ESU Senior Chasing Passion as Minor League Baseball Mascot

An East Stroudsburg University sport management major by day, Brianna Anderson takes on a whole new personality by night in her job with Minor League Baseball’s Jersey Shore BlueClaws: that of a 6-foot-2, green-haired, bright yellow mascot named Buster.

The High-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, the BlueClaws play at ShoreTown Ballpark in Lakeland, New Jersey, where Buster has been a fixture on warm summer nights since the team debuted in 2001.

A fan favorite, Buster has entertained audiences at every home game the ballpark has hosted – more than 1,400 and counting – and was named Minor League Baseball’s best mascot in 2024. At many of those games, it was Anderson rallying the crowds as Buster.

For the ESU senior, who has been performing as a mascot since the age of 11, portraying Buster is not only a proud responsibility, but also a continuation of her love for a one-of-a-kind brand of performance.

“If I can make someone smile or laugh even for a second, then my job is complete,” Anderson said. “That’s something that has really carried me throughout my entire time of being a mascot. It’s being able to make people happy that really makes the job so worth it.”

Anderson’s first taste of being a mascot came during middle school, when a teacher needed a fill-in to perform at a basketball game. Quickly drawn to the experience, she continued to perform throughout middle school and even went on to revive her high school’s defunct mascot program.

Anderson landed a part-time mascot position with the BlueClaws the summer before her senior year of high school, commuting 60+ miles between the ballpark and her hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, on game days.

As she grew more experienced in her role, Anderson sought to grow Buster’s brand and further develop the character by studying beloved mascots like the Phillies’ Phillie Phanatic and the Chicago Bulls’ Benny the Bull, she said.

That dedication to her job earned Anderson the role of BlueClaws’ fan engagement and marketing intern, a position created to enhance the mascot’s brand and draw more fans to the ballpark. At the end of her internship, Anderson was offered the position of lead mascot & entertainment assistant.

“It was tireless hours of picking up shifts that people dropped and always making sure we had a mascot that was excited to be out there every night,” she said. “It was so rewarding to get that position I worked really hard for.”

To provide a memorable experience for fans, Anderson and her coworkers are always brainstorming the next big idea involving Buster. A recent skit spoofing a viral moment at a Coldplay concert was thought up the day before and received over six million views on the team’s Instagram account. Another scene saw Buster dressed in a tuxedo, pounding away at the keys of a miniature, hot pink piano while a coworker played a Billy Joel tune on a harmonica. Other ideas and promotions are developed as much as a year in advance.

“That’s something that’s really cool about Minor League Baseball,” she said. “You get to wear so many different hats. You can learn about finance, ticket sales, operations, marketing and all these things that make for a valuable experience.”

Anderson said her marketing classes at ESU have been a big help in her role with the BlueClaws. A minor she is pursuing in communication has also given her an edge in the organization. She credited a spring break trip to Costa Rica with the sport management program as one of the most rewarding experiences she has had at ESU.

“Getting to go see these major soccer stadiums and how these different cultures approached sports management was so cool,” she said. “I learned so much and brought so much back from that trip.”

While Anderson hopes to become a mascot for a major-level sports organization after graduating from ESU, she is certain there will be one common theme in whatever role her future holds.

“Any job I will ever work in will have to have some live fan element to it,” she said. “The energy fans bring to a baseball game, or a concert, or any form of live entertainment is the absolute best environment to be part of. Hearing a crowd roar gives me so much adrenaline and happiness that I just aspire to have that all the time.”

Learn more about ESU’s sport management program.

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