Pirates' Morgantown affiliate selects team name finalists

MorgantownProBaseball.com has selected the 10 finalists for the name of Morgantown's new team, and you can vote for your favorite through next Friday. Here they are:

Black Bears
Black Diamonds
Canaries
Coal Kings
Coal Sox
Energy
Moonshiners
Muskets
Wild Ones
Wonder

I'm a little surprised that none of the names emphasize a connection to the Pirates, since I would think that would be one of the team's key selling points.

I'm not a fan of any of the (five!) coal-themed names, and they'd be pretty limited in the team's uniform color choices if they picked one. "Canaries," in particular, is just awful -- canaries were sent into coal mines to see if gases would kill them. "Coal Sox" manages to be both nonsensical and evocative of a baseball team known for cheating.

"Black Bears" is my favorite, even though I as a West Virginian mostly associate that name with good burritos rather than with the animal. "Wonder" is fine. "Wild Ones" isn't bad, either, although it's pretty similar to Wild Things, the name of an independent team that plays 45 minutes north.