Hartford Yard Goats to Pay Tribute to New England's Favorite 'Sport' With Alternate Name in 2025

To kick off fall, the Yard Goats, the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, will adopt the 'Leaf Peepers' name for a day.

Vibrant maple leaves create a colorful canopy for a person exiting the parking lot of the Olympic College campus in Poulsbo, Wash, last October. | Meegan M. Reid / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Don't say the Hartford Yard Goats don't get into the spirit of the season.

For one day only, on Sept. 3, the Yard Goats will call themselves the Hartford Leaf Peepers when they host the Reading Fightin Phils at Dunkin Park. That comes two days after Labor Day, which marks the unofficial start of fall -- otherwise known as leaf-peeping season.

"The Leaf Peepers is a tribute to the 10 million people who travel to New England each year to see the leaves change," the team posted to X on Friday." Let us know what you think; we’re here to rake in your feedback."

The Yard Goats will play one game as the Hartford Leaf Peepers 9/3. The Leaf Peepers is a tribute to the 10 million people who travel to New England each year to see the leaves change. Let us know what you think; we’re here to rake in your feedback.

🍂 https://t.co/KDlV4i1LMy pic.twitter.com/pGf9y48a64

— Hartford Yard Goats (@GoYardGoats) February 7, 2025

Of course, the team has a line of souvenir merchandise to go with the Leaf Peepers name, and it's as creative as can be. The logo is a fall maple leaf -- and the leaf itself is the one doing the peeping. The jerseys the team will sport that day have a leafy background -- leaves in fall yellows, oranges, browns and greens -- with the leaf peepers logo running across the chest.

It's the second alternate identity the team will assume in the 2025 season. On May 29, they will morph into the Hartford Thunder Chickens when they play the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The name is a tribut to Connecticut's rampant -- and loud -- wild turkey population.

The Yard Goats -- and the Thunder Chickens and Leaf Pepers -- are the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

“Our fans love wild alternate identities,” Yard Goats general manager Mike Abramson said in a statement when the team announced its first identity last month. “The Thunder Chickens is another crazy and fun brand, and we are excited to add it to our 2025 starting lineup.”

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