Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees change their name

After throwing a big party on Wednesday evening, the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees unvieled their new name which will take place effective immediately. Say hello to the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders! Their mascot is none other than a porcupine. Yes, a porcupine. Not very frightening, is it?

Anyway, the SWB conducted a contest to choose their new name and even conducted an online poll to choose the name. However, even though ‘RailRiders’ had the most votes, ‘Porcupines’ was the name that appeared mostly on the ballots.

During the 2012 season the SWB were infamously (and unofficially) known as ‘The Empire State Yankees’ after being out of their beloved PNC Field due to renovations that are set to be completed later this year. The RailRiders will also get a change to their uniforms, black pinstripes instead of the famous blue pinstripes that made the Yankees organization so iconic. The caps will be maroon (for road games) and have the words “SWB” interlocking on the front.

So, I guess it was a good thing that Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano had their jersey’s retired last year. Now no one ever really can wear their jersey’s (and numbers) again.