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Local Sports

Local sports in the Panhandle are not just a game, they are a lifestyle. Our community eats, sleeps and breathes cheering on our local athletes.
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News13’s Stephen Gunter is committed to giving you stories of the Panhandle’s top athletes, intriguing match-ups and unusual sports you may not even know exist.
sgunter@wmbb.com

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

GCCC Chickens?!?!  New Mascot for the Commodores?

PANAMA CITY - If you’ve gone to a Gulf Coast Community College baseball game at Bill Frazier Field in the past two years, you may have noticed something you don’t see everyday; Gulf Coast’s official unofficial mascot.

“Actually it lives under the stands,” baseball fan Ty Kandler said.

“He loved to crack the shells and eat the peanuts, right out of the shells,” visiting baseball fan Art Armstrong said.

“The first time we ever saw it was in a tree and everyone thought it was an exotic bird,” Kandler said.  “Then some guy said it was a chicken.”

That’s right.  A chicken lives at Bill Frazier Field.  He’s been roaming the bleachers since the spring of 2005.  And yet, the chicken brings much confusion to visiting baseball fans.

“There was G-C-C-C, three C’s,” Armstrong, a Canadian native, said.  “I thought, don’t tell me they’re the Gulf Coast Community Chickens!”

But maybe they should be the chickens or a combination of commodores and chickens, the Chickadores.  Since the chicken was first sited, Gulf Coast has won more than seventy percent of its games.

“He comes to practice sometimes,” assistant coach Steve Merchant said.  “He sits while coach Mike Kandler is talking to us.  He’ll roam amongst the bench.”

It wouldn’t right to call such a Gulf Coast baseball icon just “the chicken”.  It actually has a name.

“Me and my sister, we named him ‘Balk’,” Kandler said.

Balk is a baseball term used when a pitcher does an illegal motion.

“He actually started balking and the guy balked on the mound.”

Regardless if the Commodores continue winning, “Balk the Chicken” will always be a fan favorite.

He’s our special chicken, he visits us,” Merchant said.  “I’ve seen him in the tree a couple times.  I’m sure he’s pulling for us.”

Last week, the chicken was actually up to some mischief.  It snuck into the concession stand and ate the nacho chips, skittles and hamburger buns.

Gulf Coast will host a Panhandle Conference match-up on Thursday against North Florida.  First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.

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