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Coming in hot! Hot Tots set to be name of new Minot team

Sean Williams/MDN The Minot Hot Tots will be making their way to Corbett Field as the new Northwoods League team that will have their inaugural season this upcoming summer.

Although community members were an integral part of the naming process, patience had to be displayed as the final votes for the Northwoods League team were being counted. With the list narrowed down to five final names, it was the Hot Tots that won out and will officially be the name of the Northwoods League team occupying Corbett Field this summer and beyond.

Originating from one of the most popular dishes in North Dakota, the Hot Tots name comes from tater tot hot dish. While the team’s name is finalized, the mascot and mascot name are still being ironed out.

Ready to be a part of history, fans and community members made their way to Corbett Field for an event on Thursday night where they were the firsts to see the new team’s name and heard from multiple people associated with the new team.

There were two requirements that the team name needed to fall under and those were bringing people together through food, family, and fun, and it needed to positively resemble the Minot community. Additionally, there were guidelines that needed to be met to ensure that the name was a perfect fit.

“Our team name accomplishes the two requirements and key guidelines used in naming successful baseball brands across the country. Those guidelines are a name that cannot be ignored, a name that appeals to kids, a name that inspires a creative world and creative potential, and it needs to be an underdog. When you add all those components together, there was one name that just made sense,” Monica Blake, the General Manager and Managing Partner of Minot Baseball LLC said.

In addition to the final vote that the community participated in, Blake spent time meeting with the Minot community over the last few weeks, ensuring that Hot Tots would be a good fit and that it made sense.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Minot community from my conversations over the last few weeks, it’s that we are gritty. This is why in our logo design we made our tot someone you don’t want to mess with. This is the gritty underdog,” Blake said.

The logo is vibrant, oozing with the colors of red, blue, and yellow that were pulled from the North Dakota state flag. There is a secondary logo as well, which has the tot standing on a cheesy dish in the shape of home plate, playing into the spot on a baseball diamond referred to as the “dish.”

Even though the Hot Tots are ready to fill up Corbett Field, there are still exciting details that need to be worked out. Up next will be finding a coach, however, this is a process that should be completed as early as mid-November.

“We’ve had a couple of great candidates. We want someone who maybe has Northwoods League experience, but we’ve also talked to people who have Minor League experience as well. There are a couple of front runners currently,” she said.

Along with the announcement of a coach hopefully coming in November, the Northwoods League schedule will be released next month, so it won’t be long before fans can mark their calendars for opening night at Corbett Field this summer.

To stay in the loop, fans can subscribe to the e-newsletter or follow the Minot Hot Tots on Facebook. Any new information or events for the team will be shared through those outlets.

It will be some time before the Hot Tots are cooking up at Corbett Field, but that shouldn’t prevent fans and community members from being excited to be a part of their inaugural season.

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