Minor League baseball is a place filled with fantastic mascots.
There's the Albuquerque Isotopes, Toledo Mud Hens and Savannah Sand Gnats.
The logo for the Quad Cities River Bandits is a raccoon in a cowboy hat. The Jamestown Jammers feature a very angry grape.
Tanner Murphy's new club is right there with the best of them. Get your Fire Frog ball caps while they last.
Murphy, drafted out of Malden in the fourth round in 2013 by the Atlanta Braves, was promoted to High-A about a month ago and moved from Rome, Georgia, to Kissimmee, Florida. Next week he has a three-game road trip against the St. Lucie Mets and their high profile outfielder Tim Tebow.
"It is kind of cool to play him (in Low-A) and then again in this league," said Murphy, who got called up about the same time as the former NFL quarterback who is hitting .272. "The league down here is known as a pitchers' league and for him to come down here and do what he is doing is impressive."
The upgraded competition came with an upgraded hat game where a leaping blood-red Fire Frog is catching a flaming baseball with its tongue.
Through 15 games in High-A, the defensive first catcher is hitting .149 and has a perfect fielding percentage for the season. Murphy also has a .993 fielding percentage for his minor league career, which is more than 300 games and counting.
In previous years, Murphy's hitting has improved later in the season and he's optimistic he will do that again, particularly because he adjusted his swing.
"Here lately, I've started swinging the bat a lot better, I've gotten a lot more consistent at-bats and it is starting to show," said Murphy, who added he never looks at his stats.
Pitchers started to throw fastballs in on his hands and Murphy's original swing had trouble catching up to 95 mph arms. Murphy likened his old swing to Albert Pujols -- wide stance, hands in, stiff. He's since shortened his stance and added movement and rhythm to his motion.
"It is definitely a lot easier to catch those guys than it is to hit off them," Murphy said.
There is a month left in the minor league season and exactly one day, Aug. 21, without a game. The minor league schedule is a grind with 130 games in 145 days.
There are the occasional rain outs, and in Florida they can be more than occasional.
"This has been, by far, the most rainouts I've had in a year," Murphy said. "I think we had a stretch where we didn't play for five straight days."
With nary a day off, makeups become doubleheaders. The Fire Frogs will play two against Jupiter on Aug. 10 thanks to a July 28 makeup.
"In Florida it rains every day for at least an hour," Murphy said.
There is a routine and a rhythm to the grind.
Murphy likes to go into the weight room before a game, listen to some music and mellow out. He focuses on the gameplan, the opposing lineup, his pitcher for the day, how he's going to call the game. It's a drastic difference from high school where you get done with class, stretch and play.
"That's a lot of time in the clubhouse sitting next to guys, a lot of communicating, a lot of telling stories," Murphy said.
Everyone has their own routine and superstitions that they hope will help them get to the big leagues one day.
The collective struggle bonds the young men, who are largely in their early 20s.
That diverse bus rambling down the Florida highways -- from Tampa to Clearwater to Daytona to Bradenton to Palm Beach and back to Kissimmee -- is filled with players being paid peanuts to play a game they love, chasing a shared dream.
Murphy's friends back home draft him in fantasy baseball leagues and joke about how they need him to put up numbers.
"I hope to have it in there legitimately when I make it to the big leagues one day," Murphy said.
A country boy at heart, Murphy misses his girlfriend and grandma's cooking.
In the offseason he likes to go bow hunting, watch college football, maybe catch a Malden football game. He was a quarterback years ago. His brother was a senior on the team last season.
In the offseason Murphy will work out, work on his hitting, get into a routine, and come April, it's back to the grind.