MiLB: New teams given wacky names for upcoming season

Some new minor league baseball teams were re-named this past weekend, adding to the growing list of eclectically named franchises in the MiLB.

When it comes down to it, minor-league baseball is one of the most uniquely entertaining set of sporting events in North America. Due to the lack of well-known players and coaches, many teams have had to take unorthodox approaches to marketing and in-stadium fun. The MiLB, long known for some bizarre team names, added to that Monday, when they re-named three affiliates. The league officially announced the moves in a recent tweet.

First, the Double-A San Antonio Missions, who have been affiliated with the San Diego Padres since 2019, are now going to be called the Amarillo Sod Poodles. Yes, the Sod Poodles. The team will be staying a Padres affiliate and will be playing at the currently unbuilt and unnamed Amarillo Ballpark, which is set to open in April 2019, when the team will play in their inaugural season.

Next, the Mobile BayBears (an excellently named team to begin with) of the Southern (Double-A) League, will be moving to Madison, Alabama, where they will adopting the name of the Rocket City Trash Pandas. The Angels affiliate has been playing baseball since 1994, when they served as the Double-A affiliate of the Twins.

Finally, the Buies Creek Astros, who have been the Class A affiliate of the Houston Astros since 2017, are moving to Fayetteville, where they will be called the Woodpeckers. Yet another team scheduled to play in an unbuilt, unnamed stadium, the team has been planning this move for several years, formerly playing at Jim Perry Stadium of Campbell University.

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Perhaps even more amusing is how other minor league teams responded to the new names. The New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, responded in jest, noting that it wasn’t too long ago that many baseball fans considered the Fisher Cats a weird name for a baseball team (Twitter link).

Many on Twitter also pointed on the various other eccentric minor league baseball team names, which include, but of course aren’t limited to: the Toledo Mud Hens, the Lansing Lugnuts, the Montgomery Biscuits, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Akron RubberDucks, the Florida Fire Frogs, the Hartford Yard Goats, the New Orleans Baby Cakes, the Great Lakes Loons, the Modesto Nuts, the Altoona Curve, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and the LeHigh Valley IronPigs.

This is, to say the very least, an incredibly amusing development in the world of baseball. While the minor league are a generally serious affair in terms of baseball and training, adding in an element of humour makes it that much more enjoyable as fans and supporters.

So what about you? What are some of your favourite minor league baseball team names? Comment below!