Not long after the minor league season ended, a number of teams ditched their old monikers in favor of new ones.
The longtime Binghamton Mets became the Rumble Ponies. The Florida Fire Frogs replaced the Brevard County Manatees. And the New Orleans Zephyrs became the Baby Cakes for some reason.
But no team has made more of a splash than the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
For the better part of the team’s fifty-plus years, the current Miami Marlins Double-A affiliate had been the Suns. So why change the name?
Why not?
“There’s something fun and quirky about minor-league team names,” new team owner Ken Babby said. “In our league alone, you have the [Pensacola] Wahoos and [Montgomery] Biscuits. When people see this logo and hear the name for the first time, they’ll see this experience is all about fun.”
Fun indeed. At least a couple members of the newly-dubbed “Crustacean Nation” saw the logo and apparently thought to themselves…”I need that on me forever”.
This isn’t the first time Babby changed the identity of a newly-acquired team. After he purchased the Akron Aeros in 2012, he changed the name to the RubberDucks. They would see a 27 percent jump in attendance over a three-year period and an Eastern League championship in 2016.
I’m guessing the Jumbo Shrimp are hoping for the same.
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