The Lehigh Valley IronPigs will take the field next month as the Squonk, embracing a Pennsylvania mythical creature that has lurked in the state’s folklore for more than a century.
The team announced the new alternate identity April 27, drawing inspiration from a cryptid said to inhabit the hemlock forests of northern Pennsylvania. According to legend, the Squonk is a creature so ashamed of its warty, wrinkled appearance that it dissolves into tears when spotted by humans.
William T. Cox provided the first written account of the Squonk in his 1910 book, “Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods.” Cox described the creature as having “a very retiring disposition, generally traveling about at twilight and dusk.”…