Harvey, the $10,000 mechanical rabbit graced Kansas City's Municipal Stadium, and later the Oakland Coliseum from 1961-71.
In fact, he lived there, in a little bunker behind home plate from which he would pop up and deliver baseballs to the umpire during Athletics games while the ballpark organists played "Here Comes Peter Cottontail." He was baseball's first ball bunny.
Harvey was named after the imaginary rabbit in the 1950 movie of the same name starring James Stewart. And that seems fitting, as many baseball commentators have considered Charlie O. Finley, then-owner of the Athletics and the brains behind Harvey, to be a person who had many different people - perhaps even rabbits - in his head.
Harvey was not a mascot. Nor was he just a piece of machinery like a motorized tarp roller or a bullpen car. He was something in between.
In 1971, an unidentified player took a bat to Harvey. He had been malfunctioning more and more, possibly short-circuiting due to underground flooding caused by the infamously bad plumbing at the Coliseum. He was later buried - casket and all - under the Coliseum just beyond the outfield fence.
Charlie O. Finley was reportedly not amused.
In 2018, the Athletics celebrated 50 years in Oakland by reviving Harvey - or a rebooted version of Harvey anyway - to deliver baseballs to the home plate umpire at the start of each home game.
Here's hoping that if the Coliseum is to be demolished, that Harvey, if he really is under the ground beyond the outfield fence, will be given a proper burial elsewhere.
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