Attending a small high school afforded Nico Hoerner the opportunity to dabble in a variety of activities.
One such activity was being the mascot. That was short-lived.
Hoerner grew up in the Bay Area, attending the Head-Royce School in Oakland before playing college baseball at Stanford. He gave basketball a try as a freshman, but didn’t end up sticking with it. However, some of his close friends played, so he would find ways to stay around the basketball team.
That led to an opportunity to serve as the mascot – which was a “large bird,” as Hoerner described it. He recalled the sweaty experience Tuesday on Parkins & Spiegel.
“I did it once. I had a lot of, I guess you could call it FOMO, fear of missing out, with the basketball team because it was all my best friends. I only played my freshman year,” Hoerner said. “Every time they played, I wished I was out there, not that I was very good, but it was a lot of fun. So I’d do the scorebook, or sometimes I’d even play in practice and stuff.
“I don’t actually remember what instigated that, but I was the mascot for a day. It was pretty gross, man. It’s really sweaty, it’s definitely not something that is washed often, it’s a pretty defeating experience, actually.
“But it is kind of liberating, too, when no one knows who you are and you’re in front of a group. And it’s not like we had big fans or anything – I mean, this is a school with a graduating class of 90 people in the lowest division of sports – but it was fun. An interesting experience.”
Hoerner said he didn’t have any signature moves, and that the bird was a “low spirit” mascot. He has no desire to serve as Clark the Cub – but said if he did he’d probably wear pants.
But his experience as the man behind the mask gave him some added respect for his team's beloved, albeit trouser-less, Bear.
“Clark does hit in the outfield before the game, like they throw him the squishy balls and he hits him to fans," Hoerner said. "I don’t know who it is, but it’s pretty impressive, like they always square it up. I’ve never seen them clip one or roll one over, it’s always going in the bleachers. That’s not easy when you’re wearing a massive bear costume in summer heat and you’re not working with much of a bat.
“I’m always kind of noticing that Clark squares it up pretty good.”