Tim Hagerty, Triple-A broadcaster, Sporting News contributor, and author of Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball’s Most Off-the-Wall Team Names, is wrapping up a quest to find the best nickname in Minor League Baseball with a final round of voting until 11:00 a.m. ET today. It’s the Montgomery Biscuits vs. Toledo Mud Hens in the championship round. Learn more and vote here.
Best MiLB Nickname: Montgomery Biscuits vs. Toledo Mud Hens
Filed under Branding & Marketing, Fun & Atmosphere
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Don’t forget the Edenton Steamers of the Coastal Plain League.
The Biscuits take the title! Congrats to owners Tom Dickson and Sherrie Myers of Professional Sports Marketing. Their other team, the Lansing Lugnuts, made the final four, too. These guys know MiLB marketing.
Does anyone have nominations for best team names among the indy or summer collegiate ranks? Some of my favorites are the Joliet Slammers (this only works if you’re located near an infamous federal prison), the Gary Railcats, and the Kokomo Jackrabbits. Any team named the Miners or the Brown Bears should opt for an instant rebrand, in my opinion. Alan, would you consider running best team name contests for indy and summer collegiate ball on your site?
Haven’t seen one. I would love to do it (and many other things), if I had the time. We’ll see.
Alan
Hopefully you are kidding about the Miners and Brown Bears names. There are probably 100 names currently in use that are worse than these. While they might not be the most original names, at least they have some regional significance, which is more than can be said for some of the silly names out there.
“Names” worthy of mention:
Kansas City T-Bones – AA
Wichita Wingnuts – AA
River City Rascals – Frontier
Joliet Slammers – Frontier
Edenton Steamers – CPL
Wilson Tobs – CPL
High Point-Thomasville HiToms – CPL
Rochester Honkers – Northwoods
Kalamazoo Growlers – Northwoods (love the micro-brew connection)
Walla Walla Sweets – WCL
Medford Rogues – WCL (I submitted “Rogue Valley Cutthroats” for a team name with a skeleton trout pirate for imagery in mind)
Jamestown Jammers – Prospect
Terre Haute Rex – Prospect (if they would have only branded it the way I suggested)
Myrtle Beach Mermen – HBO
BONUS: Solid non-out-of-the-ordinary names with “Logos” I would actually wear:
St. Paul Saints – AA
Evansville Otters – Frontier
Quebec Capitales – Can-Am
Wisconsin (Wausau) Woodchucks – Northwoods
Peninsula Pilots – CPL
Alan
I wasn’t kidding, but, you know, it’s just my opinion. Those names bore me and don’t show any imagination. But, if you’re playing in a community full of miners (or bears), expediency trumps imagination. You’re right; there are a lot of really dumb names out there too.
I really like the list that Alan has put together.