Name revealed for Chatham-Kent’s new interleague baseball team
Chatham-Kent’s new interleague baseball team has revealed its name after a community wide team naming contest wrapped up last week.
The team has been named the Chatham-Kent Blackbirds.
The management team, led by team owner and president Dom Dinelle, made the announcement on Friday morning at the Red Barn Brewing Company in Blenheim following a community-wide online contest.
“We are thrilled with the outpouring of support and love from the community,” said Dinelle. “The involvement of the entire municipality is so important to us. We want this to be a team for the whole community of C-K. We now have an identity. And now the real work begins.”
Chatham-Kent Blackbirds. (Source: Chatham-Kent IBL Baseball/Facebook)
Inter-County Baseball League (IBL) officials say there were over 600 submissions with more than 400 names suggested.
The five finalists on the list were revealed as North Stars, Legends, Wheat Kings, Field Kings and Blackbirds.
Team officials say the Blackbirds concept was adopted by the club in relation to the popularity of the birds throughout Chatham-Kent and following an overwhelming number of “Crow” related entries in the online contest.
Management says they believe the name will aid in creating a fun and family-friendly atmosphere, while allowing for multiple options on the marketing front, with respect to logos, uniforms, a team mascot and more.
The first game for the newly named team isn’t scheduled until May 2024.
Last November, Chatham-Kent council unanimously approved a five-year deal to support the ninth team in the league.
MLB Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins will be honorary president, with fellow Chatham native and former MLB pitcher Bill Atkinson taking on an ambassador role.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.