Origin of Minor League team names: M

Since 2004 I am addicted to Minor League baseball. Not that it is easy to attend a game when you live in the Netherlands, but I love the way those clubs are more focused on families, children and the related entertainment.
In 2008 I attended my first Minor League game at Adelanto, CA. The High Desert Mavericks (A Advanced affiliate of the Mariners) hosted the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (then an Angels affiliate, now part of the Dodgers organization) in a California League matchup. Since then I am in love.

This time the letter:

M

Mahoning Valley Scrappers:
The Scrappers are in the New York-Penn League since 1999. They took a spot vacated by the Erie SeaWolves, who moved up to the AA Eastern League. I found the following explanantion on the Scrappers’ website. To me it is a bit questionable, but since the team is writing this, I am accepting it:
A scrapper is an individual who fights, wrangles and battles or a bulldog that battles to victory on a daily basis.
The name is synonymous with the industrial nature and attitude of the Mahoning Valley.The Mahoning Valley has maintained a strong industrial and manufacturing core throughout its existence. Though the industrial base has changed and will continue to evolve in the future, the undying spirit and commitment of the citizens of the Mahoning Valley will never falter. The Mahoning Valley Scrappers name and logo was developed to embody that spirit and personality. The fighting spirit of the people of the Mahoning Valley is manifested in the junkyard dog style logo. It reflects the resiliency of the people of the Valley. A junkyard dog never backs down and will fight until it wins. The Mahoning Valley Scrappers will provide an opportunity for the entire Mahoning Valley to gather and enjoy what is right with the Valley. The Mahoning Valley Scrappers and Eastwood Field will play an integral role in the Mahoning Valley’s efforts to continue the regional approach to development and progress.

Memphis Redbirds:
After the PCL expanded to Durham and Memphis in 1998, the Cardinals took their AAA team, the Louisville Redbirds to Memphis and the team adopted the same name.

Midland Rockhounds:
Amateur geologists are called Rockhounds. The town of Midland is situated in the Permian Basin. This is a sedimentary basin largely contained in the western part of the U.S. state of Texas and the southeastern part of the state of New Mexico. It reaches from just south of Lubbock, Texas, to just south of Midland and Odessa, extending westward into the southeastern part of the adjacent state of New Mexico. It is so named because it has one of the world’s thickest deposits of rocks from the Permian geologic period. Since there was no information on the website and I didn’t get an answer by e-mail, this was the best I could find. It is not 100% water tight, but I think it is pretty plausible.

Mississippi Braves:
The Mississippi Braves are located in Pearl MS. The team is owned and operated by Liberty Media, which also owns the Atlanta Braves, which explains the name.

Missoula Osprey:
The Osprey are named after the bird that is also known as fish hawk, sea hawk or fish eagle. The bird flourishes in areas with water. It is seen along the US coasts and in Montana as well.

Mobile BayBears:
The Mobile Bears were a minor league baseball team based in Mobile, Alabama. The franchise was a member of the old Southern Association, a high-level circuit that folded after the 1961 season. Mobile joined the SA in 1908 as the Sea Gulls, but changed its name to the Bears in 1918, and the nickname stuck. The club played in the Association until July 1931, when it moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. Almost exactly 13 years later, in July 1944, the Bears returned to Mobile when the Knoxville Smokies franchise shifted back from Tennessee. The Bears played in 5,000-seat Hartwell Field located on Virginia St. in midtown. (A club known as the Mobile Shippers competed in the Class B Southeastern League from 1937-42.)

The Bears then continued in the SA (classified as a Double-A league in 1946) through its final season. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Bears were longtime farm system affiliates of the Brooklyn Dodgers, then the Cleveland Indians.

The BayBears franchise was located in Wilmington, North Carolina from 1995 to 1996 under the name of the Port City Roosters. From 1993 to 1994, they were the Nashville Xpress located in Nashville, Tennessee, after relocating from Charlotte, North Carolina where they were the first incarnation of the Charlotte Knights.
The name of the team was announced in July 1996. The name was chosen from a name-the-team contest. Mobile mayor Mike Dow announced the name at that year’s Mobile Fourth of July fireworks display.
The nickname “Bears” lives on in modified form with the modern Mobile BayBears, of the Double-A Southern League, a farm team of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Modesto Nuts:
The Nuts adopted their current name in 2005, after the team’s affiliation with the Oakland Athletics ended. Before then, the team was known as the Modesto Athletics (or A’s). The new name was chosen to reflect the several types of nuts that are grown in the region.

Montgomery Biscuits:
The Biscuits’ owners selected the team’s nickname from an entry in a “name the team” contest, due in part to the potential marketing and pun possibilities (ex. “Hey, Butter, Butter, Butter” or the team’s souvenir store, the “Biscuit Basket”). During games, biscuits are shot from an air cannon, into the stands. It is also said that the name is chosen because the Biscuit is something typical from the South.


Myrtle Beach Pelicans:
The Pelicans are named after the American white pelican that lives in the area.