Comments on Never Too Much Baseball: Naming Wrongs

How come you didn't include Hopey-Changies, To...

2010-03-18T09:12:13.925-07:00

How come you didn't include Hopey-Changies, To Be Determined or Sonic Death Monkey in your lists?

I had to look up 'yegg' (safe cracker or t...

2010-03-10T09:31:07.973-08:00

I had to look up 'yegg' (safe cracker or thief, of unknown origin), and am stumped by 'bingling pan.' Is it a reference to the Buddhist Bingling Temple Grottoes in Tibet or China? Or is it a pan-shaped bat used to hit a 'bingle?' Would you care to enlighten me?

My unlce went to a college in Ohio, at the time ca...

2010-03-09T08:42:55.410-08:00

My unlce went to a college in Ohio, at the time called Heidelberg College now Heidelberg University. There had been a novel, and a film, about the Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, so of course the university would name the mascot the Student Princes. Prior to 2008, their mascot colors even included purple. I would have to put the Heidelberg Student Princes at the top of my list for weird names. Not a minor league team name, but just interesting info.

Nice article.

The "Albuquerque Isotopes" name comes fr...

2010-03-09T05:59:47.201-08:00

The "Albuquerque Isotopes" name comes from an episode of The Simpsons. Springfield (in the show) has a team named the Springfield Isotopes, which sort of makes sense because one of Springfield's major employers is a nuclear power plant. The plot of one episode revolves around the team threatening to move to Albuquerque. Not long after that, a team moved to Albuqerque and took that name. Not surprisingly, they sell lots of merchandise.

(Oh, and there are lots of scientific facilities having to do with nuclear things in New Mexico, such as the Los Alamos labs. But really, that's not the reason.)

Also, some names of major league teams would sound pretty silly if you weren't used to hearing them. I'm thinking mostly of the two teams whose names are just repetitions of the names of their cities, the Philadelphia Phillies and los Angeles de Los Angeles.