The Phanatic's Dye Job

We talked before about the Phillie Phanatic. He's a lovable green monster who cheers on the Phillies every year as they let down the city of Philadelphia.

As part of a recent promotion the Phanatic has changed his colors. He's now a lovable RED monster.

The pigment switch started at the Philadelphia Zoo. The team introduced a new promotion "paint the town red" where many parts of Philadelphia are being covered in a coat of red paint to help cheer on the Phillies. To take part in the event the Phanatic decided to take a dip into a giant bucket of paint.

The children watching were constantly warned "don't try this at home." I assume this was a necessary warning because children might be tempted to paint themselves after seeing the Phanatic do the same.

I would have shown them the cautionary film Soul Man. Sure, by painting himself C. Thomas Howell learned some valuable life lessons and grew as a person. But does anyone really want to be like C. Thomas Howell?

I guess the Phanatic did. He took off his shirt (oddly, pretended to feel naked without a shirt despite NEVER wearing pants) and put on a pair of goggles. Then, a crane hoisted him up and dunked him into a can of "Phanatic Safe" M.A.B. paint.



He came out bright red... except, oddly enough his socks which were still white as Micheal Jackson.

You can watch a full video of the event here.

A new Phanatic costume reportedly costs about $5,000 and as such the team wanted to get their money's worth. Thus, the Phanatic was EVERYWHERE for the next few days.

He took part in a blood drive (click here for more info and photos of the Phanatic with a needle in his arm,) clowned around with local news anchors (click here for video and info from 6ABC) and was mistaken for "Elmo" seven times.

Like all bad dye jobs, this too will go away soon as the Phanatic is expected to return to his natural green by opening day. However, I wouldn't be too surprised if "Red Phanatic" makes the occasional appearance in Philadelphia.