2015 ALL-STAR GAME

Cincinnati Zoo announces its own All-Stars

Henry Molski
hmolski@enquirer.com
A faux-baseball card of the Cincinnati Zoo's "John the Lion" was distributed by the zoo online over the weekend.

Not to be outdone by the stars that take the field Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park, the Cincinnati Zoo rolled out its own All-Star lineup for the weekend.

Fourteen of the zoo's animals got their own digital baseball cards over the weekend — complete with positions, heights, weights and even their own walk-up songs.

A "manager" made the selections based on the animals' biology. For example, the zoo placed a cheetah in center field to match the speed of Billy Hamilton and a sea lion as an umpire (the chosen sea lion is blind).

The zoo even included comments from animal keepers about the hypothetical manager's selections.

"Tigers are better at shortstop than lemurs — their legs are too short and they have no range — with those long arms should be at first," said Mike Land, who works in Cat Canyon. "Lions and Tigers are your best double play combination. Don't want to second guess the manager, just saying…"

Another keeper, Grace Meloy, offered agreement on some of the manger's decisions.

"I would just like to point out that a ring-tailed lemurs' hind legs are longer than their arms, and are excellent leapers because of their impressive quads and ankle joints," Meloy said. "They can quickly cover a wide range... and not to mention have the mental capacity for quick thinking just like a short stop should in order to make important plays."

The zoo is also celebrating All-Star Game weekend with "baseball-themed enrichment" for elephants, painted dogs and lions. The zoo said that elephants will break open peanut-filled baseball pinatas each day.

To see a full line-up from the zoo click here for the Cincinnati Zoo blog.