Team Nicknames
Where do they come from?
Bygone baseball by C. Philip Francis
Part 1
Ever root for the Forest City team? How about the Atlantics, or Hilltoppers, or Colts? Nicknames have always been an integral part of baseball, both for the players and teams, and here is a quick look at the major league club sobriquets that were used then and are used now. After reading a recent Chatter on player nicknames Philip of California asked “how have team nicknames, formal and otherwise, changed over the years?” Parts 1 and 2 are for Philip and others who might have asked the same question.
.
When newspapers began reporting on sports in the mid-1800’s, teams were referred to as the New Yorks or Chicagos or Brooklyns. There was no problem with identification until a city had more than one team, and so pet names began to be used for the proper team. For instance it is believed that the same A’s employed today by the Oakland Baseball Club began in 1864 when a baseball team sponsored by a Philadelphia athletic club was simply called the Athletics or A’s.
---The Anaheim, previously Los Angeles and California, Angels was a 1961 expansion club. The name comes from the Pacific Coast League team that played in Los Angeles, the “City of Angels.” The ballclub is unique in that they have had three name changes without ever leaving town.
---The current Baltimore club came into being as the Lord Baltimores, but was changed to the Orioles in 1882 to recognize the official state bird of Maryland. When the franchise was moved to New York that later become the New York Yankees, a successful minor league operation continued in Baltimore for over fifty years. The city returned to major league status in 1954 when the longtime incompetent St. Louis Browns was sold to a Baltimore syndicate. The Browns, the name coming from brown trim on their uniforms, played in Milwaukee in 1901, and then went to St. Louis where they stayed until 1954 when the nickname completely disappeared. They were more often referred to as the Brownies due to their inept play.
---The Boston Red Sox aka Bosox has also been called the Pilgrims, Puritans, Somersets (after owner Charles Somers), and now the Red Sox when the son of the 1904 owner liked the color of the uniform stockings.
---When the American League took birth in 1901, one of the original eight teams was the Chicago White Stockings, a borrowed name that had been discarded by the now Chicago Cubs. After the National League Chicago club objected, owner Charles Comiskey shortened his new name to White Sox as a way to thumb his nose at his Windy City counterpart. Once called the Invaders, writers often shorten the name to Chisox for the sake of brevity.
---The Cleveland Indians are another baseball team that has had many nicknames such as Forest City, Spiders (many players were tall, slim, and agile), Molly McGuires (to please the Irish), Blues (the color or their uniforms), and Naps (for player-manager Napoleon Lajoie). When Lajoie left the team in 1915, the winning name in a newspaper contest was Indians in honor of Louis M. Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian from Maine and former Cleveland Spider, and who is credited for being the first American Indian to play in the major leagues.
---When newspaperman Philip J. Reid noted the similarity between the Detroit colors of black and yellow and those of the Ivy League Princeton University, the Michigan team became the Tigers. The name was first used in an 1895 paper, and has kept the moniker since Detroit became “major” in 1901. The Olde English D was first seen in 1904, and is the oldest major league emblem in use today.
---After Charles O. Finley took the Kansas City A’s including his mule and green and gold uniforms to Oakland in 1968, Kansas City was without a team for a year before an expansion team arrived in 1969. When a contest was held to find the new nickname, 17,000 fans sent in such names as Eagles, MoKans, Hearts, Zoomers, but the winning name was Royals.
---Today’s Minnesota Twins began as the Washington Senators who were once the Nationals or Nats for short. When the team moved to Minnesota in 1961 they played in Bloomington, and to not offend either Minneapolis or St. Paul the two cities were combined to become the Twins.
---After two years of poor attendance, the Baltimore Orioles franchise was transferred to New York City in 1903 where they became the Highlanders. Their new ballpark was called Hilltop Park, and often referred to as the Hilltoppers. By 1913 the team was officially the Yankees, a name chosen by two New York writers.
---In 1977 expansions teams went to Seattle as the Mariners because of the sea tradition, and to Toronto as the Blue Jays, a name briefly used years earlier by the Philadelphia Phillies. The winner of a fan contest came up with the bird nickname of the new Canadian team. In 1972 a Washington expansion team left town for Texas where they became the Rangers after the celebrated lawmen. Another AL team with a sea motif is the new kid on the block, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Next week: Part 2 with the National League
Team Nicknames
Where do those names come from?
Bygone baseball by C. Philip Francis
Part 2
---The term Braves originated in Boston in 1912 when new president John Ward dropped the old nickname of Doves. The team had also been the Heps, Rustlers, and Beaneaters that were found wanting. As a way to overcome dropping attendance and often futile performances, the team began the 1936 season as the Boston Bees. It never caught on so in 1945 the team officially reverted to the Braves. The franchise opened the 1953 season as the Milwaukee Braves, and after thirteen years in Beer City, the ballclub packed up their uniforms and nickname and went south to become the Atlanta Braves where they remain today.
---The Chicago Cubs started as the White Stockings, later the Orphans, the Remnants, and the Colts after manager Cap Anson performed in a Syracuse, New York play called A Runaway Colt. When the team had many young players in 1900, two sportswriters began using the nickname Cubs that was officially adopted by 1908.
--- The Cincinnati Reds, previously the Red Stockings and Redlegs, began the baseball tradition and nickname in the 1860’s that was derived from the color of their original uniform stockings. During the Communist hysteria prevalent in the 1950’s the nickname Reds was changed to Redlegs, but after the McCarthy era waned they again became the Cincinnati Reds.
---Both the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins were 1993 expansion clubs that wanted to attract fans from the entire state or area rather than just Denver and Miami. Later the Arizona Diamondbacks, sometimes referred to as the Snakes, joined the league.
---In 1962 Major League Baseball added the Houston Colt .45’s, a name that tamed the West over a century ago. When Houston became the home of the Manned Space Flight Center, the city transformed their image from the past to the future, and opened the 1965 season as the Astros with their home games in the new Astrodome.
---Major League Baseball became international when the 1969 expansion Montreal Expos joined the National League. Their nickname came from the 1967 World’s Fair exposition in Montreal that was called “Man and His World.”
---When two ballclubs fled New York City in 1958 for the promised land in the far west, it was not long before expansion moved into the huge eastern market city. One 1962 expansion team officially began as the Metropolitan Baseball Club of New York that was soon shortened to the Mets, a nickname used by a team in the 1880’s.
---In 1883 Alfred Reach of the sporting goods name bought the Worcester, Massachusetts franchise and moved it to Philadelphia to eventually become the Phillies. The team was also the Fillies as in horses, the Quakers, and Red Quakers. Team officials decided they needed a new nickname so in 1944 a contest was held. Out of the 5,064 entries a Philadelphia woman was given a $100 war bond for the winning name of Blue Jays that was soon forgotten.
---Pittsburgh first became “big league” in 1882 when the Allegheny Baseball Club joined five other teams to become the American Association. Originally the Pittsburgh Alleghenies, the name was changed to the Pirates after “pirating” second baseman Louis Bierbauer from a Philadelphia team in 1891. The Pittsburghers are also called the Bucs or Buccaneers. Pittsburgh is the only team in the original 16 clubs to retain its original moniker.
---The St. Louis Cardinals was one of the original 16 teams that began Major League Baseball at the beginning of the last century, and has remained in the same city with the same nickname. They might be called the Cards or Redbirds, and have always been identified with the color red. After the team bought the old St. Louis Browns uniforms in 1898 and changed the trim to red, sports writer Willie McHale overheard a female fan say, “Oh, what a lovely shade of cardinal.” The writer suggested the nickname in his story the following day.
---The 1969 expansion San Diego Padres continued with the same name that was used by the minor league San Diego operation, and represents the Franciscan padres who pioneered the area several centuries ago.
---When the 1958 season opened Major League Baseball had finally spanned the continent with the New York Giants in San Francisco and the Brooklyn Dodgers now wearing Los Angeles uniforms. The New Yorkers go back to 1886 when the team had many large players and during one particular play, manager Jim Mutrie jumped up and cried out, “My Giants.” They have also been the Green Stockings and Mutuals. Brooklyn became the Dodgers because of the many trolley lines that were in downtown Brooklyn forcing the many pedestrians to “dodge” the many trolley cars. The team has also been the Bridegrooms when three players were married in 1888, and later the Superbas after a vaudeville group, Atlantics, Kings, and Robins after their colorful manager, Wilbert Robinson.