‘Saskatoon Berries’ unveiled as name for new baseball club

Saskatoon’s Baseball Club settled on a new team name Thursday after a tight voting race over the last few weeks.

The team will be called the Saskatoon Berries — the team’s Twitter page teasing the name by changing its profile picture to a Saskatoon berry before the official announcement.

The team also added the caption “here for a Berry good time” underneath the official name “Saskatoon Berries Baseball.”

Voting closed on Tuesday, closing with more than 2,000 individuals participating in the balloting process.

Club president Steve Hildebrand said the final battle was between the Berries and the Saskatoon River Pirates.

“There’s a lot of cool things that we can do with it and it’s uniquely Saskatoon. That’s what we like about it,” Hildebrand said.

Other names on the ballot were the Saskatoon Bridge Pigeons and the Saskatoon Cobra Chickens.

Potential logos were designed throughout the race, but the official logo for the team has not been released yet.

Hildebrand said the marketing team is already getting to work on colors and is hoping to announce a finalized logo for the Berries by the end of July.

This is the first step for the team moving forward in the Western Canadian Baseball League as an organization.

Hildebrand said a void was created with the departure of Saskatoon’s previous team, the Yellow Jackets.

“We knew there was need for that level of baseball in Saskatoon.”

Hildebrand said there will be about a dozen teams in the WCBL, noting Saskatoon will be able to pit itself against Weyburn, Regina, Moose Jaw and Swift Current.

“We’re really looking forward to starting next spring.”

The team also announced the hiring of a head coach, Joe Carnahan, last week, noting he had over 20 years of involvement in the WCBL.

— with files from Global News’ Brody Langager