On This Date in Local Sports History: May 17, 2016 … Timber Jockeys? Stud Muffins?

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.