The Barons got their moniker from Birmingham's original professional team and stadium from 1887. The old ballpark was located near a "slag pile" … the discarded waste created from mining coal. Since the ballpark was so close to this pile of "waste", the stadium became known as the Slag Pile… so it was a rather appropriate name, for the Birmingham team to be named the Coal Barons. The "coal" was eventually dropped to simply the "Birmingham Barons" and it has been that way... nearly continuously ever since.