Meet the Braves un-cheerleaders
I’m a purist. I’ve got to admit I cringe a little bit every time the stadium entertainment director plays a “boing!” or “crash!” sound effect over the load speaker following a foul ball. And I really get pissed when a team rolls out a new Phanatic wannabe mascot. There’s only one Phanatic, people, and that’s all we need. You hear that, Wally the Green Monster?
The action on the field ought to be entertainment enough, in my opinion. So I’m kinda glad that baseball has managed to avoid bringing in cheerleaders. How teams have been able to resist the cheerleader phenomenon, I have no idea. But they have. And I think we’re all better off.Actually, there is one team with cheerleaders. The Braves have the Tomahawk Team. And while they insist they’re not cheerleaders, well, decide for yourself.
From the AJC:
Quick to say that they are not a dance or cheerleading squad, Tomahawk Team members, who greet home game fans at the main gate, are best known for launching T-shirts into the crowds with hand-held cannons during breaks between innings.
“We welcome the fans into the stadium and rev up the crowd,” says team captain Jillian Rucker.
They also pass out souvenir stickers, lead “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” singalongs, and do-si-do to “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.”
The only argument to be made that the Tomahawk Team isn’t bunch of dancers is that the hopping and skipping they do during “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” could hardly be called dancing. It is, in a word, lame. Every time I have to suffer through a seventh inning stretch at the Ted, I thank god I’m NOT a country boy.
April 6th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Amen.
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April 6th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
The Marlins have cheerleaders too.
http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/fan_forum/mermaids_2007.jsp
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May 13th, 2007 at 12:55 am
How do you become a Braves Un-Cheerleader? Do they get paid?
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March 29th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I’ll go to many Brves games this year just to see Britany who is a Tomahawk babe. She just so happens to work with me also. I am blessed & so is her body!
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June 21st, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I actually cheered for a AA team and could have moved up to the Cardinals. We did get paid, but it’s a smaller town, so a smaller paycheck. But we were called the spirit team. We were not cheerleaders, but we did dance a small bit.
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July 5th, 2008 at 3:09 am
The angels have their “strike force squad” that also shoots shirts into the crowds, does the “upcoming promotions” for tv and everything. I actually think theyre beautiful, friendly, and silly fun. In this day and age, most people cannot get through a ball game without something else to look at, whether it be a gorgeous girl in a baseball jersey or hot dogs racing.
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September 21st, 2008 at 6:44 am
only unattractive women complain about attractive women who wear booty shorts. loser.
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September 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Holy crap, Coley. I think someone just called you an unattractive woman! Don’t tell your fiancee…
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May 24th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I just got back from a Braves game and I had a chance to meet these young girls. They didn’t seem to me to be “cheerleaders”. They were a hand full of girls who are out there having a good time making everyone who shows up to the stadium feel welcome. If anything its freakin awsome when you watch them with the T Sirt cannons shoot up to the upper deck! I think they are good for baseball and more teams should adopt this type of entertament.
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