More than four decades after the Dodgers broke the hearts of Brooklyn’s baseball fans by moving to Los Angeles, the sport returned to the borough in the form of a short-season class A Mets affiliate located on Coney Island—with a rickety old roller coaster called the Cyclone looming just beyond
Author: Paul Caputo
Paul Caputo is a grown man who collects plastic ice cream helmet sundaes from minor league baseball stadiums because he likes logos that much. Paul is the host of the Baseball By Design podcast and he is the author of the first book published by SportsLogos.net, The Story Behind the Nickname: The Origins of 100 Classic, Contemporary, and Wacky Minor League Baseball Team Names (also available on Kindle). He can be found on Twitter at @Count2Baseball and he maintains the Countdown to Spring Training on Facebook. Paul is a Philadelphia sports fan, but he's not so bad.
Leading the Charge: The Story Behind the Frisco RoughRiders
On July 1, 1898—117 years ago this Wednesday—the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry charged alongside other military regiments (most notably the Buffalo Soldiers) into the bloody Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba, helping to deliver a decisive blow in the Spanish-American War. With Spanish troops retreating and ultimately leaving Cuba shortly
Grizzlies-River Cats rivalry hits right in the logo
The Fresno Grizzlies and Sacramento River Cats, both Triple-A Pacific Coast League teams from California, do not like each other. That rivalry is coming to a head this weekend with the Grizzlies hosting “Grumpy Cat Night” to kick off a series against the RiverCats. The Grizzlies have been pulling the River
That Nashville Sound: The Story Behind the Nickname
Nashville, Tennessee, had been home to a rich music scene since the late 1800s, but it was the debut of two clear-channel radio stations in the 1920s that cemented the city’s reputation as Music City, USA. WSM and WLAC launched in 1925 and 1926 respectively, drawing performers who hoped to find their own stylings
Here there be the story behind the Dayton Dragons
Dayton, Ohio, is inextricably linked with the history of aviation. The city was home to Orville (who was born there) and Wilbur Wright, who are credited with inventing manned flight. (They weren’t the first to build a machine that could fly, but they were the first to invent a machine
RoughRiders Full House Night will be “spectacularly awful”
Last winter, when the double-A Frisco RoughRiders started planning their “Salute to Full House” theme night for this Friday, June 12, no one knew anything about the forthcoming and much-ballyhooed Full House spinoff on Netflix. That was just a stroke of luck—or maybe the result of some sort of sixth sense from
Doing the Twist: The Story Behind the Omaha Storm Chasers
There are a lot of sports teams named after severe weather or natural disasters—Avalanche, Hurricanes, Quakes, Storm, Thunder, etc. But very few teams are named for the people who actually head out into the world in intentional pursuit of extreme weather events. The term storm chasing is most commonly associated with
Shucking Great: The Story Behind the Biloxi Shuckers
This is the first season for the Biloxi Shuckers, whose previous life was as the Huntsville Stars in the double-A Southern League. The thing is, nearly two months into their inaugural season, they still haven’t played a home game. Because of construction and funding issues, the Shuckers opened the season
Gary SouthShore RailCats go Back to the Future
The Gary SouthShore RailCats, three-time champions of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, are getting the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and going Back to the Future. The RailCats will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic movie with custom uniforms featuring Marty McFly’s signature get-up in
Hopped Up: The Beery Story Behind the Hillsboro Hops
Minor league baseball is an industry whose main goal is to appeal to families, if not specifically children. So the Hillsboro Hops, short-season single-A affiliate of the Diamondbacks, went out on a limb when they based their entire identity on one of the four main ingredients of beer. In fact, when the
Fresno celebrates Ag Night with Raisin Eaters throwbacks
It’s been more than a century since the Fresno Raisin Eaters took the field as one-season wonders of the Pacific Coast League, but their adorable logo will live on Friday on throwback night at the triple-A Fresno Grizzlies game. The Raisin Eaters’ lone season in Fresno in 1906 was the
Northern Colorado Bears new logo is less fierce, more serious
The Northern Colorado Bears are growing up, checking their youthful temper and getting serious about their studies. A new logo from the prolific design firm Torch Creative marks a new beginning for the university—one in which their mascot Klawz the Bear has a new attitude. “We were asked to create a logo that