The Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies will honor one of their hometown’s favorite sons, Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, with an alternate identity based on the show. For one game this summer, the team will play as the Creatures, with a logo that derives from a Twilight Zone episode called “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” in which a gremlin terrorizes a passenger by tearing apart the wing of an airplane mid-flight.
Serling was born in nearby Syracuse in 1924, but moved to Binghamton at the age of two and spent most of his youth there. The Twilight Zone became one of the most well-known television shows of all time, running for five seasons, with 156 episodes from 1959 to 1964.
The identity foregoes the bright colors often association with minor league baseball in favor of a grayscale palette that evokes the black-and-white television of the mid-20th century.
The team announced the promotion during the offseason, borrowing language from the show’s iconic introduction: “You are now entering the Pony Zone. Rethink everything you know about sound, sight, and mind…as the Binghamton Rumble Ponies transform into the Binghamton Creatures.”
The Creatures will claw their way on to the field June 14.