Minor League Baseball

Houston Astros' MiLB Affiliate Reveals Gross-Sounding Alternate Identity With Good Cause Behind It

The Asheville Tourists, the High-A affiliate of the Houston Astros, will become the "Snot Otters," for a game in June of this year, but why?
Brady Farkas|
Scenes from the Tourists season opener against the Bowling Green Hot Rods April 6, 2023.
Scenes from the Tourists season opener against the Bowling Green Hot Rods April 6, 2023. | Angela Wilhelm/Asheville Citizen Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Houston Astros

The Asheville Tourists will take the field this June 6 with one of the grossest sounding alternate identities you will ever hear: The Asheville Snot Otters. The Tourists are the High-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.

Despite it's gross sounding nature, the "Snot Otters" are not gross at all. And the identity is being taken for a good cause.

The special alternate jerseys will be auctioned off after the game to raise money for the Western North Carolina Nature Center. It's the only game as the "Snot Otters" that the Tourists will play this year.

So what's the deal here? First off, the "Snot Otter" is a nickname for a "Hellbender" salamander, which lives in North Carolina's Watauga River.

Per the BBC:

Previously widespread across 15 US states, from southern New York to northern Georgia and from the central Appalachians to Missouri, nearly 80% of hellbenders have been wiped out across their range. Hellbenders are listed as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In some areas, particularly in the Ozarks and the Appalachian regions, they are currently endangered or have gone locally extinct. In North Carolina, hellbenders are a "species of special concern" (a legal designation for wildlife facing significant risks). 

Alternate identities have become extremely popular around Minor League Baseball, with some teams taking on multiple per season. These promotional nights are often some of the best attended games of a team's season.

The Tourists are off on Monday, as is customary in the minor leagues. They will resume play on Tuesday on Tuesday at Greenville, the affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

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