Goin' to the Slammer

In case you missed it on the Frontier League's homepage, the new Joliet franchise will be known as the Slammers.

Steel City Baseball officials said the name is a nod to both baseball, as in a grand slam, and Joliet’s history as being the home of the infamous Joliet and Stateville prisons.

“The obvious double entendre posed by the word Slammers was deemed a perfect fit for the team,” general manager John Dittrich said a press release.

Slammers, however, wasn't the most popular nickname suggested in a name-the-team contest. More than 1,000 people submitted suggestions and the most popular name was Jailbirds. The new ownership group decided against it because it drew the most negative feedback.

Also getting the thumbs up from fans was the Joliet Jakes, based on John Belushi's character in the film "The Blues Brothers." The only problem with that name is it's copyrighted.

The Wild Things open their 10th season May 19 at Joliet.