When you go to a baseball game there are a few things you can count on. You'll hear the vendors

hollering over the din of the crowd.

You'll smell the peanuts, the hot dogs, the ludicrously overpriced beers.

And if you're at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia,

you'll see a six and a half foot tall,

fuzzy, green beast, waddling across the field in search of trouble.

Even if you're not a sports fan, you've probably heard of the Philly fanatic.

Sports Illustrated called him the best mascot in history.

He has sold millions of dollars worth of merchandise,

and he brings families to the ballpark

at a time when fewer people are going to baseball games.

How exactly does he do that?

Well, it has a lot to do with a guy who originally

wore the costume.

I could throw, I could catch, I could do cartwheels, not a lot of gymnastics, but I could do cartwheels not a lot of gymnastics but I could dance could move

really well I kind of fancied myself as being the secret weapon. For the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is the economics of everyday things.

I'm Zachary Trackett. Today, sports Mascots.

The secret weapon you just heard from, that's Dave Raymond.

His story starts back in the late 1970s. As a sophomore in college he landed a summer

internship with the Phillies. I was in the promotions office and you know my dad had

said look when you get this job you do whatever they ask you to do. Don't say no to anything.

So I was stocking shelves, I was cleaning bathrooms up in the executive offices, and then I might be taking

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