Morgantown's new Pirates affiliate to be named Black Bears

Morgantown's new minor league team, which will replace Jamestown as the New York - Penn League's Pirates affiliate next year, has announced that it will be named the Black Bears. You can follow the team on Twitter here.

The team had previously announced ten finalists, many of them forced references to the coal industry. ("Coal Sox"? "Canaries"? Really?) "Black Bears" was probably the best choice -- it's simple and striking, and the black bear is West Virginia's state animal. The name also avoids the somewhat awkward non-plural construction of "Energy" and "Wonder," two of the other choices. "Black Bear" is also the name of a really good burrito place that has a couple locations in Morgantown, and residents probably associate the Black Bear name with that more than anything else. Which is fine with me.

The team will play in a new ballpark that will also host WVU's baseball team. Morgantown is only 75 minutes from Pittsburgh, so fans in Pittsburgh (not to mention points further south, like Canonsburg and Washington) will have an easy trip to see recent Pirates draftees.

UPDATE: In the comments, JonDodd notices I detail I'd missed: the team will be named the West Virginia Black Bears. That means the Pirates will have two minor league teams that list their location as West Virginia, even though they're in different cities. (The West Virginia Power is in Charleston.) That's a little confusing, but we'll get over it.