Feathers Fly When Mascot Angers the Manager’s Wife

Former major league infielder Dave Cash has been transferred from his job as manager of the minor league Batavia Clippers after a dispute between his wife and Chipper the Clipper, the team’s mascot.

Cash, a former All-Star second baseman, was reassigned by the Philadelphia Phillies to his previous position as roving minor-league infield instructor. He will be replaced as manager of the New York-Penn League team by Ramon Aviles, a coach with the Phillies’ Double A team in Reading, Pa.

Cash’s wife, Pamela, said she had encountered numerous problems at the ballpark since her husband took over as manager less than a month ago.

On Monday night, during a game with the Oneonta Yankees, Pamela Cash said Chipper the Clipper blocked her view of the field during a Batavia home run.

She said she asked the blue-feathered, yellow-beaked mascot to move, then tapped him on the shoulder.

“He shook his behind in my face in front of my two young children. I thought that kind of behavior by a mascot at what’s supposed to be a family-oriented place was totally uncalled for,” she said. “This wasn’t the first time he shook his butt in my face.”

Pamela Cash said she then got into a fight about the incident with the team’s assistant manager.

Team officials would not reveal the mascot’s identity.

“The mascot is there to entertain people, not offend them,” said Dwight Thornton, a member of the team’s board of directors.

“You should see him. He’s like Big Bird on ‘Sesame Street.’ It’s unfortunate that the only person he offended all year was the manager’s wife.”

Dave Cash said the Monday night incident was “the culmination of many things.

“From my perspective, we experienced a lot of rudeness,” he said. “It’s best that we no longer are in this situation.”