Minor League baseball has its share of dandies.
Lansing Lug Nuts
Traverse City Beach Bums to name a couple.
Which led me to what I thought was the weirdest question I was ever asked when I hosted a sports talk show.
It was on the OTB channel, so we talked horse racing a lot. And, at the time, the NYRA track announcer was named Dave Johnson. So this kid calls up and asks a bunch of questions all related to horse racing.
Then, he asks, “Do you think Dave Johnson will make it with the fillies?”
It took me a few seconds to realize he was talking about the baseball player and the Phillies. Until then, the image was . . . bizarre.
Now, if we’re looking for stupid names, the mother lode is the old Federal League of 1914-1915, which includes:
Buffalo Buffeds (derived from BUFFalo FEDeral League)
Chicago Chi-Feds
Brooklyn Tip-Tops (the only MLB team ever to be named after a commercial brand name product – Tip-Top Bread)
Newark Pepper
The Players League of 1890 also has some silly ones:
Brooklyn Ward’s Wonders (probably named after John Montgomery Ward, who was instrumental in setting up the league)
Cleveland Infants
Pittsburgh Burghers (mmmmm. . . .Burghers)
There was also the following MLB teams:
Columbus Solons (They may have been wise, but athleticism was probably better)
St. Paul Apostles
Toledo Maumees (only team named after a character in “Little Women”)
Wilmington Quicksteps (only teams named after a dance)
As a Utah resident, this has always bugged me, too. One would have thought that they could have chosen a different name when they moved.
As a side note, there was some talk a couple of years back, when New Orleans was in the process of getting a new NBA team, that they might want the “Jazz” name back. We offered to trade straight across for the “Saints”, but no deal.
I have often said that I would love to own a sports team in Helena, Montana and name it the “Handbaskets.”
This reminded me of the Houston Astros who do their spring training in Kissimmee Florida,making them the Kissimmee Astros.
Actually, the city is annoyed that the owner renamed them the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
My high school team was the Bulldogs.
My junior high school team was the Bullpups.
Must have seemed cute to someone, but I couldn’t bring myself to root for them.
Well, at least you’d have a team band .
And the beginning of the song called Something Good by said band (a cover of a Kate Bush song) would be perfect to get the Utah crowd revved up.
Don’t know anythng about “Little Women”, but I would suspect that the team was named after the Maumee River which runs through the city and into Lake Erie. The river name itself is a native American word.