Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Braves

Public offers new Gwinnett Braves name: Grasshoppers, greats?

By Matt Kempner
Sept 26, 2016

You’re welcome, Gwinnett Braves.

You wanted a new name for the Minor League baseball team? Locals are offering suggestions. Like the Gwinnett Grasshoppers. The Fireflies. The Groundhogs.

ExploreWe want to get it right because Gwinnett County spent $64 million building a stadium for the Triple-A team. So far, the team has been starved for paying fans.

General manager North Johnson has said he's contemplating dropping the "Braves" name. He said potential fans confused it with the Atlanta Braves, the Major League team the G-Braves are affiliated with. But Johnson struggled coming up with good alternatives.

So I posed the challenge to random people I came upon. They and readers of an earlier column I wrote about the conundrum and my poor name suggestions, sought inspiration from pretty much everything around us.

Really: The Gwinnett Peach Cobblers (thank you, Mery Lynn McCorkle) to the Gwinnett Nasutis (after a former county commissioner who pushed for the stadium) to the Gwinnett Greats (riffing off the “Gwinnett is Great” pronouncement once plastered on water tanks off I-85).

The top suggestion I heard: Keep the Gwinnett Braves.

ExploreCheck out name ideas in this AJC video.

About the Author

Matt Kempner is an award-winning journalist who seeks out intriguing twists about people and subjects beyond what the AJC might typically cover. A former columnist and editor, his past assignments have included business investigations, energy, the economy, entrepreneurs, big business, consumer spending, politics, government and the environment.

Follow Matt Kempner on facebookFollow Matt Kempner on twitter
More Stories

Keep Reading

Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson won the Fielding Bible Award for best defender at his position, taking home the honor for the second straight season and fifth time overall. (Mike Stewart/AP)

Credit: AP

Braves’ Matt Olson wins Fielding Bible Award for first base

Braves' first baseman Matt Olson took home the Fielding Bible Award for the best defender at his position, earning the honor for the fifth time in his career.

Braves’ Matt Olson, Austin Riley named Silver Slugger finalists

Both the first and third baseman have won the hitting award before.

Braves offseason needs: Shortstop and more pitching

A look at what president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos says the team needs.

The Latest

Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson won the Fielding Bible Award for best defender at his position, taking home the honor for the second straight season and fifth time overall. (Mike Stewart/AP)

Credit: AP

Braves’ Matt Olson wins Fielding Bible Award for first base

Braves Report: What even is a manager?

Braves’ Matt Olson, Austin Riley named Silver Slugger finalists

Featured

The renovation of Jekyll Island's Great Dunes golf course includes nine holes designed by Walter Travis in the 1920s for the members of the Jekyll Island Club. Several holes that were part of the original layout where located along the beach and were bulldozed in the 1950s.(Photo by Austin Kaseman)

Credit: Photo by Austin Kaseman

Gilded Age tycoons built Jekyll’s doomed golf course. It’s been resurrected.

Jekyll Island's historic golf course, Great Dunes, was designed by Walter Travis in the Gilded Age. It reopens Nov. 1 on Georgia's coast after a painstaking restoration.

Embattled Fulton judge sued over woman’s ‘illegal’ jailing

While facing possible removal from the bench, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shermela Williams has been sued by a young woman she jailed during a divorce hearing.

KEN SUGIURA

A miserable loss leaves even less reason to believe in Falcons, Morris

Falcons coach Raheem Morris was accountable for the team's failures after a 34-10 loss to Miami, but that isn't enough if this team wants to make the postseason.