Fire Frogs coming to Osceola in 2017

The area’s new minor-league team will be called the Fire Frogs. The name was unveiled Wednesday for the Class A FSL team that will begin play next year at Osceola County Stadium.

KISSIMMEE —Say hello to the Florida Fire Frogs.

The Class A Florida State League baseball team, formerly known as the Brevard County Manatees, announced its new name and revealed its logo Wednesday night at a reception at Silver Spurs Arena. The arena is in the same complex as Osceola County Stadium, the Fire Frogs’ home beginning in 2017.

“If you look at minorleague baseball teams and names and things like that, it is one of those ones that you don’t really see a lot of frogs as mascots,’’ Fire Frogs President Joe Harrington said.

“We will do well here. Since I have been living a short time in Florida, I have seen a ton of them.’’

The Fire Frogs are a combination of submissions by Karah Morrison of St. Cloud and Steven Strickland of Orlando to a name-the-team contest. Harrington said Strickland sent in 11⁄2 pages about frogs, including Puerto Rican tree frogs known as coquís.

Morrison was pleased with the nickname.

“I originally submitted the Fireflies because they go together, but I guess they switched it on me,’’ Morrison said. “I’m OK.’’

Harrington said a few thousand votes were submitted when the contest was whittled to six finalists. He said Fire Frogs received about 80 percent of the vote.

“It just showed that people liked it,’’ he said. “They liked how it flowed.’’

Harrington said the Fire Frogs’ office number is 321-697-3156. A website, floridafirefrogs.com, was expected to go live Wednesday night. He said the jersey design and promotional schedule should be unveiled in the next couple of weeks.

The Fire Frogs will be an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They will be the first minor-league baseball team to call Osceola County home since the Kissimmee Kobras in 2000.