Greetings everybody!

I’m happy to see you again for this edition of the Mascot Chronicle! September is between baseball and hockey seasons, so I am on vacation right now. I work at home and play golf!

The baseball season is now over, and everybody is heading back home. It was a tough summer for mascots this year. Ever since I started working as a mascot, I think this has been the hottest summer I’ve dealt with. It was unbelievable. Day after day, it was 90F and humid. In the costume, the temperature would go up to 120 to 140F. I’d break a sweat just walking!

Getting back briefly to my previous article on how I came to the USA, I’d like to thank all the people who emailed me saying that I had lots of guts. Sure, I had guts but I must say that sometimes, I wasn’t so sure that it would work out!

Now, let’s talk about my adventures during my first baseball seasons after my definitive arrival in the USA. Believe it or not but despite my "super" English, I managed to sell a mascot costume to David Oster, the general manager of the Salem Avalanche. Poor David! When I came back to my hotel room after my sales pitch, I was positive that he was totally discouraged by my English. I was hoping that he correctly understood that the price of a mascot costume is around $4,000... not $400!

Things didn’t turn out so bad, though. He bought the costume and hired me to do the mascot! It’s now been 3 summers that I appear as Mugsy for the Salem Avalanche near Roanoke, Virginia, in the Carolina League. I’ve had funny and interesting experiences with the team. During the first season with them, it was total luxury... I lived in the stadium for the whole summer. Yes! Talk about a sacrifice. For 4 months, I slept on a mattress on the floor in the stadium. It wasn’t so bad, though. I had TV, a jacuzzi and a pool! I was watching television on a regular basis since I was alone. My favorite show was Family Matters with the nerdy character Steve Urkel. Everybody in Roanoke was laughing at me because of that. It was a show that was 8 years old, I think, but it was funny.

When I’d invite women to come to my place at night, I had to tell them that I had quite a big place because I was living.... at the Salem baseball stadium! Without going into too much details, a woman once accepted my invitation and we ended up in the right field... I’ll let you imagine the rest of the story!

Another funny moment happened when I met a woman one night. She knew what I was doing for a living and thought that I mastered English enough to understand everything. I could understand people if they spoke slowly but not more. For over 25 minutes, she was talking to me about her problems with her boyfriend and I was replying ""I see, true, I think so, you’re right". The funniest thing is that I didn’t understand a thing about her stories and she never realized it. I felt quite bad about it but, at the same time, I wanted to explode into laughter because I really couldn’t understand...

Still, I really enjoyed that first season. It was easy to find me: the stadium, Hooters restaurant/bar or such bars as Corn Beef, Scoothe’s or Macado’s. Oh, and McDonald’s also!

It was a great experience. Everybody knew me as "FRENCHIE" and I had fun discovering a different mentality. The Roanoke-Salem area is similar to the St-Sauveur area, north of Montréal, with its scenery and mountains. On the other hand, the sun is there all year long.

What I also like here is how I could easily make friends. The players and fans are always nice to me. It’s nice to work in such an environment. Money is one thing but having fun at what you do is even more important, I think.

This first season in Salem was funny at times but the most important thing is that I managed to make it and enjoy it. I wouldn’t trade that season for anything else. When you end up in another country, you don’t speak the language and don’t know anyone, it’s not easy to survive like I did. I was lucky to meet the proper people and make friends.

You probably wonder how I could travel like that for 3 years and have fun. It’s simple: you have to have confidence in yourself and you can’t back away when there are problems. You also have to convince people that you know what you’re doing.

The key to success is simple: have confidence in yourself in order to reach your goals, and control the difficult times.

In my next article, I’ll come back to hockey! More specifically, I’ll tell you about some funny moments with Jumping Jack in the USA and a trip to St-Martin Island.

If you have suggestions or would like to contact me, don’t be shy! You can email me or visit my website at www.promascot.com

See you soon!