Sports team names

[Flip Wilson]

The Indians of Comanche High School in Comanche, Texas, where I lived for a couple of years, wonder what the fuss is about.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The sheer number of historical nicknames for Boston's two MLB franchises is wonderful. Pilgrims, Beaneaters, Americans, Outlaws, Rustlers, Bees, and I'm probably missing a few.

Same with Brooklyn, Bridegrooms, Robins, Suburbas, I think the Tip-Tops were the Federal League team.

St. Louis used to have two versions of the Browns; one of whom are now today's Cardinals. In between, they were called … the Perfectos. No, they were not perfect.

Then there's the AL Browns, who were the Milwaukee Brewers for one season (1901), moved to St. Louis, and eventually Baltimore.

And the Yankees kinda, sorta began in Baltimore, were the Orioles, and then dissolved/moved/sold/whatever to New York.

And those Yankees/Highlanders/Hilltoppers/ Orioles were not the NL version that dominated the mid-1890s.

And there was a Baltimore Orioles minor league team for decades, of which Babe Ruth got his pro baseball start with. They had nothing to do with anyone.

And today's Brewers have nothing to do with the Browns/Orioles, or the Browns/Perfectos/Cardinals or the Yankees/Etc., but came from the Seattle Pilots.

We need a scorecard just to keep track of everything.

 

[dixiehack]

 

[SixToe]

I understand that merch sales are incredibly important. The name and mascot-logo has to sell, even if it's something so f'king stupid that it makes no sense. Anything that resonates to sell all the different caps-unis and isn't "offensive" to someone gets selected.

But I've never figured out why teams don't select an easy one like Cleveland Spiders (or, maybe, Rocks), with an updated logo, mascot, colors, all the things that fit into the minor-league mold to sell merch AND have a historical connection (that isn't "offensive" to someone).

Oakland moving to Vegas obviously wasn't going to pick the 51s for anything and probably won't have a throwback with that. Oakland changed 51s to Avaiators and now has a dumb logo that looks like a neon Clicker from The Last of Us. But at least the 51s was funny and a connection to the area.

 

[UPChip]

I understand that merch sales are incredibly important. The name and mascot-logo has to sell, even if it's something so f'king stupid that it makes no sense. Anything that resonates to sell all the different caps-unis and isn't "offensive" to someone gets selected.

But I've never figured out why teams don't select an easy one like Cleveland Spiders (or, maybe, Rocks), with an updated logo, mascot, colors, all the things that fit into the minor-league mold to sell merch AND have a historical connection (that isn't "offensive" to someone).

Oakland moving to Vegas obviously wasn't going to pick the 51s for anything and probably won't have a throwback with that. Oakland changed 51s to Avaiators and now has a dumb logo that looks like a neon Clicker from The Last of Us. But at least the 51s was funny and a connection to the area.

I believe the main hangup on Spiders was that they would have had to pay the U. of Richmond an unspecified amount to waive their copyright.

And I suspect that some of the reasons for the ridiculous names that are littered around Minor League baseball (Yard Goats? Trash Pandas?) are probably similar. The days in which we could have multiple Giants or Cardinals out there, much less in the same market, are long gone both for copyright reasons and for outright branding.

 

[ChrisLong]

Compton Tarbabes.

View attachment 15956

Female alums T-shirt says: Compton Grad -- Always a 'Babe

 

[Starman]

I believe the main hangup on Spiders was that they would have had to pay the U. of Richmond an unspecified amount to waive their copyright.

And I suspect that some of the reasons for the ridiculous names that are littered around Minor League baseball (Yard Goats? Trash Pandas?) are probably similar. The days in which we could have multiple Giants or Cardinals out there, much less in the same market, are long gone both for copyright reasons and for outright branding.

I don't really think the Cleveland franchise would have to pay Richmond anything to use "Spiders" unless their new colors and logo were glaringly similar (they might have to change team colors but that wouldn't seem too hard). I think there is a roller derby team or travel volleyball or something called the Cleveland Rocks, and obviously you'd have to come to some kind of agreement with Ian Hunter, but Drew Carey did it, so why not?

 

[HanSenSE]

Lest we forget the saga of the CFL team in Baltimore. Originally it was called the CFL Colts, but the NFL objected. For a while it was just known as Baltimore but eventually became the Stallions. When the Browns became the Ravens, the Stallions moved to Montreal and became the latest version of the Alouettes.

 

[swingline]

Always misread that as Superbras growing up.

The Jayne Mansfield catalogue.

 

[swingline]

Headlines for Rocks or Spiders would've been great.

Talk about web gems! How about that!?

 

[DanOregon]

Blue Jackets, White Sox, Red Sox, Reds, Browns, I guess what Kermit said was true - its not easy being Green. Or Yellow.

 

[justgladtobehere]

I don't really think the Cleveland franchise would have to pay Richmond anything unless their new colors and logo were glaringly similar (they might have to change team colors but that wouldn't seem too hard). I think there is a roller derby team or travel volleyball or something called the Cleveland Rocks, and obviously you'd have to come to some kind of agreement with Ian Hunter, but Drew Carey did it, so why not?

The Cleveland MLB team has the same name as a rollerball team, which sued when the name was announced. The standard is confusion in the marketplace.