Trash Pandas? Sky Carp? These Minor League Baseball team names are incredible

Baseball has long been known as ‘America’s Pastime’, the sport plays a key part in the Summer zeitgeist in America. For years now, the minor leagues have been looking for ways to attract fans, with teams trying everything from £1 beer nights to free Anger Management DVDs. A new wave of fun branding has taken the sport by storm, so let’s take a look at some of the best names in the minors.

Previously the Miracles, the Mighty Mussels were a creation of owner Andrew Kaufman who stated, “Think Disney, but edgy." Nothing edgier than a mollusk playing baseball I guess…

Photo: Fort Myers Mighty Mussels instagram

Named after the Thresher shark, the Florida team used clever billboards and fake newspaper articles to spread the news of their rebranding, telling everyone "Clearwater beaches are no longer safe" due to the new threshers in town. Not bad.

Cedar Rapids in Iowa is surrounded by a lot of cornfields, so what else would you name your minor league team after? Any ideas? No? Well, corn was probably the only answer given and they went with it.

Tri-city; a name so vague it means almost nothing to those outside Washington state, so does it really matter what you call your minor league team? It certainly does, and Dust Devils is pretty damn good in all fairness.

Photo: The Tri-City Dust Devils instagram

Beloit is in Wisconsin and a Sky Carp is, obviously, a goose. Not sure this one needs any more explanation.

Photo: Beloit Sky Carp instagram

Altoona is based in Pennsylvania and is an affiliate of the Pirates, the name comes from a railroad curve and why wouldn’t it be?

Binghamton is known as the carousel capital of the world and apparently, Rumble Pony is a nickname for carousel horses. This one is truly excellent and a vast, vast improvement in their old name, the Mets.

Another tribute to their city, Akron is apparently the rubber capital of the world. The team was able to produce a rubber-related nickname that doesn’t sound like a joke made by a 13-year-old, pretty solid effort there.

Sod Poodles is another name for prairie dogs, of which there are many around Amarillo. Their logo is a prairie dog wearing a cowboy hat, so certainly no complaints with this one.

Previously called the Expos and then Suns, the Jacksonville team made the correct decision to rebrand in 2017. Hopefully, they will forever be known not just as shrimp, but Jumbo Shrimp.

Photo: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp instagrama

This team name screams Americana, and it’s wonderful. Sugar Land is apparently a real city attached to Houston, a city most famous for space launches and it’s in Texas most famous for cowboys, just stick all those bits together and you’ve got yourself a baseball team name.

Another Pennsylvania team, the IronPigs really lean into the state's iron and steel industry history. An iron pig is basically iron before it becomes anything useful, so obviously the team mascot is a pig called Ferrous wearing the number 26, which is iron’s number on the periodic table. So many layers.

Toledo, Ohio is surrounded by swamps. Initially, the baseball team was called the Swamp Angels, which would probably also have made this list, but due to the number of American coots, swamp birds nicknamed mud hens, the team would eventually change to a new moniker, which is still pretty good,

Very few baseball teams make you hungry just by hearing their name, but the Montgomery Biscuits is certainly in that rarified air. Montgomery, Alabama is the heart of the Deep South where rich, crumbly biscuits are almost like a currency, mouth-wateringly good stuff here.

Last, but by no means least, we have another Alabama team. Known as ‘Rocket City’ due to the nearby NASA presence, the team decided to name itself after a raccoon. The logo is a raccoon in a trash can-turned-rocket ship which is just perfect.