In the summer of 1991, a scuba diver named George Moon was combing the depths of Lake Pleasant in Erie County, Pa. When he broke the surface, he was carrying with him an almost three-foot long bone. Moon had no idea then that what he’d stumbled across was the shoulder blade of a creature that had walked the land in Erie something like 12 millennia ago. He also had no idea that this prehistoric discovery would one day somehow become a part of baseball history.

It turned out what Moon had found was just a small part of a very large mammoth, and on further dives that Moon and others made into that part of Lake Pleasant, about 80 percent of the massive mammal’s remains were found, including both its tusks. It became known locally in Erie as the Moon Mammoth and now, more than three decades later, thanks to “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver and his team of writers, this story is getting dug up again as a brand new alternate identity for the Erie SeaWolves, Double-A affiliate of the Tigers. Learn more