Comments on: Minor League Baseball

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 03:17:09 +0000

Before the Lehigh Valley. the Phillies’ AAA team was the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, which, if it’s not the longest baseball team name, is pretty close. (Note that when the team became a Yankees affiliate, it was renamed most unimaginatively.)

The Altoona Curve is one of my favorites.

And of course, although the Pawtucket team’s name is officially “Red Sox”, nobody ever calls them anything but the Pawsox.

By: Team names « Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Team names « Arnold Zwicky's Blog — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:26:48 +0000

[...] looked at the names of minor-league baseball teams, I was moved to play with possible (but unlikely) names. A [...]

By: David Craig

David Craig — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:25:43 +0000

Two of my favorites, no longer in existence, are the old Negro League Atlanta Black Crackers and the 1960s Yankees farm club in Columbus, GA, Columbus Confederate Yankees.

By: JackH

JackH — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:50:08 +0000

The Louisville Bats might have preferred to call themselves the Louisville Sluggers, but trademarks issues would have ixnayed that. Their former name was the Louisville RiverBats, a name very similar to that of the Sacramento River Cats.

The River Cats moved to Sacramento from Vancouver, where they were called the Canadians. The current Vancouver Canadians are a different team, the result of the relocation of the former Southern Oregon Timberjacks from Medford. Medford no longer has a professional team, but does have a collegiate team, the Southern Oregon Riverdawgs. “River” seems to be a popular word for team names.

I would recount the history of Sacramento teams from WIkipedia, but it’s just too complicated, involving the San Francisco Missions, the Tacoma Tigers, the Fresno Raison Eaters, the Salt Lake Bees, the Hawaii Islanders, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, the Eugene Emeralds, and the San Jose Missions. Minor league baseball teams are promiscuous in their affections.

The Sacramento River Cats play not in Sacramento, but across the river in West Sacramento, a factor which has no doubt contributed to their success. Other area teams include the Sacramento Mountain Lions football team (formerly the California Redwoods) and the Sacramento Gold soccer team (which, astonishingly, seems to have started in the area). Both of those teams also play in West Sacramento rather than Sacramento itself.