What's in a nickname

Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times ranks the nicknames of MLB teams. His criteria:

All lists are inherently subjective, but this one is completely so. Even still, I have some general guidelines for making my picks:

- A nickname should be distinctive.

- The nickname should ideally tie in to the local community somehow.

- Above all else, a nickname should sound cool.

The Brewers rank is...

5. Milwaukee Brewers. It's a fitting nickname, given all the beer making going on in Wisconsin. It's certainly unlike any other team nickname.

Click over for the whole list.

This link is via Duk at Big League Stew. Duk ranks the Brewers, based on Jaffe's criteria, at #1.

Top New Name

The Fort Wayne TinCaps won a recent poll run by MiLB.com. The poll purports to find out which new logo is the best in all of Minor League Baseball. The contestants:

• Colorado Sky Sox
• Fort Wayne TinCaps
• Reno Aces
• Visalia Rawhide

The Sky Sox were included due to a new logo.

The 1,387 votes -- I know 1,387 votes -- broke down...Thusly:

• TinCaps (793 -- 57%)
• Sky Sox (223 -- 16%)
• Aces (216 -- 16%)
• Rawhide (155 -- 11%)

I think there needs to be a new poll because of this news.

The Salem Avalanche, a Class A Advanced Carolina League baseball franchise, today announced that it will bear the name of the 2004 and 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox, and will now be called the Salem Red Sox.

As part of the announcement, team officials unveiled a new logo that features the Red Sox brand and marks, including the team's iconic dangling socks against a backdrop of the majestic Blue Ridge Mountain range, a symbol that is synonymous with the Roanoke Valley. The new uniform will be officially unveiled at a Salem Red Sox fan celebration at the Tanglewood Mall on Sat, Nov. 15.

Red Sox Nation may have a thing or two to say about which logo is the best. Not that they got too crazy with it. Just click on the second link and you'll see the new logo.

They are just messing with me now?

One is an accident. Two is coincidence. Three is a trend.

TinCaps? Fine. Rawhide? Sure. Whatever. But, come on! Are they serious?

Bowling Green Hot Rods

"Hot Rods” was officially unveiled tonight as the nickname of Bowling Green’s new Minor League Baseball team.

Officials with the Bowling Green Hot Rods made the announcement before roughly 300 people at an event at Circus Square Park, less than a mile from the Hot Rods’ under-construction ballpark, where the Class A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays begins play in April as a member of the South Atlantic League.

Hot Rods was the ultimate winner from thousands of publicly suggested nicknames. It beat out six other finalists - Bluegills, Cave Shrimp, Mammoths, Speedsters, Sparkplugs and Turbos - in an online vote conducted this summer.

“To finally get to a point where you don’t have to sit on the name anymore, to worry about letting it slip when you’re in a meeting in public, it’s a relief,” said Brad Taylor, general manager and CEO for the Hot Rods.

The team also introduced its color scheme - black, yellow, red and silver - and its logos. The primary logo features a yellow hot rod with baseball hubcaps and red flames shooting from its exhaust pipes. A second logo, which the players will wear on their black caps, shows the interlocked silver letters “B” and “G” trimmed in yellow, with red flames on the “B.”

Cave Shrimp? I could have gotten behind Cave Shrimp.

And it's not black, yellow, red, and silver. It's Tire Black, Racing Yellow, Fire Red, and Tailpipe Silver. See the difference?

Why Hot Rods? Well, apparently the Corvette is manufactured in Bowling Green.

Good thing we don't have to play them....until 2010.

Reassurance

From the Visalia Times-Delta comes a column with a headline that is the textbook example of damning with faint praise:

Change to Rawhide not so bad

Crash Davis turned down a coaching job with the Visalia Oaks.

But Kevin Costner's character in "Bull Durham" had some great motivation to stay in Durham, N.C. — Annie Savoy.

He did? I thought they left that open at the end of the movie. As in Crash was going to take a few months to think about it.

But if the opportunity were to present itself again, would Davis turn down the opportunity to coach the Visalia Rawhide?

He might. But it appears that some local baseball fans want nothing to do with the new name of Visalia's professional baseball club.

They don't? What if they got a new mascot, too?

Gone is Chatter the squirrel, and in is Tipper the cow ... or bull. Seidler did not specify.

Moooooooving on....

Let's pull a few comments out of someplace where people never lie or represent themselves falsely...an on-line forum:

BlueStarArmyMom says: "Hey, I may not be too keen on the name, but the idea of a cow as the mascot is perfect. Look at all the dairies in Tulare Co. And, to name it Tipper ... Hilarious!!!"

Others, for some reason, have a problem with the name change.

Skepticity says: "This is a joke, right? April Fools on the wrong day or something? Who in the world came up with such a dumb name for the team? The economy may not be as bad as we have been led to believe. Some company somewhere has enough money to pay a fool to come up with names like this."

Ouch. Seems a little harsh, considering there are some pretty crazy names for minor-league teams. The Lansing Lugnuts, Leigh Valley Ironpigs, Lakeland Flying Tigers and Montgomery Biscuits are some names worth mentioning.

Then, there is this bit at the end...

Ultimately, it won't be the team name that draws fans to the ballpark.

That responsibility falls on the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team's Major League parent club. If they can provide the Rawhide with top-notch prospects and field a competitive team, fans will come.

Really? Hear that, D-backs! It's on you. The major renovation to the stadium and the promotions will have nothing to do with bringing fans out to the ballpark.

The original Times-Delta story is ...

Oaks round up new name

Not everyone was pleased with the team's changes Wednesday Councilwoman Amy Shuklian said she favors keeping the Oaks name.

"I like the Oaks. I think it should have stayed the Oaks. It's been the Oaks for a long time," Shuklian said.

But Shuklian noted that the city has poured millions of dollars into the Recreation Park baseball stadium and hopes the changes will attract fans.

"Rawhide sounds like something my dogs chew on, but change is good," she said. "Let's see what happens."

Exactly like this guy.

One longtime Oaks fan, Mark Louro of Hanford, a press-sprayer on a Tulare dairy, plans to give the new team name a chance.

It could have been worse, he said.

"I heard the rumor a few years ago about the Visalia Moo," he said.

"I was like, 'Are we going to be a laughingstock?' "

Nobody will laugh at Rawhide, Louro said.

Well, that's not completely true.

Visalia what now?

The Visalia Oaks are what now?

No, really.

Tulare County's only professional sports franchise unveiled a brand new look today, as the ballclub officially became "The Visalia Rawhide."

The name change, along with a sweeping rebranding of club logos, colors, mascot and uniforms, and the renovation of Recreation Ballpark, represents the start of a new era for the 63-year-old ballclub.

"Minor League Baseball has become the most popular form of family entertainment in the country," said club president Tom Seidler. "The new golden age of the true national pastime has been spearheaded by modern facilities and a heightened level of family entertainment. The ballclub identity plays a critical role in our goal of becoming the premier summer entertainment option in Visalia and the surrounding communities."

The club spent more than two years soliciting input from fans, players, and others in the industry for ideas on everything from the name to the colors to the mascot. Hundreds of names were discussed, but ultimately "Rawhide" was chosen for several reasons:

• Original (the first sports team to use the nickname)
• Represents the City of Visalia and the surrounding area
• Something players will be proud to wear
• Fun

Let me respond with bullet points:

• It's original all right.
• From Wikipedia...Enjoying and caring for oak trees has been a Visalia tradition for nearly 100 years. City neighborhoods lined with these graceful trees show the foresight of early community leaders. When Visalia was founded in 1852, it was located in the largest valley oak woodland in California. Nourished in the fertile soils of the Kaweah River delta, valley oaks covered a 400-square-mile (1,000 km²) area. As Visalia's population grew, more trees were cut down for firewood and to make room for new crops. Fewer trees remained. In the 1890s, Visalians saw the oak tree as a renewable source of community pride and identity that deserved preservation. Community leaders worked together to protect the valley oak. In 1909 they proposed that Tulare County purchase 100 acres (0.40 km²) of oak trees in a grove on Mooney Ranch and preserve the land as a park. Mooney Grove Park is still one of the largest valley oak woodlands in California. In 1922, local groups started the first tree planting program, putting into the ground the oak sentinels now lining Highway 198. In 1971, the city passed an ordinance requiring a permit to remove an oak tree. In 1974, maintenance and preservation guidelines were added. Removing a Valley oak tree without a permit can be a $1,000 fine. Source: Visalia Beautification Committee website.
• Proud to be a Rawhide where at least I know I'm a Diamondback farmhand
• Fun! Like This:
  

Two years? Really?

RAWHIDE!