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 MLB Team Names
In American professional sports (and usually amateur sports as well), a generally standardized and marketing-oriented structure has evolved for the names, and thus the identies, of individual clubs. The structure involves three elements: a geographical designator, traditionally the name of the team’s city, although in recent decades the team’s state or region has sometimes been used; team colors, always a part of sports, and a carryover from heraldry; and a nickname, usually connected with either a mascot, the team’s colors, or a feature unique to the region or to the club. This approach contrasts with some non-American sports, such as European soccer, in which team names need not necessarily follow a particular pattern, or Asian professional baseball, which generally follows a “corporate sponsor” name followed by a “nickname”. The pattern began with early organized baseball clubs and has been extended from there to almost all U.S. professional clubs. The regional component is necessary in order to eliminate any confusion; for example, the Chicago Bulls vs. the Durham Bulls; the Boston Bruins vs. the UCLA Bruins; the University of Kentucky Wildcats vs. the Northwestern University Wildcats; or the Boston Red Sox vs. the Cincinnati Reds, whose nicknames actually have a common history. Originally, gentlemen’s athletic clubs were key movers in the development of organized baseball, so early prominent teams were simply named after the clubs that formed them: Athletic Club, Mutual Club, Olympic Club, Forest City Club, Kekionga Club, Atlantic Club, Western Club. By 1871, with the formation of the National Association, clubs no longer just competed with local rivals, but with the best clubs from other cities around the northeast. Thus, geographic designators were sometimes added, establishing the now familiar pattern (only reversed): Athletic of Philadelphia, Mutual of New York, Olympic of Washington, Forest City of Cleveland, Kekionga of Fort Wayne, Atlantic of Brooklyn, Western of Keokuk. By 1876, when the National League entered play, baseball clubs were no longer primarily associated with gentlemen’s athletic clubs, and most of the original teams were named after the one uniform feature that served to distinguish them on the field — the color of their stockings. Thus: Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Louisville Grays, St. Louis Brown Stockings. The 1876 New York and Philadelphia clubs still held over the traditional “Mutual” and “Athletic” names, and were usually so referenced in the standings. The plural usage seen sometimes, “Mutuals” or “Athletics”, was equivalent to the “Chicagos” or the “Bostons”. Modern historians have often retrofitted these names in the modern style, such as “New York Mutuals”, which is technically incorrect. “Mutual” was the actual name of the team, and the club had separate “nicknames” that referred to the team colors in a given year, such as “Green Stockings”. The Athletics name did persist, however, and the Philadelphia American League team would retain this name even through two relocations. Throughout this period, club nicknames were ad hoc, bestowed and used at will by sportswriters and fans. Nicknames became associated with particular cities, and fans tended to refer to the local team by this name, even if it was not associated in a corporate fashion with its predecessor. Thus, multiple, unassociated teams used names such as Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Louisville Grays, Baltimore Orioles, and the like. Early in the 20th century, the club nickname began to acquire a more important status, eventually an official status, being designated by the club ownership and ultimately used as part of the club’s marketing efforts. Sometimes a club would change its nickname or adopt an official name that superseded one or more unofficial names in the past. An example would be the Boston Braves, who were tagged with various nicknames prior to officially adopting “Braves” as their name and mascot. Sometimes such a name change did not catch on with the press and public, which is why there is no longer a “Philadelphia Blue Jays” nor a “Boston Bees”. The original Washington Senators were officially the “Washington Nationals” for many decades, but the alternate nickname “Senators” persisted, “Nationals” faded, and the team finally, officially became the “Senators” in the late 1950s. (With modern marketing strategies, such a fate is less likely to befall the current Washington Nationals.) In contrast, the Brooklyn Dodgers began by adopting the old “Atlantic” designation, then were dubbed the “Bridegrooms” for awhile, then the “Trolley Dodgers”, then the “Superbas”, then the “Robins” (for their manager, Wilbert Robinson), although the alternate nickname “Dodgers” persisted from the moment the team acquired that tag. The Dodgers did not actually put that name on their uniforms until the 1930s. Sometimes teams have changed their nicknames for marketing or other reasons. For example, the Houston Colt .45s became the Houston Astros in 1965. Team colors are sometimes tied in with a team’s name, and sometimes they are changed for marketing reasons. The Chicago Cubs have consistently worn a bright blue for many decades now, whereas the Chicago White Sox have changed colors many times during that interval, at one or another time wearing navy blue, red, royal blue, and white stockings. In recent years the team wears black hosiery. Several of the established baseball teams inspired football teams (who were often the baseball teams’ tenants) to name them after the ball club. For example, in the National Football League, the Chicago Bears were named for the Chicago Cubs, according to legend because Bears’ owner George Halas reasoned that football players are larger than baseball players, and bears are larger than cubs and the Detroit Lions were named this because of the Detroit Tigers name. Some NFL teams were named directly for their landlords, such as the New York Giants or Saint Louis (now Arizona) Cardinals. 
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