The Long Beach Baseball Club, the city’s new minor league team, officially has a new name: Long Beach Coast.
The selection, which included a public vote that concluded in October, beat out the Regulators and the Parrots.
Well, sort of.
In a statement, team management said they will use Long Beach Regulators as an “alter ego” that “taps into Long Beach’s legendary ‘90s hip-hop roots.”
Warren G, known for his chart-topping single “Regulate,” is part-owner of the team and explained the plan in a video: “Each week, what we’re going to do is the Coast is going to change the name and come out as the Long Beach Regulators,” he said.
A team spokesperson said the Regulators name “will appear through select in-ballpark experiences, special activations, creative storytelling and limited merchandise drops.”
Team president Ena Patel said the combination of names “gives us room to explore different aesthetics and push the boundaries of what a baseball brand can look and feel like.”
Long Beach Coast will play in the 11-team Pioneer Baseball League, an independent professional league founded in 1939. They will face off against teams like the Oakland Ballers, Modesto Roadster and Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers, among others.
Team officials said 4,862 people cast votes for Long Beach’s team name, submitting votes online from 34 states and at physical ballot boxes at eight locations across the city. They did not say how many votes each naming option received.
Long Beach Coast has fleshed out its coaching staff with notable local names from the sport. Former MLB relief pitcher Troy Percival was hired as manager, with former MLB third baseman Troy Glaus as assistant coach.
Both were four-time All-Stars and spent significant time with the Anaheim Angels.
Glaus and Percival played key roles on an Angels team that won the 2002 World Series, the team’s last World Series victory.
Longtime MLB starting pitcher Jerome Williams was also hired as an assistant coach.
The team held tryouts last month, with Ryan Culinane from Laguna Niguel and Mauricio Aguilar from Pomona earning spring training invites.
Long Beach Coast aims to play its inaugural season at Blair Field this year, team officials said.
Paul Freedman, one of the team’s founders, previously told the Long Beach Post that the club’s owners have compiled a list of preferred improvements for the stadium that they hope to have completed ahead of opening day.
Long Beach Coast’s inaugural season will kick off May 19, but the team won’t play its first home game until June 2, after the conclusion of Cal State Long Beach’s baseball schedule.