The "best kept, worst kept" secret in Salem is out.

A year after being bought by a sister company of the Boston Red Sox, Salem's minor league baseball franchise is changing its name to the Salem Red Sox. The new name and a new logo, with the iconic red socks dangling in front of a stylized background of the Blue Ridge Mountains, will be unveiled this afternoon at a news conference, general manager John Katz said.

"It was kind of logical," Katz said of the name change. "It was one of the best kept, worst kept secrets ever."

Fenway Sports Group, managing partner of the group that bought the franchise last December, had sold all of the Avalanche jerseys at the end of the summer and announced a player development agreement with the Boston Red Sox to serve as their high-A affiliate in the Carolina League.

But the change is more than just the name, Katz said. It is in the culture.

"The Boston Red Sox is undoubtedly the most storied franchise in the history of sports," he said, pausing to acknowledge his anti-New York Yankees bias as a lifelong Boston fan. "We're elevating our attitude and altitude, which is my translation of fitting in with the Red Sox culture."

Katz said the Salem Red Sox staff has been holding training sessions to work on customer service and to "raise our level of play from an entertainment standpoint."

"That isn't even a goal," Katz said. "We will do it."

Mike Dee, president of FSG and chief operating officer of the Boston Red Sox, said the Salem logo was "a way to have a local theme, to connect with fans in Salem and the Roanoke Valley and all of Southern Virginia, and build a bond between fans there and with the major league team."

Dee said the people at FSG have learned a lot about the Roanoke Valley in their year of running the Salem team, and "I don't think that's past tense."

"It takes time to understand a marketplace," Dee said. "It's a process."

Dee said he has learned that fans in the area view the ballpark as a place for affordable family entertainment and that "fans here are very knowledgeable about baseball."

"We heard that loud and clear."

Dee also said that the Salem Red Sox "aspire to be active participants in the community. We don't want to be those guys from out of town."

"People in Salem are proud of their community, as they should be, and we want to be part of that community. And we know that actions speak louder than words. We want people to see that these guys are involved, and that it transcended baseball."

Katz said that the Salem Red Sox has partnered with the Salem-Roanoke Valley Baseball Hall of Fame to turn this winter's banquet into a Hot Stove banquet that will serve not only as an induction ceremony, but also as a fundraiser for the Children's Miracle Network and for the YMCA of the Roanoke Valley.

Of course, the team has not yet signed a lease to play at Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium, something Dee said he hoped to sit down with Salem officials to discuss as soon as next week. Dee was unable to travel to Salem for the news conference because of a back injury.

"We do think we can take something very good and make it better," Dee said. "The ballpark is in need of a tuneup, some improvements.

"We're looking forward to sitting down with the city very soon, and we hope to keep the Red Sox in Salem for many years. The ballpark is part of that discussion; it's a constant work in progress."