page_title: Toronto Blue Jays mascots
section_title: Ace (2000–present) and Diamond (2000–2003)
hierarchical_section_title: Toronto Blue Jays mascots / Eras / Ace (2000–present) and Diamond (2000–2003)
caption_attribution_description: English: Ace is the official mascot of the Toronto Blue Jays. Source: [1] Cropped from original photo. Photo by: Sean Biehle Taken on July 2, 2006.
context_page_description: Over the years, the Toronto Blue Jays have created three full-time mascots, all of which portray the bird for which the team was named.
  BJ Birdy was the team mascot from 1979 to 1999. For the 2000 season, BJ was replaced by Ace and Diamond, two new characters. Diamond was dropped at the end of the 2003 season, leaving Ace the sole mascot. In recent years, Ace has been joined on an occasional basis by Junior. This happens on "Junior Jays Sundays", formerly "Junior Jays Saturdays".
context_section_description: Quickly, some in the sports media asked "Double the pleasure? Or, double the pain?" News of a naming contest led to suggestions like Swing and A Miss, More and Annoying, and Bird and Brain. For their part, the Globe issued an editorial calling the situation "a baseball civics lesson", suggesting that no one asked the public, "and when you don't ask citizens of a democracy if they want an icon to be changed you must expect them to rise up in revolution... or at least cry out: Give us back our bird."
  As of early December 1999, four people expressed interest in applying, three of them from the United States. By the first round of auditions on January 10, 2000, the club had received about 70 applications.
  The characters themselves were conceived and designed by Kelly Giannopoulos and Diane Semark. "We looked for the most interesting personality traits and then actually gave the mascots a past, a sort of legend that went with their story." The duo were designed with distinct plummage and faces, to reflect their gender. Sugar's Costume Studio built the outfits based on their designs. Their personality traits were modelled after Jim Carrey and Goldie Hawn, because "both of them have a wild and zany side." Their original names were Slider and Curveball. On March 4, 2000, two new names were unveiled through the Toronto Blue Jays "Name the Mascots Contest" ACE and DIAMOND. Winner of contest: Toronto High School Student A. McConnell
  The costumes were built by Sugar's Mascot Costumes in Toronto. An early article suggested they would wear varied clothes; "tuxedos for formal events and surgical garb for hospital visits." The new costumes were lightweight and featured athletic pants to allow for stunts.
  Brennan Anderson played Ace for five years, bringing his competitive gymnastics and media background. He later became a sales manager at Sugar's. Diamond performers included then-Ryerson University student Angelina Milanovic, University of Toronto musical theatre student Larissa Bathgate, and Amanda Barker.
  Ace became sole mascot of the Blue Jays in 2004, after the team removed Diamond before the season opened. Ace's jersey number is double zero.
  A second blue jay mascot, named Junior, is present on "Junior Jays days", usually Saturdays home games, when children are invited to run the bases after the games. Junior's number is 1/2 (half).
  Affiliate team the Dunedin Blue Jays are represented by DJay the Blue Jay; he was named BJ in 1998.
  Ace's official website jokingly mentioned that his father invented bird stickers commonly found on windows and his mother was a goose feather supplier.
  In 2012, Ace underwent some changes when the team changed their logo and uniforms. Ace was given more fur and his beak was changed from gray to blue and the bottom of his legs were switched from black to gray. This also happened to Junior.
caption: Ace appears at Rogers Centre in 2006.
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