| There are a lot of professional sport teams I can't quite get into because their names are all wrong. This is usually but not always due to franchises moving from one city to another but keeping the team name from the old city. The biggest sore spot for me is the name Utah Jazz in the NBA. It can keep me up at night. It is so ironic that it almost seems intentional. But I don't think it is intentional. Even worse, Utah had an ABA team 1970-1976 named the Utah Stars and they were one of the more successful teams. That team moved from L.A. and they kept the name Stars, because that works; it's not a site-specific name. Utah Stars were not asked to merge into the NBA and they vanished. But I don't know why, when the New Orleans Jazz (obviously a very great name for a New Orleans team) moved to Utah in 1979 they didn't just change the name back to Stars. It wasn't like the Jazz were a great team or anything at the time.
There are others. I mean, I'm almost comfortable with the L.A. Lakers just from its overexposure, alliteration and euphonious quality. But I still remember they were the Minneapolis Lakers before moving in 1961. That name made sense. Then there is the case of the Arizona Cardinals and the St. Louis Rams. I suppose Rams is a generic team name, signifying toughness or something-- they were originally from Cleveland anyway. But it sucks that St. Louis can't have 2 teams named Cardinals anymore.
Kudos to Oklahoma City for renaming the SuperSonics to the Thunder, I think they're reaping the benefits of this wise move. And I'm happy with the new Winnipeg Jets and the Titans of Tennessee. It just sets the balance of the universe right when this happens. I think of Browns/Ravens/Colts and all that-- it can get sorted out.
In the MLB only the L.A. (trolley) Dodgers seems weird to me, just perverse in some way. I guess I can think of them as the L.A. (car) Dodgers instead, that makes sense.
Elsewhere in the NBA, I'll never get used to the Washington Wizards-- but at least they changed their uniforms back to more of a Bullets style. Of course they are awful now so it hardly matters. Memphis Grizzlies seems like a stretch but I suppose there are bears around there, just like there are probably hornet nests in New Orleans. Or the name could be simply a signifier of ferocity or speed, that's fine.
In the NHL... I don't know. I can't get with any teams in warm weather areas, so whatever. I really only follow the "Original Six" teams: Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm a purist that way.
This perplexity can apply to band names too, sometimes. I was in a band that I thought was done with when I left but it turned out that some of the people kept the band name going in a slightly changed form to exploit the earlier work. But I didn't hold on to the trademark, I was more a player than an owner ultimately. Do I really want to see The Coasters when, presently, the guy with the longest tenure in the band joined in 2001? Hold on to those trademarks, I guess that is the lesson for today. |
