Whitman student volunteer finds fame.

Sophomore attracts fanfare as local mascot

by Andrew Furth
Spectator writer

Sophomore Jason Weingardt steps in to the changing
room a 15-year old boy. A few minutes later, with the
addition of a cloth body, floppy feet, and a huge
smiling head, Weingardt transforms into a completely
new persona. What emerges from the changing room is
not a boy but a dog, specifically Homer the Dog, local
mascot.

Most of the past four years, Weingardt has donned the
oversized brown head of Homer, the mascot of the
Bethesda Big Train baseball team. Big Train is a
summer team comprised of college baseball players that
plays its games at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda.
Weingardt, who attended many Big Train games as a fan,
now appears at most of Big Train home games as Homer.
He also attends community events such as
team-organized library readings, the D.C. Auto Show
and, most recently, a Maryland Nighthawks basketball
game. Weingardt’s appearances provide the team with
more exposure and attract fans.

Big Train’s season begins in June and lasts through
the beginning of August, as the team plays roughly 40
games in 60 days, about 25 of which take place at
Povich Field. This past summer, Weingardt worked
about 20 of the team’s games at Povich Field as Homer.
“Working the whole summer was a really taxing
experience,” he says. “It can get a little
repetitive, doing all the same things over and over.
I definitely still have fun doing it.”

Weingardt began working for the Big Train during the
summer of 2002. He says he was looking for a summer
activity and his mother suggested that he help the volunteer-based Big Train, leading Weingardt to apply for the mascot position. “I went to the games for many years,” he says. “I just wanted to feel like I could do something to help out the team.”

Although the option is available, Weingardt does not
receive payment for working. He prefers to accumulate community service hours, of which he currently has 91. “I’m trying to get 250 or so before I graduate,” he says. “A lot of people think I’m crazy, but I don’t really care about the money. I just like working for the team and helping them out.”

Weingardt follows a routine for all of his Big Train
games. Much of his job entails walking around,
meeting and greeting the fans, signing autographs and
throwing prizes into the stands. The marquee event of
the night is a race against a young fan from second
base to home plate. “They tell me to lose [the race]
every time,” he says. “I don’t think the kid would
have a good time if they got beat by some kid in an
oversized dog costume.”

High temperatures inside the suit occasionally make
Weingardt’s job extremely tiring. Combined with the
hours of walking the job requires, the lack of
ventilation in the suit makes his tasks much more
difficult. “If I had to describe the job in one word,
it would be hot,” he says. “It probably gets up to at
least 100 degrees in there during the summer.”

Since David Ireland assumed the position of general
manager for the Big Train in Sept. 2005, Weingardt
says that the team has appeared at more community
events in an effort to increase the team’s publicity.
“At the Auto Show, Dave just walked around with me for
about four hours and informed people about the Big
Train,” he says. “And at the library, a few players
read to the kids. I signed autographs and just messed
around with the kids. It was an overall fun
experience.”

Appearing at community activities in order to gain
more exposure for the team has become a major focus
for the Big Train, Ireland says. “Homer gives us an
identity,” he says. “The more people who recognize
him, the more people will know about the team.”

When he appears at community events with Weingardt,
Ireland lets Homer attract children’s attention and
then he provides information on the team to those
parents who are interested. “When we are at an event,
Homer draws all the kids to him and then I come in and
talk to the parents,” he says. “I try to get them
interested in the team so that they will attend games
and support us.”

Ireland says that the team relies on the community
support to stay profitable which is what makes
Weingardt’s contributions so valuable to the team.
“We [Bethesda Big Train] are a primarily
volunteer-based organization,” Ireland says. “So when
someone like Jason helps us out, it really benefits
the organization a lot.”

Recently, Weingardt attended an American Basketball
Association game featuring the local Maryland
Nighthawks to support the Big Train. Louie, the Bowie
Baysox minor league baseball team mascot, and Duncan,
the Nighthawks’ own mascot also appeared at the game
in addition to Homer. At the event, Weingardt
competed in various games versus the other mascots.
“We had a dance contest, we played musical chairs and
we had to spin around a make a basket,” he says. “I
lost all the games, but I still had a really enjoyable
time.”

Working at the Nighthawks game turned out to be a
diverse experience compared to working at a Big Train
game. He worked for a shorter period of time than
usual, but the pace was much faster than at a Big
Train game. “The Nighthawks game was much different
from anything I do at Big Train games,” he says. “The
toughest part was that I only got two five-minute
water breaks throughout the whole event. It was a
long night, but I got to interact with the fans more
than I do at Povich.”

Growing up, Weingardt says that he idolized the Oriole
Bird, enjoying his comical antics during Oriole’s
games. He somewhat models the Bird but also tries to
give Homer his own unique personality. “The Oriole
Bird is his own character,” he says. “I look up to
him but I also really want to give Homer his own
identity. That’s what I’m trying to do every time I
put on the suit.”

Homer made some new friends at the DC Auto Show