As a fan of The Weather Channel, I am fascinated by the nightly reports of midwestern tornadoes – especially those in Texas.
Although there’s a minor-league team called the Lake Elsinore Storm, there has never been a major-league team named after a meteorological condition.
That could have been different – had the second-edition Washington Senators listened to my idea.
When they relocated to Dallas-Fort Worth in 1972, they could have been called “the Texas Tornadoes.” They even would have had a nickname for the nickname – Twisters – much like the Detroit Tigers are called Bengals, the Pittsburgh Pirates are sometimes Bucs or Bucaneers, and the St. Louis Cardinals are called Redbirds.
For the team that plays in Arlington, midway between the Metroplex cities, I envisioned jerseys with a curving tornado on the right side and a uniform number on the left.
Perhaps team management didn’t want to project a negative image – just as local tourism officials winced when CBS named a cops-and-robbers show Hawaii Five-O.
That was before the show actually pumped business into the state with its gorgeous on-location scenery (thank you, McGarrett).
The same thing would have happened with baseball, where the Texas Rangers nickname may be historical but also boring, since it steals a nickname already established in the National Hockey League.
It’s time to get the puck out of here – and never too late for a change. Just ask the Cleveland team, although “Guardians” may be the worst nickname in baseball history.
That storied franchise could have done better. In a city whose slogan is “Cleveland Rocks,” boosting the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, why couldn’t that be the team nickname as well? Too close to Colorado Rockies perhaps?
As the ancient Yiddish proverb says, Nich g’ferlach.
The Indians will always be the Indians to me. It was a time-honored nickname worn proudly by Bob Feller, Al Rosen, Satchel Paige, Lou Boudreau, Rocky Colavito, and so many other superstars. And there’s no way it was racist – especially since many Native American tribes prefer to call themselves Indians.
The name symbolizes bravery, tradition, and a culture that predates the arrival of white settlers in the New World.
That same reasoning applies to the Braves, whose nickname dates back to team origins in Boston, survived a 13-year tenure in Milwaukee, and came to Atlanta – a name that sounds Indian but is actually derived from Atalanta, middle name of the daughter of one-time Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin. She had been named after a fleet-footed mythological goddess.
Four years before the Braves moved South, the National League expanded, adding new teams in New York and Montreal. Both teams invited fans to suggest nicknames.
At age 13, I typed a letter to the New York team, suggesting the nickname “Skyscrapers.” Although it was rejected – presumably to aid tabloid headline writers — the skyline imagery has been used by the team since Day 1. It is even on the hats of the gray City Connect uniforms.
Maybe team executives realized in advance that a shortened version of the nickname would be “Scrapers” when they preferred fans accept their lovable losers as “Scrappers.”
Either way, I received a printed thank-you note from Charles A. Hurth, long-forgotten original general manager of the Mets (he resigned in 1961, before the Mets even took the field, and was replaced by long-time Yankees GM George Weiss).
Some nicknames seem permanent – Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants trace their heritage to New York – while others seem transient.
Houston started with the Colt .45s, shortened it to Colts, and then switched to Astros, with the AstroDome and AstroTurf following, to honor the Space City.
And how about the Angels? Without ever changing their nickname, they started as the Los Angeles Angels, became the California Angels, and eventually morphed into the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Then there’s that Washington team. The original Washington Senators were sometimes known as the Washington Nationals (Nats for short) but became the Minnesota Twins after moving to Minneapolis-St. Paul in 1961. Then the second-edition Senators, an expansion team, became the Texas Tornadoes (oops, Rangers) in 1972. When the Montreal Expos (name after a World’s Fair called Expo 67) filled the void in the nation’s capital, they wisely brought back the Nationals nickname – befitting their league and geographical location.
With expansion on the horizon as MLB contemplates 32 teams in its future, more nicknames will be needed. Let’s hope fans, teams, and certainly media members will be more creative whenever that happens.
