When losing status, own it with style.

Colorado Springs and its minor league baseball team entertain no pretension in finding a new name for the Sky Sox, as they transition next year from Triple-A to Rookie League stature.

The team wanted name suggestions from fans and settled on a list of finalists that include: the Happy Campers; Lamb Chops; Punchy Pikas; Throttle Jockeys; or the Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Here in the Rockies, we don’t have seashell oysters. We have bull testicles, fried into a delicacy known as Rocky Mountain oysters. Which raises an obvious question:

What would the oyster mascot look like, running around the field tossing baseballs and T-shirts to fans?

The silly names follow a Rookie League tradition. In going Rookie, we join big glamorous cities, including Bativia, N.Y., population 15,465. It calls its rookie team the Muckdogs.

New Jersey’s Lakewood Township, population 98,200, cheers for the Rookie League BlueClaws.

Kissimmee, Fla. — population 59,682 — supports the Florida Fire Frogs. Daytona, Fla., hosts the Daytona Tortugas.

Most people know what Happy Campers and Lamb Chops look like, but we had to look up “Pikas” and “Throttle Jockeys.” Pikas are small rodentlike lagomorphs that look a lot like mice. The Urban Dictionary defines “Throttle Jockey” as “a person who races anything with a throttle on it.”

Let’s have fun with our new minor, minor league status and embrace a colorful, memorable name from the list of suggestions.

We have no preference, at least not yet, and would like a visual aid.

Dear readers, please choose a favorite from the list and draw for us what the mascot might look like (nothing vulgar). We invite adults, and suggest this could be a good summer project for kids (careful with the oyster thing).

Depending on what we get, we might publish some or all submissions in The Gazette’s editorial pages. Imagine inspiring the next mascot for professional baseball.

Be choppy, punchy, happy campers, with the zeal of throttle jockeys escaping fried oysters.

Have fun, and let the games begin.

Directions

Scan or photograph drawings of potential new mascots for our Rookie League baseball team. Email them to: opinion@gazette.com. Or, drop off or physically mail drawings to Gazette Mascot Drawings, C/O Pula Davis, 30 E. Pikes Peak Ave., Ste. 100, Colorado Springs, CO 80903. Submissions are due by Aug. 8.