South Atlantic League (baseball) - Greensboro
Grasshoppers
Greensboro Grasshoppers Unveil New Name, Logo
Greensboro catches the baseball bug
Bill Hass, Staff Writer
 GREENSBORO
- With a crack of the Bats, the city’s minor-league
baseball team turns into the Greensboro Grasshoppers
today.
"We wanted something we thought was a fun name and
would easily transfer to uniforms and merchandise," said
Donald Moore, the club’s president.
The nickname change coincides with the franchise’s
move into a new downtown stadium for the 2005 season.
When the team plays an exhibition game against Major
League Baseball’s Florida Marlins on April 2, it will
show off the new green-and-orange color scheme in its
logos and uniforms.
The Grasshoppers will be the eighth nickname in the
history of professional baseball here. In 78 seasons,
dating to 1902, Greensboro teams have been known as the
Farmers, Champs, Patriots, Red Sox, Yankees, Hornets
and, for the past 11 years, Bats.
Moore is aware the new name might receive mixed
reviews, at least initially.
"I’m excited and nervous," he said. "We want people
to like what we do. Some people will think it’s a great
choice; some people will think we’ve lost our minds.
"It’s more than just the name. It’s about the color
scheme, the logo and incorporating all that together. I
think it’s a good combination. Time will tell."
Although the Marlins, Greensboro’s parent club, had
no input in the name selection, they like the choice.
"It’s definitely something different," said the
Marlins vice president, Jim Fleming. "It will be nice to
have a new image in a new stadium."
Moore and his staff started with a list of 28 names
several months ago. The suggestions ranged from Dingers,
Dirtbags and Bricklayers to Tree Frogs and Pinesaps.
The Greensboro Revolution received serious
consideration, but Moore said it was rejected because
some people might put a negative spin on the word.
Patriots, the team nickname in 35 seasons, also drew
support. It was turned down, in part, because the team
wanted something other than a red, white and blue color
scheme that would have been logical with that name.
"When you’re in a city named Greensboro, green should
be the primary color," Moore said. "Then it was a matter
of deciding what looks good with it.
"Green and gold has been done before (in 1979 when
the team was called the Hornets) and with those you tend
to think of the Oakland A’s. Orange looks good with
green, and no one in the major leagues has those
colors."
Two colleges that use the green-and-orange scheme are
Miami and Florida A&M.
Eventually, the staff settled on Grasshoppers as the
nickname and received approval from the team’s majority
owners.
Moore said the allure of the insect was based on a
few similarities with baseball:
- It’s a game that’s played on grass.
- Baseball jargon includes the terms "one-hopper"
and "bad hop."
- The grasshopper is a creature that, when picked
up, spits a liquid most people call tobacco juice.
"A grasshopper can leap 20 times the length of its
body," Moore said, "so it’s an amazing insect. And we
want to be a team that does amazing things."
There are numerous mascot possibilities that should
appeal to youngsters, Moore added. The old team had
Casey the Bat and Missy the Mosquito, but the new one
might have a family of a half-dozen or so grasshoppers
and other critters.
Merchandising played an important part in the
decision. The Bats sold about $80,000 in team
merchandise this season.
As the Grasshoppers in 2005, Moore said, "our goal is
to sell half-a-million dollars in merchandising, and we
think we will."
Of the top 25 minor-league teams in licensed
merchandise sales for the calendar year 2003, most have
unique nicknames. They include the Aberdeen Ironbirds,
Albuquerque Isotopes, Altoona Curve, Carolina Mudcats,
Frisco RoughRiders, Lakewood BlueClaws and Wilmington
Blue Rocks.
The new stadium will have a store of about 2,500
square feet just to the left of the main entrance to
attract fans entering and leaving. At Memorial Stadium,
merchandise was crammed into a space of 300 square feet.
In addition, the Grasshoppers have reached an
agreement with the Omega Sports retail chain to carry
team merchandise.
Items also will be available online on the team’s new
Web site,
www.gsohoppers.com, which becomes operational today.
T-shirts, golf shirts, hats and a few other items are
available from the current team offices at Memorial
Stadium.
Contact Bill Hass at 373-7047 or
bhass@news-record.com
This article was taken from
www.gotriad.com. All rights
reserved.
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