Sarnia's senior baseball team officially has a new name.
After 65 years, the Braves are now known as the Sarnia Brigade, an homage to the rich history of the local First Hussars armed forces unit.
The logo, using the familiar red and blue colours, has the word brigade in stylized script, with a sword underlining it and a maple leaf dotting the "i".
Coach Joel Ainsworth said they've had positive feedback so far.
"It's interesting to read the comments on some of our online threads," said Ainsworth. "There's no shortage of sort of fun names out there when it comes to baseball in the different minor leagues. You have teams like the Scranton Rail Riders and the Richmond Flying Squirrels. But, by and large, the feedback on our new name, the Brigade, has been very encouraging. People understand that it's very much to pay respect and tribute to our local military group."
In January 2021, Baseball Ontario deemed the "Braves" moniker and logo as offensive and asked the club to make a change.
Ainsworth sits on the executive board for the minor baseball teams, and is hopeful they'll take on the Brigade name in the future.
They're known as the Sarnia Minor Baseball Club for the time being.
The Brigade is looking forward to getting back onto the field as soon as possible in defence of their 2019 Ontario championship.