Mascot

The Baltimore Oriole Bird is lawsuit-filing mad.John J. Krownapple, one of the three men that work as the Oriole mascot, filed suit Tuesday in Baltimore Circuit Court alleging Louis G. Vitagliano of Philadelphia pushed him and caused him to fall about 10 feet from a right-field bleacher at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.Krownapple, confined to a wheelchair for 40 days after the incident May 4, said he suffered a broken and severely sprained left ankle, a bruised right ankle, soft tissue damage and torn ligaments and tendons.

John J. Krownapple never told his fifth-grade pupils that he wore an oversized bird suit and big floppy shoes on nights and weekends.When someone would become suspicious and question him, the 24-year-old Howard County elementary school teacher would talk his way around the truth."

Francis Joseph McNerney III, a graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School where he was known as the Fighting Gael mascot, died Dec. 21 at the University of Maryland Medical Center from complications related to a lung transplant. The Canton resident was 23. Affectionately known as "Frankie," Mr. McNerney, a twin, was born in Baltimore and raised in Northeast Baltimore and Catonsville, where he attended area Catholic schools. He graduated from Mount St. Joseph in 2008. Mr. McNerney was born with cystic fibrosis, which took a toll on his body over the years, including the loss of a lung as a teenager, though his sister Kelsey McNerney said it never broke his spirit.

The stick-figure red devil that has served as the mascot of the Class of 2002 at Catonsville High School since the seniors were freshmen is again welcome on campus. Nearly two weeks ago, at the culmination of the school's "spirit week," seniors decked the front hall with red and silver balloons, paper flames and cardboard cut-outs of their cartoonish devil mascot. But Principal Robert Tomback, responding to a mother's complaint that the devil promoted satanic and anti-Christian beliefs, and after consulting with his supervisors, made the students dismantle their display early - though they had won the $50 prize for best decorations.

The "Iron Horse Express," Howard Community College's neglected mascot, is being scrapped. The college put it to a vote, and 69 percent of the people who cast ballots thought the antique train should go. The informal election drew 360 votes from students, employees and county residents. Four percent wanted to keep the mascot as is - the rest either voted for an updated locomotive or for a new image to go with the name. A contest will decide the train's replacement. Residents can submit ideas through Dec. 1, and a seven-person panel will announce the new mascot Dec. 15. The winner gets $300 in free tuition for a credit course at HCC. The college picked the Iron Horse Express in the 1970s because trains figured prominently in the county's history.

The "Iron Horse Express," Howard Community College's neglected mascot, is being scrapped. The college put it to a vote, and 69 percent of the people who cast ballots thought the antique train should go. The informal election drew 360 votes from students, employees and county residents. Four percent wanted to keep the mascot as is - the rest either voted for an updated locomotive or for a new image to go with the name. A contest will decide the train's replacement. Residents can submit ideas through Dec. 1, and a seven-person panel will announce the new mascot Dec. 15. The winner gets $300 toward tuition for a credit course at the school.

As the Baltimore Oriole mascot danced down the bleachers trying to entertain fans in May, a Philadelphia man made a scene of a different sort: He pushed the Bird into right field. The Bird bit back. On Thursday, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge ordered Louis G. Vitagliano to pay the Bird, John J. Krownapple, $60,000. The money is to cover medical expenses, lost wages and the pain and suffering endured when Krownapple fell 15 feet from the bleachers on May 4. "It is kind of sick to attack the mascot," said Krownapple's lawyer, F. Todd Taylor.

The cougar didn't leave any paw prints, just an imprint on the mulch where it used to sit in front of Clarksville Elementary School. The Blue Ribbon school's beloved mascot -- a life-size sculpture commissioned by the fifth-grade Class of 2003 -- was stolen this month, leaving pupils and teachers baffled. "It's a sad story," Principal Brad Herling said yesterday. Who would take the approximately 275-pound concrete sculpture that was chained to a bench at the entrance of the school? "Maybe some people who were against mascots and who thought it would be cool to see a school worry," said Emily Rabinowitz, 8, a third-grader.

All points bulletin: Navy's goat is alive and well, and, ahem, in Army custody. It had been a month since Bill, the Naval Academy's mascot, had vanished from a farm in Gambrills. But yesterday, after West Point announced amnesty for anyone who had anything to do with the goat's disappearance, at least one Army cadet turned himself in. "The goat has been found," Lt. Col. James Whaley, the West Point spokesman, announced yesterday afternoon. "We are in the process of notifying our Naval counterparts."

For more than half a century, Havre de Grace High School has been home to the Warriors, its symbol an Indian chieftain wearing a headdress. But if the State Board of Education has its way, the Warriors soon will fall by the wayside, along with other American Indian names for teams and mascots, such as Indians, Braves and Redskins. The board voted Tuesday to urge schools to drop the names, which some people find offensive. In Havre de Grace, where a bronze bust of a Indian chieftain sits in the high school lobby and the name Warriors adorns everything from sports jerseys to key chains to bumper stickers, most residents don't see much reason for a change.