The Twins have hired not one but two people to take over portraying T.C. Bear, the longtime mascot whose previous alter ego donned the furry get-up for the last time several months ago, a team executive said Tuesday.
The job-sharing duo took over in time for the recent offseason Twins Winter Caravan and TwinsFest promotional events, said Nancy O'Brien, the team's vice president for community engagement.
In October, Greg Wilfahrt was told he would no longer fulfill the role he had played without missing a game since the character's creation in 2000.
The team has declined to elaborate on Wilfahrt's departure, and O'Brien kept to that position Tuesday, saying, "We are grateful for all Greg did to help introduce and build T.C. as a character and an important part of the Twins brand."
Wilfahrt told the Star Tribune a few weeks after losing the duties that "I had a different idea of how the mascot program should be run than upper management had, and it didn't work in my favor."
"A pretty thorough" audition process to fill full- and part-time T.C. Bear openings identified eight finalists, said O'Brien, who said that adding a part-timer is for insurance should the main portrayer fall ill or if the team needs to have T.C. Bear be in two places at the same time.
The applicants were given in-costume performances to execute along with "their own personal skit that they directed," she said.
O'Brien said baseball skills were also required of the wannabes: "Can they catch a first pitch? Can they hit a ball?" T.C. Bear's on-field duties at times include receiving a pregame pitch and staging a home-run hitting contest with fans.
