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Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Alabama Baseball Team to Be Renamed Rocket City Trash Pandas

Minor league baseball team names have officially jumped the shark. 

Dan Gartland

Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Alabama Baseball Team to Be Renamed Rocket City Trash Pandas
Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Alabama Baseball Team to Be Renamed Rocket City Trash Pandas /

Minor league baseball team names have officially jumped the shark

When the Mobile Baybears, the Angels’ Double A affiliate, move north to suburban Huntsville, Alabama, in 2020, they’ll have a new name. 

Rocket City was the runaway favorite in fan voting for the regional identifier (with 67.4% of the vote), beating out North Alabama and Madison. It’s a nod to Huntsville’s home of NASA’s rocket-building operations. 

Fans were given 10 team nicknames to vote on as well, mostly with space references: Comet Jockeys, Moon Possums, Space Chimps, ThunderSharks, Trash Pandas, Army Ants, GloWorms, Lunartics, Puffy Head Bird Legs and Space Sloths.

The Trash Pandas nickname is also apparently a winking reference to the character Rocket Raccoon from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. 

“Our community is known for engineering, and no creature in our galaxy is as smart, creative, determined and ingenious a problem solver—dedicated to the challenge at hand—as our local raccoons!” the description accompanying the name on the ballot read. 

I usually don’t have a huge problem with wacky minor league team names like the Hartford Yard Goats and Binghamton Rumble Ponies, but combining a gimmick nickname with a gimmick locator is a step too far for me. North Alabama Comet Jockeys would have been a totally acceptable name to me. 

Ohtani doesn’t need a healthy UCL to hit dingers

The Angels announced yesterday that two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani has been recommended for Tommy John surgery. It’s a massive bummer for everyone who enjoyed watching him hit and pitch like an All-Star at the same time. 

But the good news is that Ohtani can still swing the bat for now. He went out last night and hit two homers. 

Frazier fesses up

Mets third baseman Todd Frazier has admitted to deceiving an umpire with a toy baseball, except he didn’t actually realize he had the wrong ball until he reached into his glove.

“It was one of those things where I think any third baseman or any player trying to win would do it,” Frazier told reporters. “If there is a ball in front of you, play it out. You do it with your dad or mom or buddy down the street.”

Bits & Pieces

Did you know you can make booze by chewing rice or corn and leaving it in a jar in your fridge? ... Nick Nolte still has that Hawaiian shirt from his infamous mug shot, only it doesn’t fit so great anymore. ... A Canadian man sued the government over failing to admit that Sasquatch is real, but a judge just threw the case out. ... A Colorado peach farmer will not remove his 9/11 truther message from his packaging even though it’s tanking his sales. 

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[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ggRsbFQ8B0]

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Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or ping me on Twitter. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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