Salt Lake City's professional baseball team is now officially named the Bees for the fifth time in history. Team owner Larry H. Miller — decked out in a full, brand-new Salt Lake Bees uniform — made the announcement Thursday afternoon at Franklin Covey Stadium.
"It's a name that always seemed to fit — the Salt Lake Bees," said Miller, who grew up watching a team with that same name at the same location, back when the ballpark at the corner of West Temple and 1300 South was called Derks Field.
The name Bees was first used for Salt Lake's baseball team back in 1915 when it became a Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Until Thursday, the last time a Salt Lake team had the Bees nickname was in 1969.
When Joe Buzas brought Triple-A baseball back to Utah more than a decade ago, there was talk of calling the team the Bees. But a minor league franchise in Iowa already had the name and the new team was dubbed the Buzz instead. After several years of fighting and court cases — it turned out that Georgia Tech University already had a the trademark for "Buzz" and didn't like the Utah baseball team's use of the name — the team was renamed the Stingers.
But when Miller purchased the team prior to last season, the team's general manager, Marc Amicone, went out to try to regain the Bees nickname.
This time — thanks in part to Burlington, Iowa's, close proximity to Nauvoo, Ill. — the franchise was given permission to become the Bees.
Burlington's team is also still named the Bees, but they allowed Miller's team to share the name if he would publish an ad in the Salt Lake team's program advertising the Burlington Bees to fans who might travel to the early Mormon headquarters in Nauvoo.
"So, if you go over to Nauvoo," said Miller, "drive over and watch the Bees play because they were nice folks."
The Bees will return to its classic logo and colors of black and gold. The
Bees home uniform is white with gold trim with "Bees" across the front in vintage black letters with a gold shadow. The road uniform is gray with gold trim and "Salt Lake" across the front with black letters and a gold shadow.
The team will also have an alternate black top with gold trim with "Bees" across the front that can either be worn at home or on the road with either the gray or white pants.
On hand for Thursday's announcement were Gov. Jon H. Huntsman Jr. and local baseball legends Herman Franks and Vernon Law in addition to former Jazz coach and executive Frank Layden. Modeling the new gear were Zach Sorensen, a Highland High graduate who played last season with both the Stingers and the parent Los Angeles Angels, and last year's Stingers manager, Dino Ebel.
The Bees will continue to be the top affiliate of the Angels.
Miller, as is often the case at press conferences, got a bit teary-eyed and waxed a bit nostalgic.
"There is something about baseball that, to me at least, seems to make the world right when things get off-kilter a little bit," he said.
"The Bees are back in the beehive," said Huntsman.
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com