Stumbled across this press release while looking for NWL news, and I’m still scratching my head.

Everett, WA - The Everett AquaSox Baseball Club has announced today that its principal mascot, Webbly, has been traded to the Tri-City Dust Devils of the Northwest League in exchange for their mascot, Dusty the Dust Devil.

During baseball’s annual Winter Meetings in December, the AquaSox re-signed the team’s other two mascots, Frank and Popfly, each to a one-year extension, to keep them both in Everett through the 2008 season.

The AquaSox felt that it was important to keep all three mascots in Everett indefinitely, especially with the 2008 season being the 25th anniversary of Minor League Baseball™ in Everett, but could not come to an agreement with Webbly.

Webbly’s existing contract with the AquaSox was set to expire at the end of the 2008 season. The 12-year veteran frog made it known through his agent that he hoped to re-structure and extend his agreement in order to avoid a potential hold-out.

"Webbly has been an integral part of the success of the AquaSox and we wish him the best in Pasco," said AquaSox General Manager Brian Sloan, "however, we must look to the future. I am confident that Dusty will be a positive addition to our staff and I believe that a Dust Devil, a Hot Dog and a Puppet can coexist on the same team and continue to entertain AquaSox fans for the next 25 years."

Dusty first blew into the Tri-Cities in 2001 and has spent the past 7 seasons entertaining fans as the mascot for the Colorado Rockies Class A Affiliate.

Webbly, who is a cross between a Pacific Tree Frog and a Central American Red-Eyed Tree Frog, had been with the AquaSox since the 1997 season.

What. The. Hell.

And if that’s not enough to make you laugh out loud, check out what Vancouver’s most vacuous news outlet, 24 Hours, has decided to do when you search for information on their archives… they want you to pay $10 to see it.

Holy 1997, Batman! Looks like someone at the daily Paris Hilton gossip report didn’t get the memo that, when you’re competing with thousands of free news outlets online, it doesn’t do much for your cause to put information behind lock and key… especially when you’re giving away the print version to people on the street at no charge.

UPDATE: Oh. Jeremy points out that the press release was posted on the A-Sox website on April 1st, thus making it an April Fools joke. Problem with that being, it’s still out there confusing people, well after April Fools has passed. Laaaame.