Minor League Baseball

Mammoth Debut: Detroit Tigers' Affiliate Introduces Made-On-TV Alternate Identity

The name and logo are courtesy of a contest run by the "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" show.
Jami Leabow|
The Double-A Erie SeaWolves will play under their alternate identity, the Moon Mammoths, on Saturday night.
The Double-A Erie SeaWolves will play under their alternate identity, the Moon Mammoths, on Saturday night. | Erie SeaWolves/X

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Detroit Tigers

Saturday night, the Erie SeaWolves will transform into the Erie Moon Mammoths – the name bestowed on them via the late-night show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

The Moon Mammoths will be making their first of four appearances this season, with Oliver himself expected to be on hand in Erie, Pa., to watch the Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

The alternate identity came to be after Oliver, on the May 4 edition of his HBO Max show, included a bit about Minor League Baseball and some of its, well, peculiarities.

To conclude the segment, he challenged teams to enter a contest, with the winner getting a rebrand, courtesy of the show. The SeaWolves were one of 40-plus teams to apply and won, with Oliver's team swayed by a letter sent by the affiliate that laid out 11 reasons why Erie deserved a rebrand.

Among the reasons the SeaWolves gave as to why they should be selected, quoted from the letter and shared by MLB.com:
The SeaWolves play baseball nowhere near the sea.
We’re from a city named Erie, which is pretty much the first step to comedy gold.
Our local tourism board is head by someone named John Oliver. It’s kismet.

The Oliver crew came up with the name Moon Mammoths after doing a deep dive on the local history in Erie, Pa. The name is a tribute to the mammoth fossil found by local man George Moon in 1991, which was on display for public viewing for one day only in 2012. Moon also is expected to be at the game on Saturday.

The team will give away 1,000 Moon Mammoth squish toys, and the game against the Baltimore Orioles’ Double-A Chesapeake Baysox is sold out. Fans are asked to wear purple, the primary color of the Mammoth logo.

The Baysox will be playing under their own alternate identity, the Oyster Catchers. That name generated some controversy when it was introduced in the spring because of the, shall we, say, interesting logo design proposed by the Orioles' affiliate.

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Jami Leabow
JAMI LEABOW

Jami Leabow is the managing editor of Minor League Baseball on SI. Her love for the game began when her parents bought season tickets to the then-California Angels.

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