This little boy, I don’t even know who he is, but I made an impact on him. He said he looks at this picture of me that they took last year all the time and that means a lot. You know I’m doing something right if people come to the park to see me. – Bumble
SALT LAKE CITY — It’s quite clear who the most popular person (or at least most popular thing) is at Smith’s Ballpark. It’s not any of the top prospects or the high-energy emcee or even the local celebrities who sometimes make their way to a game. It’s a man in a ever-smiling bee suit.
A man that goes by Bumble.
Spend two minutes, actually more like 15 seconds, around the Bees' mascot and you will witness dozens of children, teenagers and even the occasional adult asking for pictures and autographs from someone whose real name they don’t even know.
That’s all just part of the mystique.
“I have had my moments where I have been super secret and other moments where I would blow it, because I wanted to show off I was a celebrity,” Bumble said.
Bumble is in super secret mode on one particular Sunday afternoon. After spending hours baking in the hot sun underneath his well-insulated costume, the man behind the mask heads to his locker room under the first base bleachers for a quick break. He removes the Bumble head, revealing a face that is dripping in sweat and gulps down some long-awaited water.
Bumble’s dressing room is located in a spot void of much foot traffic, but at this particular moment a small family strolls by the open door. The headless Bumble quickly hides, not wanting to reveal himself and ruin the illusion.
“I don’t think it would be as fun if people knew who was behind the mask,” Bumble said.
In minor league baseball, the players and even the team itself often take a backseat to the experience at the game, and Bumble is one of Smith's Ballpark's main attractions. From dancing on the dugout to spraying fans with silly string to pouring water on spectators, Bumble is there to entertain, and people simply adore him.
But that fondness can, at times, make his job a little difficult.
“It’s hard sometimes,” he said. “During games people will come up and say, ‘Where have you been Bumble?” and I just think, ‘I only took a 15 minute break.’
“I just get trapped in the suites, and I get trapped on the sections on the concourse,” he continues. “It hurts me when I can’t be everywhere. Like last night, I didn't even touch the outfield and didn’t make it much on the third base side.”
It’s quite obvious that anyone who spends his workdays dripping in sweat under a hot costume in complete anonymity isn't doing it for the fame. Bumble performs for the fans. And some of those fans he knows quite well.
Dressing up in a bee costume isn’t the only thing Bumble does. During the non-baseball months, he isn’t entertaining the kids — he’s teaching them.
The man in the Bumble costume is a full-time sixth- and seventh-grade teacher.
“We just had an eighth-grader graduate from our school and I have a picture that he gave me seven years ago — he signed it and everything,” Bumble said. “I was going to give it to him on our graduation, but that would have given me up, so I decided not to. But I have it hanging up in my locker room.”
Sometimes his students do start to catch on, which forces him to find a way to fool them. On May 11, the Bees held Prevention Dimensions Kids Day where over 13,000 students filled the park and Bumble was in attendance, but he wasn’t wearing a suit or mask. He went as a teacher — the perfect disguise.
“I had my backup do the game, so 1. I finally could get to watch the game, and 2. Throw (my students) off because they are still trying to figure me out,” Bumble said.
In his locker room is a wall of handwritten thank-you notes, pictures and drawings given to him by some of his biggest admirers. They serve as a reminder of why Bumble deals with the hot afternoons, the long nights and the occasional abuse (he says his stinger gets pulled a lot).
“This little boy, I don’t even know who he is, but I made an impact on him,” Bumble said. “He said he looks at this picture of me that they took last year all the time and that means a lot. You know I’m doing something right if people come to the park to see me.”
It’s those moments that have kept the man mascoting from his days in college at an upper-New York university to starring at games for Utah's now defunct WNBA franchise to currently rallying the crowd at Salt Lake Bees home games as the most popular guy in the park.