MANCHESTER, N.H. — In March 2015, Hartford’s soon-to-be first professional baseball team in 44 years announced to much fanfare that it would be known as the Yard Goats, an old rail yard term for an engine that switches trains between tracks.
As the team’s first season nears its merciful end, catcher-infielder Ashley Graeter has a more appropriate name for his club: the Yardless Goats.
That is because when its season ends on Labor Day, the Class AA Eastern League affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, which relocated after the 2015 season from nearby New Britain, will have played all of its 141 games on the road.