Questions With IRONPIGPEN: Part IV

Every day, we will ask the IRONPIGPEN questions about the IronPigs or other Phillies prospects. You may already be familiar with him from our counter point series. For more on the IRONPIGPEN himself, please visit his blog, IRONPIGPEN: The Pork Stops Here!

What do you think of the name "IronPigs," the colors and the logo?

IRONPIGPEN: Some people actually think it’s a silly name, but I am very proud of the IronPigs’ name because the steel industry has a prominent place in local history. My brother and I have no direct connection to the local steel industry, which was really headquartered in Bethlehem (Allentown’s twin city), but tons of people in the Lehigh Valley do either directly or indirectly. It’s an excellent choice for the team name because it represents the area so well, its cultural heritage. Plus, we don’t know about you, but we think a pig made out of iron sounds tough. We like the sound of how an IronPig matches up against say, a Mud Hen.

As for the colors, my personal favorite was always a darker / royal blue so I really love the team choices. Furnace Blue, Brick Red, and Cool Grey are the official terms. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are the very first professional sports team to use this combination of colors.

I think our logo is outstanding! The IronPig looks pretty fierce in our estimation, wouldn’t you agree? Plus, the pig is made of iron. We tend to think a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankee would rather not run into the IronPig in dimly-lit back alley.

I think the regular hat the IronPigs wear at home is the bomb, the Furnace Blue with our fierce IronPig logo! The IronPigs wear a red hat with the letters “LV” on the road. On Saturdays at home, the IronPigs wear a certain all-red hat with a pig’s nose and eyes. On Sunday’s at Coca-Cola Park, they wear a red hat with a blue bill that has a big “I” with a pig’s tail.

I like our regular home jersey best as well. White with “IRONPIGS” across the front. The IronPigs wear gray on the road with “LEHIGH VALLEY” and also have a separate jersey each for Saturday and Sunday home games, too. That doesn’t include the special shirts they often wear for promotional nights, but that’s another story…

Didn't fans vote on the name?

IRONPIGPEN: Yes. I believe the team originally asked fans to submit names. The team management then chose eight finalists and put them up for a month-long vote of the general population in the Lehigh Valley. The “IronPigs” name received more than 10,000 votes and was thus declared the winner an new name of the fledgling AAA Lehigh Valley team!