Rocket City Trash Pandas

The franchise's predecessor, the Mobile BayBears, played in the Southern League from 1997 through 2019. Based at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, the BayBears served as the Double-A affiliate for several organizations over the years, including the San Diego Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The franchise won four Southern League championships during its Mobile tenure and developed major league stars including Paul Goldschmidt, Max Scherzer, and Jake Peavy.

By the late 2010s, however, attendance had declined and the team's aging stadium needed significant investment. In November 2017, BallCorps LLC purchased the BayBears with the explicit intention of relocating to the booming Huntsville metropolitan area, where the city of Madison was building a state-of-the-art ballpark to attract a Double-A franchise.

In August 2019, the franchise unveiled its new identity: the Rocket City Trash Pandas. The name combined "Rocket City"—Huntsville's longtime nickname, honoring its role as the birthplace of America's space program—with "Trash Pandas," an internet-era slang term for raccoons. The branding was audacious, funny, and instantly viral.

The logo featured a raccoon in a space helmet, and merchandise sales went through the roof before the team had played a single game. Toyota Field, a 7,500-seat ballpark in Madison, was built to host the franchise and was ready by 2020—but the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the entire inaugural season. The brand-new stadium sat empty for a full year.

The Trash Pandas finally took the field in 2021 as a member of the reorganized Double-A South (later reverting to the Southern League). The team became an Angels affiliate, continuing the franchise's Southern League membership while beginning an entirely new chapter in north Alabama.