Pensacola Blue Wahoos

The Pensacola Blue Wahoos are a minor league baseball team based in Pensacola, Florida. The team plays in the Southern League and are the Class Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds Major League Baseball team. They play their home games at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. The team, formerly the Southern League version of the Carolina Mudcats, began play in Pensacola in the 2012 season.

History

The franchise was founded in 1959 as the Charleston White Sox of the South Atlantic League (now the Southern League); it subsequently moved several times, playing in Charleston, South Carolina (1959–1961), Savannah, Georgia (1962), Lynchburg, Virginia (1963–1965), and Evansville, Indiana, (1966–1968), before moving to Columbus, Georgia in 1969 to play in Golden Park. The team was known as the Columbus Astros from 1970 to 1988, when it became an affiliate of the Houston Astros. Following the 1988 season, new owner Steve Bryant held a contest among season ticket holders to rename the team, and as a result, in 1989 the team became the Columbus Mudcats. In 1991, Bryant moved the club to Zebulon, North Carolina and renamed them the Carolina Mudcats.

In Zebulon the team played in Five County Stadium and won Southern League championships in 1995 and 1996. In 2010 Quint Studer, owner of the Pensacola Pelicans independent baseball team, acquired the Mudcats franchise in a complicated series of moves and purchases designed to bring affiliated Double-A baseball to Pensacola. First, he sold the Pelicans to a group in Amarillo, Texas, where they became the Amarillo Sox in 2011. General manager of the Pelicans, J. C. Evers, provided the success that would prove Pensacola a viable minor league town. Studor then bought the Carolina Mudcats franchise. However, to settle this purchase, he had to facilitate the move of the Kinston Indians to Zebulon, where they assumed the Carolina Mudcats name and branding. Additionally, as Pensacola is within the franchise territory of the Mobile Bay Bears, Studer paid that team a sum. The arrangements cost a total of $2 million.

The Blue Wahoos nickname was decided in a fan contest run by Wendy's in conjunction with the Pensacola News Journal. Their team colors are Neon red, Gulf Coast royal, Blue Angel navy, and Tin Roof tin. It was officially announced on May 23, followed by the logo and colors on November 18.

Following the inaugural season that saw Billy Hamilton break the all-time professional baseball single season stolen base record, the team was named the Southern League's Organization of the Year.