(It should be noted that the comment section of every post related to the team name was flooded with demands that it be the Regulators in honor of Long Beach rap legend and team co-owner Warren G<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcf8<\/p>\n Brandon Richardson is an editor, photographer and reporter for the Watchdog. If this work is important to you, please thank him.<\/p>\n During his event, Richardson had three hats sitting on a table, each with branding for the three finalists. One by one, he showed them off, saying the name: the Parrots and the Coast were met with yells of \u201cno!\u201d while the crowd responded to Regulators with raucous applause and cheers.<\/p>\n The lights dimmed and a video announcement was played. After hearing the team would be both the Coast and Regulators, the audience mustered some lackluster clapping \u2014 hardly the rally cry for the Regulators moments before.<\/p>\n Social media comment sections were unforgiving to the dual name decision \u2014 and not short on puns.<\/p>\n \u201cSeason hasn\u2019t even started, and already a swing and a miss,\u201d one commenter wrote under one of the team’s Instagram posts.<\/p>\n In fact, four posts by the team about the name generated nearly 500 comments over two days \u2014 an impressive figure considering the team is relatively new to social media and has fewer than 6,000 followers on the social media app.<\/p>\n \u201cMight as well spelled Coast with a \u2018K\u2019 cuz yall def struck out on this one,\u201d another commenter wrote. The letter K is used in baseball to represent a strikeout.<\/p>\n Another commenter said, \u201cWe\u2019re not mad, just disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cName sucks but this logo is pretty nice,\u201d one commenter said, adding a little positivity to the thread. (The logo was designed by local artist Francisco Reyes Jr. aka Never Made<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Redditors also did not hold back, with one person saying the name is too \u201cgeneric,\u201d while another said \u201cRegulators\u201d must have sounded too \u201curban\u201d and wouldn\u2019t have made \u201cyt people\u201d happy.<\/p>\n \u201cLong Beach always has an identity crisis nothing new here lol,\u201d someone wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf \u2018The Coast\u2019 best represents the community, the community would have chose it. They are literally telling the community they are wrong,\u201d local record store Toxic Toast posted on reddit<\/a>. \u201cIt’s about LONG BEACH identity. Anyone that hears \u2018regulators\u2019 is immediately associating it with Long Beach. We are proud of our musicians, everyone in the city knows those names.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLegit why have a vote, if you aren\u2019t going to go with the popular opinion and the vote winner?\u201d another redditor asked<\/a>.<\/p>\n To its credit, the team responded to the backlash, posting a statement to its Instagram stories explaining its decision.<\/p>\n \u201cThe naming contest was always meant to be one of many factors in choosing our name, and we should have done a better job making that clear from the start,\u201d the post read. \u201cWe made a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe names Regulators, Coast, and Parrots saw the most support, hands down,\u201d the post continued. \u201cThat’s why all three are going to be a part of your team, Long Beach. This team is still being built in real time. With you weighing in. With us listening.\u201d<\/p>\n It is unclear what plans the team has to incorporate a third name with the Parrots.<\/p>\n In the club\u2019s defense, teams having an alter ego is not a new concept for minor league baseball. The first team to take the field under a name other than its traditional identity was the Fresno Grizzlies, which in 2015 played a game as the Tacos, a tradition it maintains today, according to sports writer Benjamin Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is now an established Minor League Baseball promotional strategy, as teams across the country regularly assume alternate identities in lieu of their day-to-day primary identities,\u201d Hill wrote this week<\/a>, completely unrelated to the Long Beach announcement. \u201cThese alternate identities often have a local connection, with teams celebrating their region’s culinary specialties, cultural touchstones, geography, industries, notable residents and more.\u201d<\/p>\n This season, the Palm Beach Cardinals will play 12 games as the Frozen Iguanas. The Pansacola Blue Wahoos as the Sky Jockeys. The Winston-Salem Dash as the Carolina Reapers. The Worcester Red Sox as the Pawtucket Hot Wieners. The Somerset Patriots, believe it or not, will play multiple games as the Semiquincentennials in honor of the U.S. turning 250 years old.<\/p>\n Alter egos aren\u2019t even new to Long Beach \u2014 and that history began decades before minor league teams made it a norm.<\/p>\n At Long Beach State, the teams are all officially known simply as Beach (previously the 49ers). But back in 1989, under the leadership of head coach Dave Snow and infield coach Dave Malpass, the baseball team developed its own brand<\/a>: the Dirtbags.<\/p>\n Over time, the new moniker stuck<\/a>. Though not an alter ego in the same sense as the Coast-Regulators and other minor league teams, it is technically not the university\u2019s baseball team name, despite players regularly donning Dirtbags uniforms.<\/p>\n All that to say the new pro team is not without precedent in its decision to choose two names.<\/p>\n With the names made public, the team has dropped a small line of Coast merch<\/a>, including hats and T-shirts. No Regulators merch has been released but the team promises it\u2019s on the way.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/lbc-coast-brand-launch-v1-feed-1350x1080-3b-copy-2.jpg\")
The Long Beach Coast logo, designed by Never Made. Courtesy of the Long Beach Coast.<\/p>\n