. Our players at the time in the mid-’70’s had seen him in San Diego, really liked the idea, and our trainer approached the Chicken about bringing him to St. Louis. They wanted to do that for the fans, and then Gussie Busch heard about it and said he would pay for it, so we brought him to St. Louis, and he performed for our fans. He’s come a long way since then. In the book that he wrote, he even mentioned that and credits us as the first place out of San Diego that he appeared.”

“Ever since [the San Diego Chicken’s] first appearance, a lot of people suggested a mascot, and obviously the logical mascot was a Cardinal. Then one year as part of our advertising campaign, one of the ad agencies came in and made a pitch, and we liked the idea. They did a drawing and found a place to buy the costume. It was very easy as we sat down and planned our marketing activity for the year, and they said: ‘It’s Marty’s area, so he’s in charge.’ We worked with D’Arcy Advertising and had some secret tryouts because we wanted to keep the whole thing quiet because we didn’t know if it was going to go over well or not. Then we decided we would unveil him Opening Day as the surprise guest. We had him walk out through the wagon gate and go to the mound and throw out the first pitch of the season. We did a pretty good job of keeping that a secret.”

The Cardinals have enjoyed perpetuating a mysterious air around Fredbird since his creation 24 years ago. The organization still doesn’t release to the public the name of the person inside the costume. “Initially, we had two people playing Fredbird — a guy and a gal — and the gal was in the costume about a third of the time, and that got to be a big story, too. There have been less than eight people who have played Fredbird full time, but we’ve had some part-timers who’ve filled in on weekend activities and charity activities. The current person playing Fredbird has now been doing it four or five years.” 

“It’s always been our policy not to have Fredbird be like Santa Claus where there’s one of every corner. We’re not going to have him doing an appearance in U. City and Clayton at the same moment. There’s just one Fredbird at a time.”

Hendin and the Cardinals organization have enjoyed the popularity of the now-famous mascot. “We’ve had some success — and still do — with the Fredbird doll that we put out some years ago, and the gift shop to this day has many Fredbird items. I knew that Fredbird had ‘arrived’ [and been accepted by the fans] when one of the years when he was still relatively new he and I were walking across the street, going to something at the Marriott, and they were working on the second tower. Literally, as we crossed Walnut Street, an over-the-road trucker came by and honked, then the guys on the construction tower yelled, ‘Hey, Fredbird!’ So everybody knows him — little kids and big kids — and we have a lot of fun. Of course, we’ve built an awful lot of things around him at the ballpark.”

Tim Falkner serves as the Cardinals’ Mascot Coordinator and arranges for the big bird’s more than 300 appearances in the community, a huge job in itself, but Falkner says he likes to think of himself as “Fredbird’s Caretaker.”

So why is this gigantic Cardinal called “Fredbird,” anyway? “Bob Currie from D’Arcy came up with the name ‘Fredbird the Redbird’” because of the rhyme, Hendin explains.

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