News-Record.com

When I read this morning that our minor-league baseball team, the Greensboro Bats, is changing its name to the Greensboro Grasshoppers (site not up yet), my first reaction was, "What were they thinking?"

But as I recall, I had the same reaction when the then-Hornets changed their name to the Bats a decade ago, and the name Bats grew on me. Maybe Grasshoppers will as well.

The N&R story indicates that marketing to kids was a significant consideration in the team's decision, so I checked with my kids. My son didn't really care. My daughter, a little older and ever tender-hearted, was much less concerned about what the team's mascot is than about whether the team would continue to employ the person who wore the Bats mascot costume last year.

The answer, it turns out, is no. Travis Trotter, who has portrayed Casey (as well as other teams' mascots), just told me he won't be working for the Grasshoppers next year. He called the decision primarily a personal one: The Bats/Grasshoppers play about 2 1/2 months' worth of home games each year, and "that's a lot of time away from my daughter," who is 2, he says. "I'm away too much as it is."