On This Date in Local Sports History: May 17, 2016 … Timber Jockeys? Stud Muffins?
More: Photos: Corning hosts Fast Times Invitational track & field meet
On a dark day that altered the face of local professional baseball, the Double-A Binghamton Mets disclosed six finalists for the nickname the franchise would adopt for the start of the 2017 season. They were:
** Bullheads
** Gobblers
** Rocking Horses
** Rumble Ponies
** Stud Muffins
** Timber Jockeys
Scrapping “Binghamton Mets” - the widely respected name since Eastern League baseball returned to the city in 1992 - was the doing of neophyte team owner and Georgia resident John Hughes. According to Press & Sun-Bulletin archives, at the time he purchased the club Hughes operated Georgia-based The Systems Group, which assisted the Department of Defense in executing military sales to foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia.
As I began a follow-up column:
“And to think, some of us deemed Bearcats a lame, perfectly unimaginative alternative to Colonials when the powers that be on the Parkway presided over its histrionic unveiling in August 1999.
“On Binghamton’s professional baseball front? Why not just make it official and go with Binghamton Laughing Stox?”
The move was predictably mocked by ardent followers of minor league ball hereabouts. A sampling of social media response – the first especially spot-on to the rebranding notion:“How about, ‘The Binghamton We Got Beat Up Every Day After School Because Our Name Was Stupids?’ ”
And another, “Are they going to hold a fan logo-making contest next and accept submissions in crayon?”
Alas, from 2017 to the present, Binghamton’s professional baseball team has been known as the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Rewind to local sports moments from back in the day
