The Food and Drink Themed Alternate Identities of Minor League Baseball Teams
Syracuse Salt Potatoes, Lake County Fish Fry’s, Hudson Valley Cider Donuts, Utah Dirty Sodas, Jersey Tomatoes, Akron Cream Stick Donuts, Charleston Boiled Peanuts
Growing Up Yankees
Growing up in Canastota, New York, my family was a Yankees, Giants, Knicks household. Though I still wonder why we didn’t root for the upstate-adjacent Buffalo Bills over the Giants. Since living in Seattle for more than a decade I switched allegiance to the Seahawks and the Mariners, but I remain a lifelong Knicks fan (but if the Sonics return to Seattle in 2028 as part of the NBA league expansion I will bring them back into the fold to live in joint fandom custody with my beloved and often heartbreaking Knickerbockers).
But well into my graduate school years I was a dedicated Yankees fan and watched countless games broadcast into my childhood TV room on WPIX. My fanhood also had an even closer Central New York connection as the Syracuse Chiefs1 were the Triple-A farm team for the New York Yankees from 1967-1978, and as young boy I attended two exhibition games when the Yankees came to town in 1976 and 1977.
My father worked the night shift as an airline mechanic at the Syracuse Hancock International Airport, staying a company man through strikes, layoffs, mergers, and rebranding of Mohawk Airlines, Allegheny Airlines, and USAir until he retired). His upside-down hours meant he slept during the day before leaving for work, making him unavailable to attend most extra-curricular activities of mine.
Sometimes he would experience the occasional celebrity sighting at the airport, typically a professional athlete or touring musician and was never shy about approaching them. One day he brought me home an autograph from former Yankee Hall of Famer and longtime Yankees broadcaster Phil “The Scooter” Rizzuto (“To Brad: ‘Holy Cow!’”) in his lunchbox. Another Yankees-related perk was having a colleague of his at JFK send up a steady supply of boxes of REGGIE! bars for me when they first came out in 1978 and weren’t yet readily available upstate. I was a huge Reggie Jackson fan and 44 is still my lucky number.
But when the Yankees came to Syracuse, the whole family—mom, dad, Scott, Vicki, and me—climbed into the Oldsmobile to make the drive to MacArthur Stadium to see the game. While the August 19, 1976 game mostly escapes my memory, a spin through the Syracuse Post-Standard archives reveals that the Yankees won the exhibition game (5-4) and most of big-name starters stayed back in the Bronx, though Manager Billy Martin, Lou Piniella, Ron Guidry, and “Catfish” Hunter made the trip up to Syracuse. Die-hard Yankees fans were none too pleased as Post-Standard columnist Arnie Burdick noted: “Central New York may be ‘Yankee Country,’ but no romance can continue to exist if the love only flows in one direction.”
But the Yankees returned in style in 1977 when the played the Chiefs on August 8, 1977 (my summer of Star Wars). My family attended once again (General Admission tickets sere $1-$2 while Box Seats were $4). The Yankees came to Syracuse with 60-49 record and in third place in the American League East. They were fresh off a 7-1 win against the Seattle Mariners, but they brought back some of that Seattle weather with them from the Kingdome as a downpour sparked a rain-delay and a potential cancelation loomed over their match-up against the Syracuse Chiefs.
Most of the Yankees spent the rain delay at nearby Twin Trees Too! for pizza and “many Miller Lites” as young autograph seekers gathered outside hoping to have Reggie Jackson or Thurman Munson sign their ball. The pizzeria shared some memories of that day, including accidentally hanging up on Billy Martin three times as the Yankees Manager attempted to order pizzas to the locker room after the game.
This was a season of infighting and internal strife amongst the Yankees players, management, and media. And beyond keeping the Yankees happy with pizza and beer, Syracuse restaurateur Don Ross, Sr. played a key role in “Shavegate.”
Ross was tight with many players and a good friend of catcher and team captain Thurman Munson who, in stubborn defiance of team owner George Steinbrenner’s no facial-hair policy was sporting an 11-day-old beard. To convince his friend to avoid further conflict with team brass, Ross picked up a disposable razor and shaving cream in the gift shop of the Sheraton Motor Inn and joined Munson, wrapped in a white towel around his waist, in room 302 where he removed the potentially problematic facial hair, leaving only a mustache, which was permitted by the Yankees. Whether Munson was growing the beard as a tactic to get into trouble and possibly traded is uncertain, but Steinbrenner claimed not to have even noticed Munson’s so-called beard.
“In much less time than it took to cultivate the growth, the beard was gone and only Thurman’s dark‐blond mustache and chubby cheeks remained,” reported The New York Times.
In those glorious analogue days of my youth before iPhone cameras and ball players charging for autographs I wedged my way into the crowd of autograph-seekers behind the Yankees dugout and somehow left with a baseball signed by Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, “Catfish” Hunter, Greg Nettles, Lou Piniella, Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, and Bucky Dent. Somehow, sadly, that prized baseball disappeared from the BTP archives.
The Yankees were throttled by the Chiefs 14-5. It would be their last time playing in Syracuse (the Chiefs would become the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays the following year), but the Yankees went on that October to win the East and take down the Los Angles Dodgers in the World Series, winning back to back against LA the following year in 1978.
A year later on August 2, 1979, Yankees captain and catcher Thurman Munson died in a plane crash at age 32 while practicing landing approaches in his private Cessna Citation jet at Ohio’s Akron-Canton Airport. Steinbrenner immediately retired his number, 15.
Play Ball!
Another season of Major League Baseball is about to begin, with the Yankees taking on the Giants tonight and Opening Day to follow tomorrow on Thursday, March 26, with 11 games scheduled.
Last summer and fall I got pretty invested in the Seattle Mariners’ playoff run and yet they still remain the only MLB team in modern history to have never appeared in a World Series. Despite being an old head who still pays for cable and streaming services, MLB has made actually watching games on TV a near-impossible and costly endeavor unless you subscribe to MLB.TV for $149.99 a year, and then still have your local games blacked out. I can catch a game on TV when the Mariners are playing my local teams, the Mets or Yankees, and will continue to cruise the streaming apps to note any upcoming games shown on Peacock or Apple TV.
When I lived in Seattle one of my Amazon offices was about a foul ball away from Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) and I used to get to see a lot of Mariners games, even popping in for a few innings during a day game. While Safeco had a diverse and varied selection of vendors, I loved that the ballpark let you bring in outside food and I would pick up a bag of kettle corn and a bratwurst with yellow mustard wrapped in tinfoil from the vendor’s row outside the stadium.
I do still regret not taking my friend Chris Elford up on his kind offer to take me to a Mariners game when I was in town last fall but it was my only free night between events. While I don’t travel as much as I would like to these days, when I do, and when I’m in a city with an MLB team, I started a habit of visiting the stadium gift shop to buy an on-field fitted ball cap (7-3/4), no matter whether I have any allegiance to the respective team.
Since I was a kid I’ll admit that beyond my truly favorite teams, I often liked certain ball clubs by simply being drawn to the logos and colorways. To this day, there’s something about the iconic curvy old-school “P” on a Phillies cap, the austere white “KC” lettering against the Kansas City Royals’ royal blue, the ball and mitt “M” of the Milwaukee Brewers, and the striking profile of the namesake Toronto Blue Jay. With my beloved Mariners, the hat in my collection that always gets the most admiring comments is my retro upside-down trident “M” hat that was used from 1981-1986.
The last time I was back home I picked up a Syracuse Mets (the current name of their MiLB Triple-A club) cap but also noticed they had a Syracuse Salt Potatoes cap featuring an angry-looking salt potato (a popular regional dish of Salt City) with fork in hand and slathered with melted butter. I have no defense for why I did not also buy this cap for my collection, but I am going to correct that this season.
The MiLB already has a rich history of quirky team names that spotlight everything from animals (Palm Beach Frozen Iguanas, Rocket City Trash Pandas, Richmond Flying Squirrels, Hartford Yard Goats) to weather phenomena (Louisville Humidity, Tri-City Dust Devils, Wichita Wind Surge, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes), but until recently I wasn’t familiar with the tradition of MiLB teams’ “alternate identities.”
This now-established promotional strategy by the league temporarily switches up team names, logos, uniforms, and even mascots on specific dates throughout the season to spotlight and celebrate something notable or unique to their city or region. This could be a historical figure, a local landmark, or regional foodways. You had me at regional foodways…
These games also feature special promotions and community engagement along with limited-edition custom merchandise like hats, jerseys, and t-shirts for fans. Also part of the season-long MiLB initiative is the Copa de la Diversión (”Fun Cup”), which helps to strengthen ties with local Hispanic and Latino communities through custom team identities along with food, music, and in-game entertainment.
When the Lake Country DockHounds revealed that this season from July 7 through July 9 they would become the Wisconsin Dive Bars (complete with a bar dice mascot named Bart Tabs) I got fully on board. In their announcement they shared they celebrated the unique spirit of the dive bar:
In Wisconsin, dive bars aren’t just places you stop for a drink—they’re part of who we are. They’re where stories get told, friendships are made, pull tabs are pulled, and neon lights glow a little brighter after a long day. From small-town corners to lake country staples, dive bars have helped shape the culture that makes our state one-of-a-kind.
This MiLB alternate identity universe revealed a buffet of even more food- and drink-focused temporary team names filled with anthropomorphic oddities that will be taking the field this season that sent me down a Triple-A K-hole. Read on for my starting lineup of new and returning alternate teams inspired by regional foodways and local drinking culture.
MiLB Opening Day kicks off with Triple-A teams opening on Friday, March 28, followed by Double-A, High-A, and Low-A leagues on Friday, April 4.
Play Ball!
Some of My Favorite Food and Drink Themed New and Returning 2026 MiLB Alternate Identies
Syracuse Salt Potatoes
Official Team Name: Syracuse Mets (Syracuse, New York)
MLB Affiliate: New York Mets, Triple-A | Stadium: NBT Bank Stadium
Of course our first pitch spotlights my hometown Triple-A team alternate identity, the Syracuse Salt Potatoes, which came about in 2017 based on results from a fan-driven “What-If Night” promotion. Salt potatoes, one of my favorite Central New York regional dishes and a summer mainstay at barbecues and fairs, are small baby potatoes boiled in heavily salted water resulting in a tender potato coated in a salty crust served or alongside melted butter. Dates haven’t been announced for the Salt Potatoes debut this season but it’s typically in August, often agains their rivals, the Rochester Plates. The Syracuse Mets themselves are currently going through a new name rebranding based on fan submissions that will be revealed this fall with “Salt Potatoes” leading the way.