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A Double A baseball team just named itself the Yard Goats

A Double A minor league baseball team just named itself the Hartford Yard Goats. 

The New Britain Rock Cats, a Double A Colorado Rockies affiliate, are moving to Hartford for the 2016 season, and they felt this was the perfect time to take on a completely new name. 

Wanting to get the fans involved, they held open submissions for suggestions and received nearly 6,000 entries, a very impressive number.

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For some reason, the team's selection committee​ decided to put "Yard Goats" in its final five as it narrowed down all those entries. Fans then voted on their top three, casting more than 35,000 ballots. 

The other finalists were a little strange as well—Hedgehogs, Praying Mantis, River Hogs and Whirlybirds—but it's hard to get stranger than Yard Goats. 

So naturally, that's what the Rock Cats chose.

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According to CT Now, the name is related to Hartford's railroad industry, "a slang term for an engine that switches a train to get it ready for another locomotive."

Minor league baseball can be so weird

- Molly Geary