Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Flying Squirrels, indeed

Well, the contest is over and on April 15, 2010 the new baseball team in Richmond, a franchise in the Eastern League, will play its first game at The Diamond.
Well, who didn’t chuckle, or at least smile, when they found out the new team would be called the Flying Squirrels?

Some were probably expressing relief -- at least they won’t have to put up with watching a puffy Rhino or Hush Puppy mascot dance on top of the dugout. Others had to laugh because it was a stretch trying to remember when a flying squirrel was last seen in Richmond.
On the new local baseball team's nickname, click here to read "Flying Squirrels, indeed" at Richmond.com.

2 comments:

J. Tyler Ballance said...

Had we named the team, the Richmond Rebels, the team could have helped Richmond promote Confederate era tourism. Confederate era tourism, if properly promoted, could add a BILLION extra dollars to the local economy.

Now, THAT would be something to cheer about. Besides, what better justice would there be than to have the descendants of those who suffered through the War for Southern Independence, citizens of every stripe, to help provide for their families with jobs spawned by Confederate era tourism?

The Richmond Rebels would be hugely popular.

The oddball team name, "Flying Squirrel" is just road kill.

How about a cartoon of squirrel road-kill on a t-shirt? That would be a big hit!

Paul Hammond said...

Flying squirrels was the best of a bad bunch. I don't why the new ownership decided to conduct this transparently ficticious contest. They had a chance to connect with Richmond history and baseball tradition. Instead they chose to market to the under six crowd.

Rebels is a non starter, but there were tons of other choices that could have tapped into 350 years of history and regional identity. Online comments I have seen have run 20 - 1 against this or any of the other choices.

It was clear from the beginning that management would pick a name of their choice regardless of fan opinion.