That Pistons-Pacers fan-player mel?e in Detroit was awful. Although this shot from ESPN was kind of funny...
Actually, the whole thing reminded me of a hockey game Andrew and I attended in February 1995. My family was visiting me at Emory, so I picked up a pair of tickets to the Atlanta Knights-Cincinnati Cyclones game. The Knights were actually pretty good... they won several IHL titles, led primarily by Stan Drulia. But the best thing about their team was the mascot, "Sir Slapshot."
Sadly, I can't find any pictures of him on the Internets, but Sir Slapshot was basically constructed of the same material used in those giant inflatable moonbounce things that kids jump around in. He was a big, goofy, inflatable blimp of a knight. And, his arms were attached to his sides at his elbows. As a result, he could only move his forearms, giving him this odd Robbie the Robot waving-my-arms-around style.
So Andrew and I are enjoying the game, sitting in the lower level of the dearly departed Omni. In the middle of the game, I look over a few aisles to my right and see Sir Slapshot bounding down the aisle, toward the glass behind the visiting team bench, preparing to bang on it as hockey mascots often do. I also notice that the visiting team coach is leaning back on the glass, and I cringe as I watch him get knocked forward by the glass when Sir Slapshot bounces into it.
Then, as Andrew and I watched in horror, the coach climbed over the glass, bounded up the aisle, tackled Sir Slapshot, and started wailing on him with a series of right hooks! All the while, the poor mascot is pinned to the ground, flailing its too short arms about helplessly. Unbelievable. And one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
Coach and mascot were finally separated. The coach, Don Jackson, was suspended for 10 games, and footage of the incident made SportsCenter. And, as I recall, Sir Slapshot skated out before the third period wearing comically oversized bandages on his head, but otherwise none the worse for wear.
A good time was had by all.
That was the best sporting event I ever witnessed. I remember it vividly. We couldn't even see Sir Slapshot, except for his oversized head and arms as he bounced up and down again from the impact of the punches. It looked something like if a person punched a living basketball again and again.
It might be an important part of the story that the Cyclones were losing pretty badly at the time. I definitely remember thinking Jackson was a bad sport. Also, I remember the bandaged Sir Slapshot came out before 3rd period with an inflated friend. Good times!
Rolling Stone had an article (maybe 6 months ago?) about mascots and all the shit they have to endure. I was never quite sure if it was written tongue-in-cheek or not, because it was some funny as shit, or if it was meant to be a true expose of the perils of mascotting.
No, the mascot abuse stories are true. I once interviewed the Oriole "Bird" about a medical journal paper showing a staggeringly high injury rate (mostly heatstroke, knee injuries from falling in the cumbersome costumes, etc.) in mascots. The PR office there asked if I would refrain from mentioning the prospect of fan-on-mascot violence, which is apparently common enough that MLB PR offices have to fight to keep it out of the press (lest copycat attacks proliferate).