Minor League Baseball Launches Ten New Team Names, Logos for Copa 2022

Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión is back with eight new teams joining the fun, and two other teams coming back with entirely new Latino-inspired looks.

The eight new teams joining Copa are the Fort Wayne Tin Caps, Frisco RoughRiders, Great Lakes Loons, Quad Cities River Bandits, Somerset Patriots, St. Paul Saints, Syracuse Mets, and Wichita Wind Surge. These clubs join the Corpus Christi Hooks and Winston-Salem Dash who are both taking another shot at this annual temporary rebranding of their franchises.

Copa de la Diversión is part of Minor League Baseball’s Hispanic fan engagement initiative launched in 2017.

“It is important to our organization and all of Minor League Baseball that we continue to embrace everyone in and around our communities through the Copa initiative,” said Frisco RoughRiders President Victor Rojas in the press release from Minor League Baseball. “We are excited to honour our rich and
diverse Latino culture in hopes of creating a deeper connection to our community on a year-round basis.”

Minor League Baseball says that “during the first four seasons of the initiative, Copa-designated games had a nearly 20% higher average attendance than non-Copa games, and participating teams saw significant increases in merchandise sales, partnerships, and concessions revenues.” The program goes beyond simply increasing ticket and merchandise sales, each club extends their reach into local communities, partnering with more than 200 local Latino organizations on various events and charitable endeavours.

Let’s take a look at the ten new Copa identities we can expect to see on the field during the 2022 Minor League Baseball season:

Corpus Christi Cumbias (Corpus Christi Hooks)

The Corpus Christi Hooks are adopting the name Cumbias for Copa 2022. Cumbia is a style of music that originated as a Colombian folk dance before moving its way north through Latin America and settling in South Texas. The Corpus Christi Cumbias logo features a yellow, pink, and green guitar with traditional floral decor.

LINK: Corpus Christi Hooks logo and uniform history

Manzanas Luchadoras de Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne Tincaps)

The Fort Wayne Tincaps will be known as Manzanas Luchadoras de Fort Wayne during Copa, “Manzanas Luchadoras” is Spanish for “Fighting Apples.” The logo pays tribute to Lucha Libre freestyle pro wrestling, iconic in Mexican culture, with an apple wearing a traditional Lucha Libre style mask.

LINK: Fort Wayne Tincaps logo and uniform history

Quesos de Frisco (Frisco Roughriders)

Do you think President Teddy Roosevelt had any idea that he’d be depicted as a walking brick of cheese on a baseball uniform someday? The Frisco Roughriders (who wear Teddy on their caps and jerseys as their regular uniform set) will become Los Quesos de Frisco for Copa, named for the Mexican cheese queso fresco.

LINK: Frisco RoughRiders logo and uniform history

Pepinillos Picantes del Norte (Great Lakes Loons)

The Great Lakes Loons will adopt the Pepinillos Picantes del Norte identity for Copa 2022, the name translates to Spicy Pickles of the North and refers to the Hispanic farmers who contributed to the cultivation of the Great Lakes Bay region’s signature pickle crops. The release states the “Del Norte” tag was added as it was “commonly used by Latinos when referencing the return to Michigan.”

LINK: Great Lakes Loons logo and uniform history

Bandidos del Rio de las Ciudades Cuádaruples (Quad Cities River Bandits)

The Quad Cities River Bandits are going with a straight-up literal translation of their entire team name — Los Bandidos del Rio de las Ciudades Cuádaruples. The logo is a colourful play on their standard logo which shows a raccoon wearing a bandana, his hat has been replaced with a sombrero for this occasion.

LINK: Quad Cities River Bandits logo and uniform history

Zooros de Somerset (Somerset Patriots)

The Somerset Patriots are naming their Copa team Los Zorros de Somerset (Somerset Foxes) after an orange-coloured fox that scurried across their ballfield during the club’s announcement of their affiliation with the New York Yankees. The logo shows an orange fox holding a baseball bat trimmed in navy and light blue.

LINK: Somerset Patriots logo and uniform history

Santos de St. Paul (St. Paul Saints)

The St. Paul Saints, like the River Bandits, are going with the straight translation of their name from English to Spanish with Los Santos de St. Paul. The logo shows the Saints mascot (a pig named “Mudonna”, oh yes), depicted as a Day of the Dead-inspired sugar skull. The colours in the logo represent papel picado, a tissue paper craft used in Latin folk art.

LINK: St. Paul Saints logo and uniform history

Congueros de Syracuse (Syracuse Mets)

The Syracuse Mets are paying tribute to the conga drum, a popular instrument in many Latin areas, with their Congeroes de Sycause identity for Copa 2022. The logo shows two conga drums in place of the “O”s in Congueros, arched in red over “De Syracuse” in blue lettering.

LINK: Syracuse Mets logo and uniform history

Tumba Vacas de Wichita (Wichita Wind Surge)

The Wichita Wind Surge has adopted the name Tumba Vacas de Wichita for Copa, and as you may have guessed from the logo, Tumba Vacas translates to Cow Tippers. Did a surge of wind tip over that cow? That’s up to you to decide.

I’ll let the team describe this one…

The City of Wichita is known for its mixtures of different roots and traditions – from the Arkansas River to the Chisholm Trail deeply rooted in the Hispanic and LatinX community. We honour the official sport known as La Charreria from the vibrant pink and green colours which represent the traditional charro/as outfits. We embrace the upside-down cow as the connection for our players to tap into the mindset and ideologies of the Charros, using baseball as the vessel.

LINK: All Grown Up, Introducing the Wichita Wind Surge

Winston-Salem Salsa (Winston-Salem Dash)

Before today, I never knew I needed a logo showing tortilla chips being dipped into a smiling jar of salsa. The Winston-Salem Dash are going with Salsa as their Copa name this year. The name was chosen as it “celebrates and amplifies the flavour, joy, and vigour of modern Mexican heritage” in the Winston-Salem area. The logo shows a Mesoamerican-style jar of salsa while the two chips represent the (former) twin cities of Winston and Salem dipping simultaneously bringing the community together as one.

LINK: Winston-Salem Dash logo and uniform history

For more information on Minor League Baseball’s Copa program, you can check out their website here.