Playing Name Game Minor-League Teams Cash In On New Logos
When selecting a new nickname, start with alliteration: Savannah Sand Gnats, Winston-Salem Warthogs, Jamestown Jammers.
Rhymes, or near rhymes, are also nice, as in New Haven Ravens or Amarillo Dillas.
Critters are an endless source of inspiration: Portland Sea Dogs, Carolina Mudcats, Hickory Crawdads, Piedmont Boll Weevils, Lubbock Crickets.
With all this in mind, can it be long before the Northwest League welcomes its newest incarnation, the Yakima Yaks?
As a matter of fact, minor-league baseball’s fascination toward trendy nicknames appears to have hit the wall in the NWL.
Everett changed affiliation from San Francisco to Seattle last year. Formerly the Everett Giants, the club adopted a colorful frog logo and became the AquaSox.
Even before Everett’s switch, the folks in Medford had plans to shed their A’s nickname and take on their own identity. This season, Southern Oregon became the Timberjacks, replete with a logo featuring a fearsome, bat-wielding brute crashing through the woods.
Both evolutions provided a huge boost in merchandising, mainly from out of state.
Everett, long accustomed to wallowing in the bottom 10 among 160 or so minor-league teams in sales of souvenir items, jumped into the top 10 last year when they came out with the new nickname and logo. Latest figures place the AquaSox still in the top 25.
Southern Oregon, ranked 138th among minor-league teams in merchandising last year, has tripled its sales, according to second-year general manager Suzanne Daniel.
Given the money to be made, what’s keeping the other six NWL teams from shucking such common nicknames as Bears, Hawks and Indians?
Believe it or not, tradition.
As Everett and Southern Oregon discovered, for every guy in Kalamazoo, Mich., who’ll shell out $10 for a unique cap, there’s someone in the hometown who despises change.
“We were prepared to take some heat from the locals,” said AquaSox marketing director Aimee Bavasi. “That is what happened. We took some flak because it was quite a change.”
“If you change the color of the bleachers some people get upset,” Daniel said. “It’s not the color. It’s the change.”
A new look was easier for Everett, which had switched affiliation, and Southern Oregon, which had never had an identity, than it would be for a club such as Spokane.
Few can remember that the Indians were ever anything except the Indians. Before baseball teams adopted official names, reporters referred to Spokane as the Smoke Eaters and the Bunchgrassers.
In 1903, at the instigation of the team owner, The Spokesman-Review sponsored a contest to officially name the team. The winning entry, Inlanders, was used less than 10 days before all three local newspapers inexplicably started calling the team “Indians.” It stuck.
Except for 1937 and 1938, the first two years of the Western International League, when they were called the Hawks, every Spokane team since has held the Indians moniker.
Present Spokane president Bobby Brett acknowledged he could make a short-term windfall by re-naming the Indians, but he doesn’t want to be known as the guy who spit on tradition.
Spokane’s front office receives an occasional call from someone who believes the team’s nickname belittles Native Americans, but no serious campaign to replace Indians has emerged.
“Spokane has a nice tradition,” Bavasi said. “I like those old-time logos. There’s a place for both in this league.”
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE NAME GAME Following are some of the more creative nicknames in minor-league baseball: New Orleans Zephyrs Toledo (Ohio) Mud Hens Salt Lake City Buzz Chattanooga (Tenn.) Lookouts Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) Quakes Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Kernels Lansing (Mich.) Lugnuts Quad City (Iowa) River Bandits Charleston (S.C.) Riverdogs Columbus (Ga.) Redstixx Auburn (N.Y.) Doubledays St. Catharines (Ontario) Stompers Butte (Mont.) Copper Kings Chillicothe (Ohio) Paints Zanesville (Ohio) Greys Thunder Bay (Ontario) Whiskey Jacks Tyler (Texas) Wildcatters Long Beach (Calif.) Riptide