Max effort

Long before Philadelphia's Phanatic and San Diego's Chicken – the prototypes for today's furball mascots – there is Max Patkin.

Tall man, few teeth, all fun.

Patkin is baseball's Clown Prince for nearly 50 years. His start comes on Harrisburg’s City Island, where 77 years ago today the Cleveland Indians hire Patkin as comic relief for their exhibition game against the Harrisburg Senators.

Patkin’s first crowd in Harrisburg is 3,333.

Over the next 47 years, Patkin travels 7 million miles and works more than 4,500 straight games,

The end of the show for Patkin, though, comes in 1993, when a badly sprained ankle forces him to retire at the age of 73.

“I work under a great handicap,” Patkin once says, “I have no talent.”

Patkin's life and career are brilliantly captured in music by the incomparable Chuck Brodsky. Check out the tribute at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bthZu1tLWE