HARTFORD — If you had to pinpoint when the Hartford sports fans’ expectations collided with the reality of minor league baseball, you might say it was when the goats showed up. On leashes.
Leading Little Girl and Fancy Pants around the downtown Y.M.C.A., Mary and Ted Krough, farmers from East Hampton, Conn., were as surprised as anyone that this city’s new team would be called the Hartford Yard Goats.
For the most part, Hartford sports fans rejoiced last year when the New Britain Rock Cats, a Double-A Eastern League farm team for the Colorado Rockies, announced it would move to Hartford in 2016.