When the Double-A Mobile BayBears relocate to Madison, Alabama, in 2020, they will be called Rocket City Trash Pandas, a name chosen in a recently completed name-the-team contest. More than two-thirds of fans chose the geographic identifier Rocket City (because of the areas ties to the aerospace industry) over two other choices, North Alabama and Madison. And the nickname Trash Pandas won both the initial round of 10 options and the final round of five options, soundly defeating ThunderSharks, Moon Possums, Space Chimps, and Comet Jockeys.
The name Trash Panda is slang for raccoons, significant to the area for reasons described by Matthew Higley, who submitted the name to the contest: “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 Rocket City Trash Pandas will join the Single-A Quad Cities River Bandits and short-season Class-A Hudson Valley Renegades as affiliated minor league teams with raccoon-based identities. The newest raccoons on the block are working with noted design firm Brandiose to develop logos.
