“M’s” may be a regional thing - I live near Seattle, and the radio and TV announcers, as well as locals, use the abbreviation all the time. But I’ve heard it on ESPN, too.
Nope, I’ve heard the Mariners referenced as the M’s. I do it sometimes. I think we just like to shorten things or make up nicknames. The Yankees are frequently referred to as Yanks (or variations on the theme), the Red Sox or White Sox are called just the Sox, the nickname for the Cubs (the Cubbies) is longer than their name, the Orioles are called the O’s or the Birds, the Astros were nicknamed the 'Stros by some retard (that has to be the lamest nickname for a team ever), the Mets are sometimes referred to as the Amazin’s, the Phillies are just the Phils, the Angels are the Halos, etc.
I’d have to agree with Neurotik. . .people just like nicknames. The baseball Cardinals are also called the Cards, or “The Redbirds” (also three syllables), but not usually any more often than they are referred to as the Cardinals (of course, this 3-syllable word itself often ends up shortened to Card’nals, 2 syllables, but nevermind that ).
the Mets are referred to as the “amazin’” Mets, true enough… most people don’t even know their REAL name is the “Metropolitans”… the shortened name became so popular NOBODY uses the real name… then they made up a nickname to make the short name LONGER… Crazy world we live in…
Ooh, wait (if this one magically appears in the thread after I’ve posted it after being certain it wasn’t there, I’m going to scream really loudly) there’s the 76ers, shortened to the 6ers.
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