New Orleans will play as a new team this baseball season. The team officially announced that the new name for the New Orleans Zephyrs will be the New Orleans Baby Cakes. This announcement was made on Tuesday afternoon.
In an online “Name The Team” contest, fans submitted more than 3,000 different potential names to replace the Zephyrs. The name Baby Cakes beat out six other finalists including Tailgators, Night Owls, King Cakes, Red Eyes, Po'boys, and Crawfish. At the official ceremony, team General Manager and Senior Vice President Cookie Rojas remarked "We are very excited to see this process come to fruition in just a short time. This journey has been very exciting for all of us in the organization, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to give the fans a team that they can truly relate to and call their own."
However, not everyone has been as welcoming to the name change. Some fans responded with comments such as "How will a father tell his son we're going to see the baby cakes play ball?" or "Now THIS is something worth protesting." Still, others were willing to give the name a try for the 2017 Triple-A baseball season.
The New Orleans baseball franchise will be hitting its 25th season in 2017. The team has been previously referred to as the New Orleans Zephyrs since 1993.
