The Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies, an affiliate of the New York Mets within the Japanese League, will play three video games in 2025 because the Southern Tier Spicy Meatballs. The nickname is a tribute to the Italian-American inhabitants in New York’s Southern Tier, a loosely outlined geographic area alongside the state’s border with Pennsylvania. That neighborhood is especially prevalent in Endicott, New York, about 10 miles west of Binghamton, the place immigrants established a thriving Little Italy.
The nickname Spicy Meatballs evokes a 1969 Alka Seltzer industrial, during which a stereotypically Italian actor repeatedly flubs the road “That’s a spicy meatball” whereas consuming a plate of pasta.
The Spicy Meatballs uniforms characteristic colours straight from the Italian flag, white, purple, and inexperienced. The main emblem is an anthropomorphic meatball as gondolier, navigating a river of sauce with a baseball bat fork, whereas a secondary emblem options the baseball bat fork wrapped in spaghetti noodles.
The Rumble Ponies will play because the Spicy Meatballs August 14–16.
