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Billy The Marlin
	Florida Marlins
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/06/02/SP63214.DTL&hw=mascot&sn=043&sc=307 Marlins Mascot Gets Head Back

Monday, June 2, 1997 (06-02) 04:00 PDT Miami -- The head of Florida Marlins mascot Billy the Marlin, missing since a parachute mishap on opening day, resurfaced yesterday at Pro Player Stadium. More Sports

Victor Rowe and Mike Zinniger were driving on the Florida Turnpike a few miles from the stadium Saturday when they spotted the five-pound head on a retaining wall.

``We skidded to a halt, Rowe said. ``Smoke was coming from the tires.

The head was returned to the Marlins. It had been missing since it blew off the head of a Navy SEAL parachuting into the stadium on opening day April 1.

Billy was able to continue his mascot duties the past two months because he has a spare head.

Rowe theorized that children found the missing head in a field and left it on the retaining wall. The mascot survived the fall in good shape aside from a scratch on the neck.

``I'll be able to sleep at night knowing Billy has been returned, Marlins president Don Smiley said.

The team rewarded Rowe and Zinniger with season tickets.

This article appeared on page E - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

SI, April 14, 1997 Scorecard April 14, 1997 http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1009860/index.htm#top Billy the Marlin, the Florida Marlins ' long-billed, maniacally grinning piscatorial mascot, was decapitated at 6,000 feet while attempting to parachute into Pro Player Stadium in Miami on April 1 as part of the Marlins ' Opening Day festivities. Well, actually, a U.S. Navy SEAL dressed as Billy had the head of his costume ripped away by a gust of wind. The quick-thinking SEAL altered his descent to land outside the stadium; meanwhile, another Billy took his place inside. As of Monday the head was still missing, and the Marlins were offering a reward for anyone who brings it in.

SEAL parachutist Lou Langlais, who took part in the Opening Day sky dive, contends that the leap should never have been attempted, noting that a head like Billy's "isn't meant for jumping out of airplanes." Says Langlais, "That is a really unruly head. It's too big. It catches too much air in that big, huge mouth."