Watch out, world. There’s a new ridiculous minor league team in town.
The New Orleans Zephyrs, the Miami Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate, announced Tuesday that they’re re-branding themselves as the New Orleans Baby Cakes. The name was selected by fans from a group of seven finalists that included the Tailgators, Night Owls, King Cakes, Red Eyes, Po’boys and Crawfish.
“Our goal was to give the baseball fans of New Orleans a team and identity they can call their own,” Baby Cakes President Lou Schwechheimer said, via The Times-Picayune. “New Orleans is full of traditions woven into the fabric of the city, and this new tradition will be something local and iconic and celebrate what makes New Orleans and Minor League Baseball so great: family and fun.”
In case you’re unaware of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras traditions, revelers eat colorful king cakes, which contain a small plastic baby figurine. Whoever gets the slice with the baby in it is supposed to bring the king cake to next year’s celebration. The Baby Cakes’ primary logo pays homage to that tradition with a very jacked baby emerging from a king cake with a baseball bat.
Schwechheimer upped the ante by offering lifetime passes to any child born in Louisiana in 2017. One of those children also will get free tuition to a Louisiana university of his or her choice upon turning 18.
The Baby Cakes join the Marlins’ Double-A team, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, who changed their name from the Suns earlier this month. The team name is fine with us, as long as their mascot looks nothing like the New Orleans Pelicans’ terrifying king cake baby.
