It was a day where two baseball clubs showed their new team colours. First of all, the Nashville Sounds of the AAA Pacific Coast League. They will move into a new ballpark at the start of this season, which is an excellent reason to rebrand. They had already shown their new logo, but at that…
The Chicago Cubs have sent Mike Kickham to Seattle in exchange for Dutch pitcher Lars Huijer. Lars, inhabitant of Hoofddorp in the Netherlands joined the Mariners organization in 2011. His brother Sven had a minor league career in the Red Sox organization. Lars was named Mariners pitcher of the year in 2013 when he had…
The Appalachian League (Rookie), where Dutch (Antillian) players Gianfranco Wawoe, Ozaino Albies and Danny Arribas have played in 2014, may expand despite messages of a few years ago that the league would contract. A new trend is dawning: MLB teams are looking to add more rookie league teams. The Appalachian League could be a perfect…
The El Paso Chihuhuas, AAA team of the San Diego Padres in the Pacific Coast League, have announced that Pat Murphy will return as their manager in 2015. Murphy has a very long resume in the baseball world. From 1988 through 1994 he managed the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In that period the team had…
Curt Smith, first baseman of the Dutch National team became a free agent after the 2014 season. He had spent the season with the Cardinals’ AA affiliation in Springfield MO of the Texas League. Smith signed a deal with the independent Lincoln SaltDogs of the American Association. Smith played for the SaltDogs before. In 2011…
When the Portland Beavers left Portland for Spokane at the end of the 1972 season, ex minor leaguer and tv actor Bing Russell, father of Kurt Russell, jumped in with an independent team. This was not a coincidence. Russell starred for years in the TV series Bonanza, which was cancelled in 1972. The team joined…
The baseball off season is a time for teams to rebrand. I mentioned the rebranding of several Minor League clubs already (Oklahoma City, South Bend, Daytona, Biloxi and San Antonio). Yesterday another Minor League club unveiled a new look: The Pawtucket Red Sox, AAA affiliate of the Beantown ballclub. Here is a broad variety of…
It starts to look like a trend. Parent clubs naming their farm teams after themselves. Instead of keeping the old name that the team had during the liaison with the Arizona Diamondbacks (Sout Bend SilverHawks), the new parent opted for the name Cubs. The Cubs have named more teams after themselves. Until last season, they…
After my rant about the far from original name of the new LA Dodgers AAA team in Oklahoma City, I read some relieving news about the new Florida State League (A-Advanced) team of the Cincinnati Reds. The new member of the Reds family will be called Daytona Tortugas. For those who do not speak Spanish…
As soon as the news was spread around that the owner group of the Dodgers had bought the Oklahoma City RedHawks, I had a hunch that the team (the RedHawks) would adopt the parent club’s identity somehow. Until this off season, most Dodgers farm teams adapted their parent’s identity more or less. The Chattanooga Lookouts…
