Friday, January 24, 2020

Better Know Your Minor League Baseball Mascot: It's All Happening, Part I

One of our most beloved recurring features returns, with a twist made necessary by the sheer magnitude of the outpouring of creativity (read: visions of merchandising dollar signs) shown by baseball franchise management across our fair land. There's so much new and amusing (and new and absurd) mascottery happening today that it's impossible to select just one to highlight. 

Here, then, are a few of the mascots and/or team haberdashery that've caught our eyes of late:

The Jamestown (NY) Tarp Skunks kick things off, the newest team in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League. I don't know what it is, either, but it does offer us more opportunities to enjoy silly mascots. Jamestown is the hometown of former major leaguer Howard Ehmke, who allegedly invented the infield tarp. Which in Jamestown's ballpark is a place where skunks dwell, apparently.

We've featured Florence, Kentucky here before (honestly), so imagine our glee when we learned of the local Frontier League team, the Florence Freedom, was renamed the Florence Y'alls. Legend has it that when the town of Florence put up a water tower in 1974 they were forced to change its message from Florence Mall to Florence, Y'all because the namesake mall hadn't been built yet. Go with it, man. Now, 46 years later, that legal kerfuffle has birthed genius.

The Pacific Coast League has a team in New Orleans, which is like a reverse Utah Jazz kind of thing. The team used to known as the Zephyrs, but in 2016 became the New Orleans Baby Cakes. That name beat out Crawfish, King Cakes, Night Owls, Po'boys, Red Eyes, and Tailgators. 

Things I learned today: Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnson City, New York are collectively known as the Triple Cities, and the Triple Cities are known as the Carousel Capital of the World. Hence the erstwhile Binghamton Mets becoming the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in 2018. Rumble Ponies, it turns out, has something to do with carousels. I didn't learn what.

I also learned that there's a branding company called Brandiose, based in San Diego, that's responsible for a lot of the silliness spreading across logoland. I have applied for a job there. I'll keep you posted. Brandiose came up with the Tarp Skunks, in addition to the Texas League Amarillo Sod Poodles (Soddies, for short). A sod poodle is another name for a prairie dog, dontchaknow. 

Lots, lots, more to come on this topic, but we'll cut it here for now in the name of postcount.

23 comments:

  1. Dolla dolla bills y’all.

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  2. I was gonna comment that you had to include the Amarillo Sod Poodles, but your astute eye caught them. A dad in my town has a t-shirt of theirs. I asked him if it was real. He told me it was indeed, and that he stopped a road stop in TX on a recent work trip, saw the shirt and bought it. Jealous.

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  3. Lastings Milledge was a Zephyr. He shoulda been a Baby Cake.

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  4. Also from Jamestown, NY: Natalie Merchant and her many Maniacs.

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  5. at this very moment at vcu in richmond, my 18 year-old daughter is beginning her very first collegiate dance audition. she's trying to into vcu's bachelor of fine arts program. she's nervous, but she'll do great. i'm a goddamn mess.

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  6. Got sucked into the AUS open last with the Serena match and then again this morning for the Federer match. Both went down to the wire. The time difference fits perfectly to my viewable tv time window. There have been 11 five set tiebreakers already, which is tied for the most across all four majors. It's only the 3rd going into the 4th round. Good quality tennis going on.

    Brandiose was obviously not consulting for Worcester, MA. The PawSox, current located in Pawtucket, MA are moving to Worcester in a few years and the new team name had a lot of thought put into it. WooSox. Mass has a very weak mascot naming game.

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  7. Good luck to rob's kid, dance your tail off. I still don't think anyone has topped the Toledo Mud Hens.

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  8. Good luck to your girl Rob. My dancer just got good news from his audition this week, so we'll hope the trend continues!

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  9. Hold me closer, tiny dancers.

    Wait, that sounds creepy in this context.

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  10. Tiny Dancer's lyrics are very creepy, if interpreted a certain way.

    Anywho... 18 posts and counting thus year -- and none extensively on the impeachment. Thank you all.

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  11. just heard from my kid. she feels really good about the audition. at the end, there was a personal interview with the faculty. she finished that, then asked them for a handshake. she'll be memorable, if nothing else.

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  12. https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports.theonion.com/eli-manning-retires-from-nfl-to-focus-on-being-statisti-1841204257/amp

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  13. The Rocket City Trash Pandas bed to differ, Z.

    Finished season 2 of Mindhunter last night. It’s certainly not for everyone but I loved it. I would love it even without my devout devotion to David Fincher projects. Fantastic use of “Hell is for the Children” to end the penultimate episode of season 2.

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  14. Beg, bed. You get the gist.

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  15. love the trash pandas, but we've already featured them in bkymlbm.

    in other news, my dog's a turd eater, and i love her. i love my turd eating dog.

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  16. Mindhunter is dope. The fact that I have to take a shit and I’m waiting for a train in Penn Station is not dope. I gotta hold this thing for another hour easily.

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  17. My dog eats our cat’s shit when she’s particularly hungry. That’s more on us than her though. I know we’ve covered the Trash Pandas, Rob. Just reminding my similarly musically and footwear inclined friend/stranger.

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  18. Good luck z. Clench and lock, clench and lock.

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  19. Just a couple games in but Zion is special. Zion and Ja has Jordan-Hakeem level greatness possibilities.

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  20. I was thinking more of a Koncak-Krystowiak level greatness.

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  21. I played beer pong at a keg party last night. I feel subpar this morning.

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  22. Coached my kids basketball team to their first victory this morning. My kid had 7 of our 16. Fun morning.

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  23. Did I go on Amazon last Sunday and buy a UNC-Wilmington T-shirt? You’re god damn right I did. Just showed up this afternoon.

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