Dishing it Out: Here Come the Minot Hot Tots

The newest offering on the collegiate summer level Northwoods League’s menu is the Minot Hot Tots, a team named for tater tot casserole, a meal popular with residents of Minot, North Dakota. The team unveiled its name and a suite of logos highlighted by an anthropomorphized tater tot wielding a wooden spoon—complete with cheese dipping off the end—like a baseball bat.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Minot community from my conversations over the last few weeks, it’s that we are gritty,” said Monica Blake, the General Manager and Managing Partner of Minot Baseball LLC, quoted on the Minot Daily News. “This is why in our logo design we made our tot someone you don’t want to mess with. This is the gritty underdog.”

The logo suite, created by John Worthen of Worthen Design, is set in colors drawn from the North Dakota state flag. It includes one mark that features the casserole itself, served in a dish shaped like home plate, again with cheese dipping precariously over the edge.

Hot tot casserole, a staple of upper midwest cuisine, typically features any combination of cream of mushroom soup, corn, green beans, ground beef, and, of course, tater tots.