Dodgers' new minor league team in Ontario is all the buzz

You can say you are building a ballpark, but the anticipation accelerates when the community sees what the ballpark might look like.

- BILL SHAIKIN COLUMNIST

TOWER BUZZERS general manager Allan Benavides in front of a rendering of the new stadium in Ontario.

For the city of Ontario and its architects, the rendering of its minor league ballpark included a team name.

A placeholder, that is. The new team owners did not yet own the team. The name would come later. The Dodgers' California League team would not move in until 2026.

On that drawing last year: the Ontario Sky Mules, with a whimsical logo of a grinning donkey wearing sunglasses and flying a prop plane. It was, frankly, awesome.

It was the essence of the minor leagues. Don't know what a sky mule is? Hardly anyone knew what a trash panda was, either, and the Trash Pandas are one of the hottest brands in the minors.

This year, the newly hired team staff dropped hints about the actual name, about the buzz in town. On the walls of the team offices: "Cleared for Takeoff." The city referenced ballpark fan zones nicknamed "The Airfield" and "The Tarmac."

And, just last week, the biggest hint of all: the announcement of a naming rights deal with Ontario International Airport, close enough to the ballpark that you'll be able to see flights take off. The ballpark name: ONT Field (spell it out: ON-T, like LAX).

On Thursday, eight months in advance of its first game, the team finally revealed its name: the Ontario Tower Buzzers.

It's an homage to the movie "Top Gun," and to the defiant line uttered by the pilot played by Tom Cruise: "It's time to buzz the tower." The Tower Buzzers' mascot, a bee called Maverick, is named after Cruise's character.

The team name balances heritage and whimsy. The city is paying for the ballpark and wants to promote its airport, which was used as a World War II air base before reverting to civilian use and expanding into an Inland Empire transportation hub.