MountainStar Sports Group unveiled today at the Plaza Theater the name for the Triple-A baseball team in El Paso, which will be called the El Paso Chihuahuas.
Chihuahuas beat out other finalists such as the Aardvarks, Buckaroos, Desert Gators and Sun Dogs. The announcement of the team name had a mostly positive reaction of the crowd at the event, and everyone involved with the team liked the name.
“I think everyone is going to love it,” said Paul Foster, owner of MountainStar Sports Group. “It took me a day or two to like it, but I really do and I think it identifies the region and identifies the personality of El Paso, we are in the Chihuahuan Desert and we border the state of Chihuahua.”
President of MountainStar, Alan Ledford, said that he was pleased with the participation and the creativity of the city in the contest and emphasized that part of the purpose behind the name was to attract a young audience.
“I love it and one of the encouraging signs is the reaction of the kids and that is what it is all about,” Ledford said. “(The team name) Is subjective, there is no right or wrong. We ultimately chose the Chihuahuas because it represented the region in terms of the El Paso fans being very loyal.”
The El Paso Chihuahuas will have their first game in April of next year and despite some of the feared negativity of picking the Chihuahuas, Foster said that it will only take some time for the community to embrace it.
“I was surprised by the negative reaction, but I think that just in the next few weeks people will be wearing their hats and start to get into it,” Foster said. “We are trying to accomplish something that the kids will embrace, and that people are able to identify with our city and our ballpark.”
Despite the positive feelings from MountainStar Sports Group, many people have already expressed their dislike for the team name; Deadspin.com wrote a story mocking the city for the choice of name.
Also, some people have already began a petition in change.org to ask MountainStar to change the name.The petition already has over 3,000 supporters.
The Triple-A team has faced a lot of scrutiny ever since the conception of the idea, but MountainStar’s sole focus is to assure the success of the team and nothing else.
“We weren’t trying to find something that was going to please everybody because that is impossible,” said General Manager Brad Taylor. “A week and a half ago we had some teasers of the eyes and we had the city talking about it for nine to 10 days, which tells us how much the community is supporting it.”
Taylor also hinted that many more things await baseball fans of El Paso before the start of the new season.
“You are still are going to see a lot of things from this point until opening day,” Taylor said. “Obviously we are going to want to share what our uniforms look like, we are going to get a mascot at some point, so there is definitely other exciting things coming for us.”
Broadcaster Tim Haggerty who was the voice of the Tucson Padres will now have the same responsibility with the Chihuahuas.
“I’m thrilled to be here, El Paso is very excited for this team to come, we know the team and the logo now, so it’s a great feeling to be broadcasting for El Paso,” Haggerty said. “The most fun games are those with the stands full and you can hear the reaction of the crowd, I cant wait for opening day.”
El Paso Chihuahuas will open their inaugural season in Reno, Nev., on April 3, 2014, and will host its very first game in Downtown El Paso on April 11, against the Reno Aces.
Edwin Delgado may be reached at [email protected].
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