Yuba-Sutter no longer: Sox tag Marysville

Ever since that summer day in Humboldt, the idea to change the Gold Sox's name resonated in the back of Tom Lininger's head.

It was 2007 and the local baseball team's new managing general partner had made the trip North to watch his team take on the Humboldt Crabs, whose fans kept asking him the same question.

"Several people asked where Yuba-Sutter is," he said.

That question of "where" is what prompted the owners of the team to change the club's name from the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox to the Marysville Gold Sox, a decision Lininger made public Tuesday and later spoke on at the Marysville City Council Meeting.

To have a city instead of a general area as part of the team's moniker will help with outside recognition, something that is paramount for a team that competes in the Horizon Air Summer Series, Lininger said.

The collegiate wood bat league that plays its games over the summer features teams from Nevada, Oregon, Washington as well as up and down the Golden State. And when teams like the Crabs, or the Seattle Studs head to All Season's RV Stadium, they and their fans will know their team is taking the field in Marysville.

"If there was one main reason," Lininger said about the change. "It would be to identify where Marysville is aside from Yuba-Sutter."

Lininger also said the change was to pay respect to Marysville, a city that took on the burden of building All-Seasons RV Stadium and even helped keep the team afloat after the turn of the century.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, the team unveiled the new team logo, which remains all but unchanged except for replacing Yuba-Sutter with Marysville.

With the new logo, the team will have to replace various signs and other items, though the switch shouldn't be too much of a financial burden, said Lininger, who estimates the name-switch will cost about "$5,000 to $10,000."