The new name for Waco's professional baseball team has been narrowed down to five possibilities but after a word from experts, it might be down to four.
The Southwest League of Professional Baseball announced in August that after 70 years, professional baseball is finally coming back to Central Texas.
Wacoans were asked to make suggestions on what they think the new mascot should be and after a couple months, the list was narrowed down to five options; Peppers, BlueCats (as in Blue Catfish), Grackles, Mammoths, and Woolies (short for Woolly Mammoths).
Raegan King, the site manager at the Waco Mammoth National Monument, said one of those names might not be entirely accurate.
"Waco Woolies...it doesn't quite fit. Wooly Mammoths lived where it is cold and these guys are in Siberia and Alaska," said King. "Columbian Mammoths lived in Texas so Waco has Columbian Mammoths, not the hairy guys."
The National Park is concerned about the future name of the team and so they went to Facebook to try to encourage followers to vote against the Woolly name and ensure anything associated with Waco or the mammoth site is done correctly.
"It would be like naming the University of Texas -- the giraffes. Not the longhorns. We have longhorns in Texas, we have giraffes way on a different continent," King said.
Stan Hough, the vice president of Waco Sports and Entertainment, said it's important for the new team name to be accurate.
"The name of the team is going to be factual, let's put it that way, okay? And I understand that. But that wasn't coming from us, that was coming from submissions from people in the area," said Hough.
While both sides find this issue funny, they think the debate over the team name can only be a good thing.
There is still a week and a half left to vote for the team name and whatever is chosen, the Parks Service hopes it will be historically and factually correct to avoid a mammoth sized problem.
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