Start your wagons: Hickory unveils the Goat-Karts 

During last month’s MiLB Awards Show on the MLB Network, the Jersey Diners won the “Best Alternate Identity” award. This alter-ego of the Somerset Patriots triumphed over the Great Lakes Pontooners, Spokane King Carl, Biloxi King Cakes, Wichita Chili Buns, Chattanooga Wreckers and Winston-Salem Hype Hens.

Now it’s time to look toward next season, as Minor League teams continue to complement their everyday names and looks with bold and often ridiculous alternate identities. The North Carolina-based Hickory Crawdads, High-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, got things started Tuesday with the latest addition to their theme night collection. For one yet-to-be-determined slate of weekend games, they will suit up as the Hickory Goat-Karts.

This identity, an amalgamation of Hickory’s manufacturing and racing history, requires a bit of explanation.

Hickory, known as the “furniture capital of the world”, was once home to the Piedmont Wagon Company. Standard-issue Piedmont Wagons were pulled by horses, but a smaller model for children were pulled by goats. In other words: goat carts.

Hickory is also home to the Hickory Motor Speedway -- “America’s Most Famous Short Track” and “Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars.” The Crawdads have celebrated this racing legacy at the ballpark throughout their history

Hence, the Goat-Karts, featuring a scarf and goggles-clad goat racing a Piedmont Wagon at high speeds.

“We always like to have a local tie-in, and in looking at the history of Hickory and the surrounding counties, the wagon just really popped,” said Crawdads general manager Douglas Locascio. “It’s pulling from the history of the community, going back to its roots.”

In developing the idea, Locascio and his staff got an inadvertent boost from the local government.

“We were doing research on what the wagons looked like. Then we happened to have a meeting at [Hickory] City Hall and we stumbled across a wagon,” he said. “They had plants in it, it was a condensed size. We asked the city folks, ‘Where’s that from?’ ‘Oh, that was a gift from the Piedmont Wagon Company.”

That municipally owned wagon, green with yellow trim and red wheels, formed the basis of the Goat-Karts’ color scheme. The Crawdads worked with veteran Minor League Baseball logo designer Dan Simon, head of Louisville-based Studio Simon, to bring it to life.

“We shared a picture of [the wagon] with Dan Simon, and he just ran with it and landed on something that we fell in love with,” said Locascio.

When the Crawdads play as the Goat-Karts, Locascio said the team will go “all-in.”

“We’ll look into it. It might be having race cars out here, or a petting zoo with goats,” he said. “There’ll be some fun stuff.”

In the pantheon of Hickory Crawdads’ alternate identities, Goat-Karts joins Couch Potatoes (2021) and Dickory Docks (2023). Soon it’ll be time to work on another.

“We’ll release this one and then go back to the drawing board,” said Locascio. “Constantly trying to top what you’ve done before. Something that has that local tie that the fans respond to.”