Rally Monkey Cheers on Home Team
June 8 -- For the Anaheim Angels, it isn't about the money. It's about the monkey.
Their baseball business may not always be quite what they'd like it to be. But their monkey business has never been better.
And while we might have expected a team owned by Disney to raise the bar for ballpark innovation to an all-time high, little did anyone know it would be a monkey bar. [Editor's note: Disney is the parent company of ABCNEWS.com and ESPN.com.]
But then again, observes Angels director of entertainment Rod Murray, "who doesn't love a monkey?"
Or, to be more specific, who doesn't love the one, the only Rally Monkey?
Most Valuable Primate
For those who don't know the Rally Monkey — and honestly, we're ashamed of you — his home is the scoreboard video screen of Anaheim's Edison Field. And his role, basically, is to be the Angels' MVP.
Once there was a time, when the Angels needed a big hit, that they looked to Tim Salmon or Darin Erstad. Now, they look to the Rally Monkey.
And up there on the board, at just those special moments, the Rally Monkey appears, jumping up and down like the inspirational primate he is, as Angels fans everywhere immediately go (uh, what else?) ape.