The Expedition League, a wood-bat collegiate summer league based in Rapid City, South Dakota, will play its inaugural season in 2018. Teams have started unveiling nicknames and logos, including the Pierre Trappers, whose identity plays on the history of Pierre, South Dakota. Per the team’s statement: The name “Trappers” was
Category: Minor League Baseball
The Bear Facts: The Story Behind the Tennessee Smokies
Ask most people what the most-visited national park in the United States is and their minds will almost certainly go first to one of the iconic sites out west. But the answer to that question is not the Grand Canyon or Yosemite or Yellowstone, but Great Smoky Mountain National Park, which
ECHL teams to wear Marvel Super Hero uniforms in 2017-18
The Avengers will take a break from defending the Earth from evil to take to minor league hockey rinks all over the continent in the coming months. All 27 teams in the ECHL will wear Marvel-themed Super Hero uniforms on theme nights during the 2017-18 season. The league-wide partnership between
Bird on the Run: The Story Behind the Rochester Red Wings
The Triple-A baseball club in Rochester, New York, has a remarkable history. Founded in 1899, it lays claim to being North America’s longest continuously operating non-Major League franchise. It also lays claim to being part of the longest baseball game in professional history—a 33-inning affair against the Pawtucket Red Sox
This Logo Has Legs: The Story Behind the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders
The town of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, sits at the southern tip of Lake Winnebago—its name, translated from French, means “bottom of the lake.” (Lake Winnebago, I was sad to realize as I started writing this article, is not to be confused with New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee, where the movie
Introducing your Macon Bacon
In a league best known for the Savannah Bananas, the collegiate summer Coastal Plain League has added the Macon Bacon. The new name has everything—it rhymes, it has a double entendre, and it capitalizes on the nation’s ongoing love affair with cured pork. “It was a combination of it was
Fat Little Bird: The Story Behind the Idaho Falls Chukars
The Idaho Falls Chukars, a Kansas City Royals affiliate in the Rookie-level Pioneer League, are not named for the most intimidating bird out there. “No, in fact, it’s essentially a little partridge,” said the team’s longtime president and general manager Kevin Greene. “It’s a fat little bird. They’re out in
Seventh Heaven: The Story Behind the Lynchburg Hillcats
The city of Lynchburg, Virginia, is surrounded by hills—seven of them, to be exact. The identity of the city’s minor league baseball team, the Lynchburg Hillcats, High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, has been tied to those hills for more than two decades. “The reason we’re called the Hillcats is
A Dog’s Purpose: The Story Behind the Mahoning Valley Scrappers
Like many industrial towns, Niles, Ohio, has had its share of ups and downs. The town thrived with the iron industry in the late 1800s, then struggled through an economic depression and a flood in the early 1900s. The steel industry took over, with mills lining the Mahoning River, and
Fear the Stache: The Story Behind the Lexington Legends
Baseball goes way back in Lexington, Kentucky. But after playing host to a handful of teams dating back to the 1800s, the city went without baseball for most of the second half of the 20th century. After the Negro Leagues’ Lexington Hustlers and the independent Lexington Colts disbanded in 1954,
Life in the Fast Lane: The Story Behind the Greenville Drive
I had never been to Greenville, South Carolina, before last Thursday, when I rolled into town in a van with eight longtime friends to kick off a four-day minor league baseball road trip we call “Baseballpalooza.” Greenville pops up a lot on those annual lists of “Coolest Towns for Young People”
True Patriot Love: The Story Behind the Vancouver Canadians
Vancouver, Canada, is a fascinating, beautiful city. More than half of its population claims something other than English as a first language. Vancouver’s population density is Canada’s highest and North America’s fourth highest, but it also has the 1.5-square-mile Stanley Park (not the continent’s second largest, as previously reported, but