The Clearwater Phillies have taken the next step toward deciding on a new team name and logo for next season.
Fans began voting on the name change last month on the team's Web site, www.clearwaterphillies.com and have helped whittle the list from 40 to six.
The choices were narrowed to four this week, though team officials might reduce the number to three. The names on the short list are Barracudas, Beach Dogs, Kingfish and Sand Sharks.
So far, Beach Dogs is the leading vote-getter with 443 of the more than 13,000 ballots cast, followed by Sand Sharks (434).
Clearwater ticketing and media coordinator Jason Adams said the team stopped accepting write-ins. Fans will be able to vote on the finalists next week, but the team will have the final say. The new name will most likely be announced in late August.
"We've struggled with being able to create our own identity," Adams said. "The Philadelphia Phillies have spring training here. The Clearwater Phillies play minor-league baseball here. Shocking as it sounds, people have had a hard time distinguishing between the two."
Adams said the team has kicked around the idea for a while but did not pursue the name change until the city of Clearwater agreed to build a 7,000-seat stadium at 601 Old Coachman Road to keep the Philadelphia Phillies in town for another 21 years.
The team has called Clearwater home for spring training since 1947 and has operated its Class A minor-league team here since 1985.
"This is the perfect setup," Adams said. "We'll have a new stadium and a new name to go along with it. People will be able to drive down U.S. 19, see stadium lights on and realize that baseball still is here in the summer.
"We want to get started on this quickly so we can start working on the logo and everything else that goes with it."
This isn't the first time a local team has considered changing its name. In 2001, the Dunedin Blue Jays let fans make the call on a new name but ultimately decided to stick with the original.
CLEARWATER: The accolades keep coming in for first baseman Ryan Howard.
A fifth-round pick by the Phillies in the June 2001 amateur draft, Howard won the Bill Giles award for his performance in minor-league camp this spring.
He continued to impress the organization with his hitting once the season started and was named the Phillies' minor-league player of the month in April.
Howard, 23, hit safely in 24 of 28 games during the month. He also batted .311 with six doubles, five home runs and 13 RBIs.
Clearwater ended up sweeping April honors as Howard's teammate, Elizardo Ramirez, was the organization's minor-league pitcher of the month.
The 20-year-old right-hander, who was signed as a free agent in 1999, was 4-1 with a 3.05 earned run average in six appearances in April.
He allowed 32 hits while walking five and striking out 26.
DUNEDIN: Despite a three-game losing streak, the Blue Jays are tied with Fort Myers for the best record in the FSL (33-22) and the lead in the Western Division.
Part of the reason for Dunedin's success is its hitting. The Blue Jays are second in the FSL with a team batting average of .266.
TAMPA: Kevin Thompson, who led the FSL with a .331 average, was promoted to Double-A Trenton last week.
The 23-year-old outfielder also was second in the league in runs (42) and third in stolen bases (16) and slugging percentage (.562). He was the FSL player of the week (May12-18) and hit safely in his last 20 games at Tampa.
ALUMNI UPDATE: Jason Arnold has done a lot of moving in the past year.
A second-round pick of the Yankees in 2001, the right-handed pitcher from Central Florida spent the first half of last season in Tampa before being sent to Oakland as part of a three-team trade the Yankees made to acquire Jeff Weaver from Detroit.
He didn't stay long.
After pitching in Oakland's minor-league system the remainder of the season, Arnold came to Toronto in a four-way trade during the winter meetings.
Arnold started at Double-A New Haven and was 3-1 with a 1.53 ERA before discovering he was making a move of another kind - to Triple-A Syracuse.
