SI

Mets Minor League Team Adopting New Team Name Based on Obscure Donkey Law

Kristen Wong

Alyssa Crosby, a contestant on The Voice, entertains fans before a Binghamton Rumble Ponies game
Alyssa Crosby, a contestant on The Voice, entertains fans before a Binghamton Rumble Ponies game / Jeff Miller / Special to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin / USA TODAY NETWORK
In this story:

The New York Mets Double-A affiliate, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, aren’t horsing around about a fun new change to their team name for the 2025 season.

The Rumble Ponies announced on Monday that they would adopt a new name, the Bathtub Donkeys, for two games this year in humorous reference to a New York state law relating to—you guessed it—donkeys in bathtubs.

The Rumble Ponies will officially become the Bathtub Donkeys on June 28 (playing against the Portland Sea Dogs) and July 30 (playing against the Harrisburg Senators).

Apparently, New York lawmakers of past generations put into effect a blue law stating that donkeys could not sleep in bathtubs.

It's widely rumored that the law is based on a bizarre case in which a donkey fell asleep in a bathtub, and then the bathtub washed away during a flood down a river. Locals had to haul the donkey back home and decided to sign a law to prevent the sort of thing from ever happening again.

One could probably assume that such a strange incident wouldn’t occur again for many, many more years in human history, but you know what they say about assumptions…

More of the Latest Around the MLB

Published
Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

Home/MLB