The 2019 baseball season will be the last for the Triple-A New Orleans Baby Cakes, an affiliate of the Miami Marlins. The Baby Cakes (formerly the New Orleans Zephyrs, formerly the Denver Zephyrs, formerly the Denver Bears) will move to Wichita, Kansas, in 2020, where they will play with a new name in a new $73 million stadium.
With the franchise’s next chapter just over a year away, the team is looking for name suggestions from fans. An open call for submissions is available on the MiLB website until January 21.
Wichita has been home to a number of teams dating back to the late 1800s, with names like the Jobbers, Witches, and Izzies (to name a few). In its recent past, the city has played host to the independent Wichita Wingnuts (2008–2018), whose nickname was a reference to the city’s ties to the aviation industry, a Double-A franchise that went by Wichita Wranglers (1989–2007) and Wichita Pilots (1987–1988), and the Triple-A Wichita Aeros (1970–1984).
The Baby Cakes will have played only three seasons with their Mardi Gras–themed moniker, which to many was the pinnacle of wackiness in minor league branding when the name was announced in late 2016. But the franchise’s history in New Orleans as the Zephyrs dates back to 1993, when the team was forced to move from Denver with the expansion of Major League baseball and the birth of the Colorado Rockies.
Whatever the team is called after it moves to Kansas, the Wichita-based franchise will play in the increasingly inaccurately named Pacific Coast League.
