Leaf Peepers? Thunder Chickens?! Coming to the Minors this year
Benjamin Hill
@BensBizBenjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from his newsletter is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
On Jan. 30, the Hartford Yard Goats announced that they would play a game this season as the Thunder Chickens. One week later the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies unveiled another alternate identity: the Leaf Peepers.
These offseason unveilings are now a matter of course for Minor League Baseball teams as, over the last decade, alternate identities have evolved from curiosities to promo schedule standbys. They generally have a local connection, celebrating food, history, culture and natural surroundings in an irreverent manner. From Steamed Cheeseburgers to Bouncing Pickles to this year’s crop of Thunder Chickens and Leaf Peepers, the Yard Goats have been dedicated practitioners.
"I’m surprised that other sports and other industries haven’t really picked up on this trend just yet, because it’s refreshing for the people who work in your office. It’s refreshing for the fans. It can bring in new fans. When we announced Bouncing Pickles a couple of years ago, when tickets went on sale that was one of the first games that sold out," said Yard Goats general manager Mike Abramson, speaking on The Show Before the Show podcast.
"From a national retail perspective it’s become a commonplace practice, especially in the food and beverage industry," he continued. "You look at popular sodas, candy, snack foods, they are rolling out these seasonal alternate identities all the time. … If somebody loves Skittles, they love the fact that once a year they come out with turkey-flavored Skittles or whatever."
Turkey-flavored Skittles seem unlikely, but Abramson came up with that example because turkeys have recently been on the brain. Though this may be news to you, Thunder Chickens is a slang term for a turkey because (per the Yard Goats press release), "of the loud gobbling sound they make." Connecticut is home to an estimated 35,000 wild turkeys, so there you have it.
"When you’re around [Minor League Baseball] for a long time, when you hear the name you just know," said Abramson. "I think a lot of it is the consonant-vowel combinations. It’s got to be something that really punches, which was the thing we loved about the Yard Goats so many years back. And also just the fact that it’s funny, it’s interesting, you can tell a story with it. But I also think it really works if you have a local tie."
Enter Leaf Peepers, which flips the term on its head by depicting a leaf with bulging eyes. You’re not peeping at the leaf; the leaf is peeping at you.
"Ten million people every year come to New England just to look at the leaves change color. It’s a big deal. That was one of the names that came up, and we thought we’d try to capitalize on it. The logo is a leaf peeping, but we got there in a roundabout way. We started with several iterations of a person with binoculars huddled in bushes and peeping out and it just never seemed catchy enough."
Creating an alternate identity is generally a multi-year process, from brainstorming to designing to receiving the requisite MLB approvals to ordering (and waiting for) merchandise and player uniforms.
"We have a couple of brainstorming sessions each year where we get our full staff together," said Abramson. "Ply them with drinks and food and everybody starts to throw ideas around. … We always start off those conversations by saying there are no bad ideas and there are, in fact, a lot of bad ideas. As the afternoon goes on we start to call out the bad ideas a little more quickly and passionately. But it’s fun. It’s a great team-building exercise and the people you least expect are the ones who come out with the names [that are chosen]."
Given this timeline, be assured that the Yard Goats -- and many other teams across Minor League Baseball -- are currently working on alternate identities for 2026 and beyond.
"It’s a lot of fun," said Abramson. "Everybody loves to come on to the socials and say, 'It’s a cash grab!' and, it is in that we are a for-profit business. When you work in the same sport every year and it’s cyclical, you have to amuse yourself somehow and alternate identities are a great way to do that. It gives you something to feel proud of and work at, to figure out how to market differently."