Carolina Mudcats Moving to Wilson, NC for 2026 Season

Posted on November 24, 2024 by Mike McCann

The Carolina Mudcats are moving to Wilson, NC for the 2026 season and will be known was the Wilson Warbirds.  The Carolina Mudcats have been around since 1991 when they were the AA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Southern League.  In 2012, they moved to Pensacola, FL, but the High-A Cleveland Indians affiliate moved from Kinston, NC when it became available.  Wilson is very close to Zebulon, where the Mudcats currently reside, so they remain in the same market, but will have a stadium in downtown Wilson.  The last team in Wilson was 1973 when they had a Carolina League team.  And I understand why they didn’t go back to the most common Wilson team name of the Tobs, short for Tobacconists, since that isn’t as popular in today’s society.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bowie Baysox Change Name to Chesapeake Baysox

Posted on November 24, 2024 by Mike McCann

The Bowie Baysox are changing their name to the Chesapeake Baysox for the 2025 season.  The team has been known by the same name since 1993 so they are making a change after 30 years.  I prefer the city names rather than the regional names, but maybe that will have some broader appeal and it will definitely help them sell more merchandise in the short term.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Oklahoma City Baseball Club Change Name to Oklahoma City Comets

Posted on November 2, 2024 by Mike McCann

The Oklahoma City Baseball Club will now be known as the Oklahoma City Comets.
The previous name was intended to be temporary, so it was expected that the name would change this year.  While I’m still disappointed that they didn’t go back to the 89ers name, Comets is a more traditional team name and is based on Oklahoman Mickey Mantle’s nickname “Commerce Comet”.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

2025 Columbus GA Team Will Be Named Columbus Clingstones

Posted on September 7, 2024 by Mike McCann

The Mississippi Braves are moving to Columbus, GA for the 2025 season and the team will be known as the Columbus Clingstones.  Since I’m not from Georgia, I wasn’t familiar with the term Clingstones, but now I know it’s a type of peach.  I think that name is a good fit, although I would have preferred if they reverted to the Columbus Foxes which was used for many years, although not since 1958.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hub City Spartanburgers going to High A South Atlantic League, Hickory to Low A Carolina League

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Mike McCann

With the move of the Rangers minor league affiliate from Kinston (Down East Wood Ducks) to Spartanburg (Hub City Spartanburgers), the Rangers have decided to move Hub City up to the High A South Atlantic League and move the Hickory Crawdads down to Low A Carolina League.  I can understand why they would want to have their new facility used for the higher level players and since the footprint of the two leagues overlaps, it doesn’t create any logistical issues there.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

2025 Spartanburg Team Will Be Named Hub City Spartanburgers

Posted on May 12, 2024 by Mike McCann

The Down East Wood Ducks are moving to Spartanburg, SC for the 2025 season and the team will be known as the Hub City Spartanburgers.  I’m more of a traditionalist and not a big fan of the wacky names that minor league teams go with in order to sell more merchandise, but I’ve never liked when teams decide not to use the city name.  In this case, they are putting it into the nickname, and they will push the burger aspect of it significantly, but I knew there was no way they would use a traditional name like the Spartans that was used 100 years ago.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mississippi Braves Moving to Columbus, GA

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Mike McCann

The Mississippi Braves are moving to Columbus, GA for the 2025 season.  Golden Park in Columbus will be renovated and expanded to host minor league baseball again.  Columbus last hosted minor league baseball in 2008 prior to the team’s move to Bowling Green, TN.  This team will be a closer to Atlanta and supports the Braves goal of having all of their minor league teams within Georgia.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oklahoma City Dodgers Change Name to Oklahoma City Baseball Club

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Mike McCann

The Oklahoma City Dodgers will now be known as the Oklahoma City Baseball Club.  According to the team’s website, this is a temporary name while a new name is determined.  Since I doubt that they lost rights to the Dodgers name, I don’t see any benefit in having a temporary non-name for a season.  Even if they wanted to change the logo and uniforms, they could have done that without changing the name.  Or even if they changed the name to 89ers for a season since that is one of the team’s alternate uniforms, that would make more sense to me.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Rome Braves Change Name to Rome Emperors

Posted on November 21, 2023 by Mike McCann

The Rome Braves have changed their name to the Rome Emperors.  I definitely prefer when minor league teams have their own identities and since the Braves no longer own the team, this isn’t a surprise.  I think the Emperors is a clever way to go as it’s a reference to Rome, Italy and they will have an emperor penguin as their mascot, so overall to me it’s a good choice.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Down East Wood Ducks Moving to Spartanburg, SC

Posted on May 26, 2023 by Mike McCann

The Down East Wood Ducks have been sold and will be moving to Spartanburg, SC.  They will be building a new stadium with current plans to open in 2025.

There hasn’t been a franchise move since 2021, but it looks like things are starting to return to how they used to be where teams with stadiums in need of upgrades move to a new location with a new stadium being built for them.  With the new minor league baseball structure, there’s less need for major league teams to own their minor league affiliates, so the Rangers felt they could sell the team as they no longer needed to lock in a Carolina League spot and stay out of the California League as they did when they bought the team.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment