Minor league baseball team names tell the stories of towns throughout North America. From amateur collegiate summer leagues all the way through affiliated Triple-A teams, whose players are on the brink of the Major Leagues, nicknames like T-Bones, Crosscutters, RubberDucks, Wingnuts, and Isotopes-to name just a few-are more than just whimsical, catchy brands. They carry significance unique to their local communities. This book explores the stories behind the nicknames of 100 baseball teams based on interviews with front-office personnel who chose the names and the designers who created the logos.

Delve deep into to the grass roots of baseballs—the Minor League—and you’ll find Cannibals, Shoemakers, and Zephyrs! From the Coal Sox Nation to the Texarkana Casketmakers, Root for the Home Team brings you the most oddly original team names and the stories behind them. Root for the Home Team includes profiles of more than 150 teams and lists of hundreds more—plus fun facts, action shots, and team logos. Impress your baseball buddies with your depth of knowledge! Did you know? - The Altoona Curve were dubbed without ever throwing a breaking ball, thanks to local railroad history. - The Wichita Izzies had a fan so fanatical they named the team after him. - The Mudville Nine were named after the fictitious team in the poem “Casey at the Bat.” Root for the Home Team is a unique book any baseball fan will love.

"Red Sox" on title page is represented by the image of red socks.

Professional baseball is full of arcane team names. The Los Angeles Dodgers, for instance, owe their nickname to the trolley tracks that honeycombed Brooklyn in the early 1880s. (Residents were "trolley dodgers.") From the Negro Leagues, there were the Pittsburgh Crawfords (sponsored early by the Crawford Bath House and Recreation Center); from the minors, the Tucson Waddies (slang for cowboy) and, later, the Montgomery Biscuits (for the would-be concessions staple); from overseas, the Adelaide, Australia, Bite (a shark reference but also a pun for bight) and the Bussum, Netherlands, Mr. Cocker HCAW (the sponsoring restaurant chain, followed by the acronym for the official team name, Honkbalclub Allan Weerbaar). This comprehensive reference book explains the nicknames of thousands of major and minor league franchises, Negro League and early independent black clubs, and international teams--from 1869 through 2011.

The Acerra family had sixteen children, including twelve ball-playing boys. It was the 1930s, and many families had lots of kids. But only one had enough to field a baseball team . . . with three on the bench! The Acerras were the longest-playing all-brother team in baseball history. They loved the game, but more important, they cared for and supported each other and stayed together as a team. Nothing life threw their way could stop them. Full of action, drama, and excitement, this never-before-told true story is vividly brought to life by Audrey Vernick’s expert storytelling and Steven Salerno’s stunning vintage-style art.

After the Civil War, the Yankee textile industry began a steady transfer south, bringing with it the tradition of a mill village, usually owned by the mill's owner, where the workers and their families lived. The new game of baseball quickly became a foundation of mill village life. A rich tradition of textile league baseball in South Carolina is here reconstructed from newspaper accounts and interviews with former players and fans. Players such as "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Champ Osteen made their marks as "lintheads" in these semipro leagues. The fierce rivalries between competing mills and the impact of the teams on mill life are recounted. Appendices list club records and rosters for many of the teams from 1880 through 1955.

Providing some surprising and curious historical account of the origins and creation stories for those collective names by which the professional and collegiate actors in game and sport are recognized by faitfhul devotees of same.