Are the Cheesemongers a Real Baseball Team? Poker Face's "Hometown Hero" Explained
Poker Face pays homage to the regionally specific and often weird team names in minor league baseball.
Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) is on the road again in season 2 of Poker Face, streaming now on Peacock. In the season’s fifth episode, “Hometown Hero,” Charlie gets wrapped up in an unusual murder set at a small-town ballpark.
There, washed up ballplayer “Rocket” Russ Waddell (Simon Rex) carries his hometown team to their 29th straight loss. Once upon a time he could throw a 100-mph fastball but after an epic case of the yips (a psychological condition affecting athletes, wherein they suddenly lose the ability to perform at previous levels) he’s demoted to the minors. Even there, batters constantly fling his pitches back into the bleachers.
Back in the locker room, Rocket’s icing his arm and his bruised ego when he gets fired. Five more games and it’s time for him to hang up his cleats. That’s when he hits the bar and talks his teammates into hatching a scheme to bet against themselves for a multi-million dollar payout. They’ve got it all planned out until management brings in a young new pitcher named Felix, and everything goes south.
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When Felix finds them out, he demands all of the money in exchange for his silence. Instead of cutting his losses, Rocket reaches deep inside himself and finds his fastball, striking Felix in the back of the head with a ball moving 101 miles per hour.
Unfortunately for Rocket and his coconspirators, the new ball girl on duty is none other than Charlie Cale. Using her special lie-detecting ability, Charlie cracks the case at Velvety Canned Cheese Park, home of the Montgomery Cheesemongers, where fans eat freshly opened cans of Velvety Canned Cheese (despite the loss of feeling and color vision). When the dust settles, the only mystery remaining is…
Are the Montgomery Cheesemongers a real baseball team?
No. The Montgomery Cheesemongers are an entirely fictional minor league baseball team invented for season 2 of Poker Face. However, the team’s name and mascot were inspired by similarly wacky real-world teams.
While some minor league baseball teams have relatively ordinary names like the Charlotte Knights or the Columbus Clippers, rebranding is common and there’s a recurring trend toward silly and regionally specific names. Names like the Fire Frogs, the Jump Shrimp, the Yard Goats, and others!
In spite of their silly names and mascots, many of these clubs have long histories and roll up to more familiar major league teams. Teams like the Rocket City Trash Pandas, a minor league baseball team located in Madison, Alabama. The Trash Pandas are the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. The team name references the region’s affiliation with the space industry, particularly the Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, roughly 10 miles from Madison, and the scrappy raccoons native to the area.
The Trash Pandas aren’t alone, they share the minor league with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. They began as the Sugar Land Skeeters and, unlike the Cheesemongers, the Skeeters won two league championships under that name. They rebranded as the Space Cowboys in 2022 and won both the PCL Championship and the Triple-A Championship in 2024.
Fans of minor league baseball can also catch games featuring the Montgomery Biscuits (Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays), the Akron RubberDucks (Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians), and many others. In the minor leagues, wacky names are as common as peanuts and crackerjacks.
How to watch Poker Face season 2
Catch new episodes of Poker Face season 2 streaming right now, only on Peacock!
