Baseball's Newest Mascot Is A Mexican Wrestler

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a new mascot, a professional wrestler dressed in the style of a Luchador.

Professional wrestling in Mexico, also called Lucha Libre, is very popular in the southwest United States and now the Diamondbacks are trying to capitalize on that popularity. The wrestlers are called Luchadors and they wear highly stylized masks when they are competing.

This move comes after the Diamondbacks gave away Lucha Libre masks to fans last season, something that proved to be very popular. They will have another mask giveaway later this month.

It is certainly not the worst mascot ever and is similar in some respects to the gong banging gladiator seen at Rays games (see GIF below)...

The @Dbacks have introduced the D-backs Luchador (@DbacksLuchador) as an official mascot of the team. pic.twitter.com/ZqRBwHaAJY

— MLB (@MLB) July 18, 2013

Here is the Rays' gong fella who is not an official mascot...