A few stories about the TinCaps

Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly checks in with two stories about the name switch of the Fort Wayne baseball team.

The first story has a little about the history of nicknames in FW.

A team by any other name

At the plate, there’s Fort Wayne’s own nickname, the Summit City. The city got the name because it sits at the high point along the old Wabash and Erie Canal. Geologically speaking, however, the nickname is the equivalent of calling a bald man “Curly,” and it becomes particularly unfortunate during times of flooding.

On deck are the venerable Fort Wayne Komets, the city’s grandaddy of all minor-league sports teams. Komets is spelled with a “K” partly because the founder of the team, Ernie Berg, thought it connoted speed better than “C,” even though it takes longer to write. The other reason is that his wife was named Kathryn and went by “Kay” for short.

In the hole, there is the Fort Wayne Mad Ants National Basketball Association Development League team, whose name is so out in left field it requires compartmentalized thinking. Ostensibly, Mad Ants is supposed to reflect Fort Wayne’s namesake, Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne. The team’s mascot, though, is a hulking, menacing, headband-adorned insect that bears zero resemblance to a Revolutionary War-era general. The only similarity between the two are the letters “M-A-D-A-N-T.”

If Wayne were alive today and met the Mad Ant, he’d probably lay siege to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

In the end, the article makes this point:

TinCaps did get fans talking, which is what it’s supposed to do. And it does incorporate two of the American holy trinity: baseball and apple pie.

Maybe after the name sinks in, Mom will like the sound of it better.

Here is story number two. I can't describe it any better than the headline:
Like it or not, ‘TinCaps’ is here to stay

Even if initial public reaction to the new name of Fort Wayne’s minor-league baseball team was somewhat less than enthusiastic, in the end, “TinCaps” best fit the needs of the team’s front office.

The team dropped the Wizards name and mascot in anticipation of moving into Parkview Field in downtown Fort Wayne next year. After fans submitted more than 2,500 suggestions, the name submitted by just one person made the final cut.

TinCaps did not jump out as an obvious choice, said Jason Freier, CEO of team owner Hardball Capital. After the list was narrowed to a few finalists, he said, other choices were dropped as potential negatives to the names were discussed.

“We’re starting with something that has a blank slate that is going to pay dividends over time,” Freier said of the TinCaps name.

Ready for the focus group part of the story?

Freier said he and others showed their ideas to people to gauge their reactions, including many outside the Fort Wayne area. Staff members showed logo ideas to their husbands or wives, and Freier also used his son’s T-ball team as a focus group.

The group of 5- to 7-year-olds that Freier coaches explained what they liked and disliked about the apple logo. An early version of the logo was changed because the kids said it looked mean, he said.

“We had books of pictures,” Freier said. “We would show all these things to my test audience of kids. We would paste the logo on hats.”

TinCaps Pick Logo With Child Labor screamed the headline in The Onion.

Long story short....Someone owes me a 12-pack.