Staten Island’s Baseball Team Could Be Named the ‘Pizza Rats’

The tyrannic viral rule of New York City’s pizza-hauling rat may be embedded forever in New York history as the new name of Staten Island’s minor league baseball team. The Staten Island Yankees, which are affiliated with the more famous New York Yankees, are trying to "create a hometown identity" with a new team name, and one of the five options is the Staten Island Pizza Rats. More than 2,000 fans submitted potential team names in a contest, and now people can vote for finalists like the Pizza Rats, Staten Island Bridge Trolls, Staten Island Heroes, and Staten Island Killer Bees, a reference to the Wu-Tang Clan.

Various NYC pizza rats have had moments in the spotlight. First, one boldly dragged a slice several times larger than its body size down a set of subway stairs. Later, someone captured two rats fighting over one slice on the subway tracks. And another pizza-loving rat was spotted in Washington Heights earlier this year. All of them have been spotted in Manhattan, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the Staten Island baseball team. Each team name option in the poll describes how they represent the fabric of the island, and pizza rats in particular "are tenacious, enterprising and know where to find the best food in the city" — just like Staten Island residents.

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