History of baseball team nicknames

This is a summary of the evolution of nicknames of the current Major League Baseball teams, and also of selected former major and minor league teams whose nicknames were influential, long-lasting, or both. The sources of the nicknames included club names, team colors, and city symbols. The nicknames have sometimes been dubbed by the media, other times through conscious marketing by the team, or sometimes a little of both.

Overview

Athletic teams have long used colors and nicknames as a form of team identity. This echoes the use of colors and nicknames in more serious activities such as heraldry, the military, and the flags of nations.

Baseball teams began to acquire nicknames early in the development of the sport. Not all teams felt the need for a nickname. The supposed first recorded game of baseball took place between two teams called "New York" and "Knickerbocker", in the mid-1840s. Both teams were actually based in New York City.

After the American Civil War, interest in highly-skilled games of baseball resulted in many organized clubs springing up, with names that were the club's official name, now often erroneously retrofitted as the "nickname". However, all of these club names had the words "Base Ball Club" after them. Examples:

New York

• Knickerbocker B.B.C.
• Mutual B.B.C.

Brooklyn

• Atlantic B.B.C.
• Eckford B.B.C.

Philadelphia

• Athletic B.B.C.

Cleveland

• Forest City B.B.C.

Although many of the players on these clubs were de facto professionals, the first openly professional team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings, an amateur team that turned professional and began a successful barnstorming tour in 1869. The fame of this team spelled the end of the high-level "amateur" version of the game. It also inspired the use of team colors serving a dual role as the team nickname. Examples:

• Boston Red Stockings and Red Sox
• Chicago White Stockings and White Sox
• Cincinnati Red Stockings / Reds
• Mutual Green Stockings
• St. Louis Brown Stockings / Browns
• St. Louis Red Stockings

Suggesting an awareness of the significance of colors, in 1882 the National League passed a rule requiring specific colors for each team (Frank G. Menke, The Encyclopedia of Sports, A.S. Barnes & Company, 1955, p.30):

• Boston: Red
• Buffalo: Gray
• Chicago: White
• Cleveland: Navy blue
• Detroit: Old Gold
• Providence: Light Blue
• Troy: Green
• Worcester: Brown

As the news media (primarily newspapers) began covering games extensively and assigning specialists to write about them, the inventive scribes might use the established names, or they might invent some new ones. Initially, they often referred to a club in the plural form, either by its city name or by its club name. Examples:

• Athletics
• Bostons
• Chicagos
• Mutuals

As the writers became more inventive, they began to refer to teams by some characteristic that made the team or the city unique. Examples:

• Beaneaters (Boston)
• Colts (Chicago)
• Giants (New York)
• Spiders (Cleveland)
• Trolley Dodgers (Brooklyn)

When two or more major leagues existed simultaneously in one city, the writers often appended the league name, which had the chance of evolving into a team nickname. (The Encyclopedia of Sports, p.32) Examples:

• Boston Nationals (later "Braves"), Boston Americans (later "Red Sox")
• New York Nationals (better known as "Giants"), New York Americans (evolved into "Yankees")

In some cases, such as the Cleveland Indians, the team actually solicited help from the media in inventing a new nickname.

Some of those nicknames changed over time or died with the team, while some are still in use today. Nearly all of the nicknames of the "classic 16" MLB teams were originally unofficial. But once an unofficial nickname became popular enough, it might be adopted by the team and become official. Some teams stuck with a nickname for many years and then changed it to something else. Other teams have never changed their nicknames. Some teams have had two popular nicknames simultaneously for many years. Examples:

• Brooklyn Dodgers/Robins
• Washington Senators/Nationals

In the modern era of sports franchise expansion, nicknames are no longer assigned in a haphazard way by the news media, but rather are chosen by the teams for marketing purposes. The names are chosen in order to establish a strong team identity, and to have an attractive logo to encourage sales of merchandise to fans, such as caps and shirts.

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston / Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves

The best players from the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869-1870 regrouped in Boston in 1871(Robert Smith, Baseball in America, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961, p.36), which they would call home for the next 83 seasons. In the newly formed National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the Boston Red Stockings would continue to dominate as they had in Cincinnati, winning 4 of the league's 5 pennants and joining the new National League in 1876.

Some sources say they were renamed the "Red Caps", presumably in deference to the revived entry in Cincinnati. In any case, by the 1880s they were called the "Beaneaters" more often than anything, a term used for Bostonians in general due to the prevalence of the staple dish baked beans. Boston itself is often called "Beantown". The media-invented nickname "Beaneaters" was still in use in the early 1900s, and was even applied to the newly formed American League entry from time to time. The National Leaguers continued to include red trim in their uniforms until 1907, when they temporarily switched to an all-white uniform. The press promptly labeled them the "Doves", reinforced by their owner being named Dovey.

In 1908, the Americans adopted those colors and became the Red Sox. The Nationals reverted to their red trim and slowly looked for a nickname of their own. They found one when James Gaffney bought the club. Gaffney was a member of the Tammany Hall political organization, which was named after an American Indian chief and used an Indian image as its symbol. Gaffney took that idea to Boston and named the team the "Braves" in 1912. Over the years that name has stuck, despite occasional controversy about its stereotyping of Native Americans, and has followed the team through two moves - to Milwaukee in 1953, where the minor league team had been called the "Brewers" - and to Atlanta in 1966, where the minor league team had been called the "Crackers".

"The nickname of Braves was first given the club at the suggestion of John Montgomery Ward, when James E. Gaffney, from Tammany Hall, became club president in 1912. Previously, the club had been known as the Doves, a name bestowed on the team when George B. and John E. C. Dovey became its owners; and also the Red Caps and Beaneaters. In 1936, when James A. Robert Quinn] became president, the name of Bees was selected by a vote of scribes and fans. However, after a new syndicate, including Quinn, took charge in April, 1941, the stockholders re-adopted the nickname of Braves."^***

The Washington Redskins of the NFL began as the Boston Braves. They soon renamed themselves the Redskins to better distinguish themselves from the baseball team, and later moved to Washington, DC, bringing the nickname with them.

Boston Red Sox

For years many sources have called the early Boston AL teams "Pilgrims" or "Puritans" or "Plymouth Rocks", or "Somersets" for owner Charles Somers. Recent research by SABR writer Bill Nowlin demonstrated that none of those names was used much and that "Pilgrims", the most popular revisionist nickname today, was barely used at all.

In 1901, the American League led by Ban Johnson declared itself equal to the National League and established a competing club in Boston. For seven seasons, the AL team wore dark blue stockings and had no official nickname. They were simply "Boston" or "the Bostons"; or the "Americans" or "Boston Americans" as in "American Leaguers", Boston being a two-team city. Their 1901-1907 shirts, both home and road, simply read "Boston", except for 1902 when they sported large letters "B" and "A" denoting "Boston" and "American".

On December 18, 1907, owner John I. Taylor announced that the club had officially adopted red as its new team color. The name Red Sox is non-standard English for "Red Socks", short for "Red Stockings". For the 1908 season, the team shirts featured a red stocking across the front labeled "BOSTON". That was a one-year innovation before returning to the plain "BOSTON". The familiar "RED SOX" first appeared in 1912, coincident with the opening of Fenway Park.

The name originated with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1867-1870 member of the pioneering National Association of Base Ball Players. Managed by Harry Wright, Cincinnati adopted a uniform with white knickers and red stockings, and earned the famous nickname, a year or two before hiring the first fully professional team in 1869. When the club folded after the 1870 season, Wright was hired to organize a new team in Boston, and he did, bringing three teammates and the "Red Stockings" nickname along. (Most nicknames were then only nicknames, neither club names nor registered trademarks, so the migration was informal.) The Boston Red Stockings won four championships in the five seasons of the new National Association, the first professional league. The success of the two teams in Cincinnati and Boston gave "Red Stockings" and other "Red" nicknames some historical and profitable grounding there and probably grounded other "Stockings" nicknames in other cities.

Boston and a new Cincinnati club were charter members of the National League in 1876. Perhaps in deference to the Cincinnati history, many people reserved the "Red Stockings" nickname for that city; the Boston team is commonly called "Red Caps" today. Other names were sometimes used before Boston officially adopted the nickname "Braves" in 1912; that club is now based in Atlanta.

The Red Sox are one of two teams in the American League with Sox in their name, the Chicago White Sox being the other.

Headline writers often call the team "Bosox", to contrast with the Chicago White Sox or "Chisox".

"Called Somersets when they began operating in 1901, because Charles W. Somers was their owner. Other nicknames, prior to 1907, were Puritans and Plymouth Rocks. Before Red Sox became the official title, some writers called the club the Speed Boys. Red Stockings had been part of all Boston National League teams up to 1907, but Fred Tenney, manager in that year, told Peter F. Kelley, the Boston Journal's baseball writer, he would abandon the red stockings tradition in favor of white stockings, because of the danger that colored stockings might cause leg injuries to become infected. Kelley wrote a story condemning Tenney for parting with the Boston National League club's tradition. The next day, John Irving Taylor, Boston American League club president, told the Boston Journal writer, 'Here's a scoop for you. I am going to grab the name Red Sox, and the Boston American League club will wear red stockings." (BBG)

Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore Orioles

The team's nickname is taken from the baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula) a small blackbird of the passerine family. The bird received its name in about 1808 from the fact that the male's colors resembled those on the coat of arms of George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who was part of the Calvert family that established the Maryland colony in the 17th century. The baltimore oriole is also the state bird of Maryland.

Most of the professional baseball teams in Baltimore have been dubbed the "Orioles", with a few exceptions.

The earliest Baltimore teams, in the early 1870s, were called "Lord Baltimore" and "Maryland" respectively. These clubs were short-lived. The "Lord Baltimore" team chose the unusual team color of yellow, and was often called the Canaries or the Yellow Stockings. The Maryland club was simply called the "Marylands", in the pluralized style of the day.

The first club to be called the Baltimore Orioles was a charter member of the American Association in 1882. When the AA folded after the 1891 season, four of its teams were brought into the expanded National League, including the Orioles. These Orioles became a dominant team in the league during the 1890s, in part because of their innovations and their tough, relentless play. The term "Old Oriole" is sometimes used to describe a player whose aggressive style fits the legacy of those 1890s teams. The team's fortunes took a downtown in 1899 when many of its stars were transferred to the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Baltimore was one of four teams contracted out of existence in 1900.

The newly-formed American League was quick to place a new team in Baltimore in 1901. Their "Orioles" nickname was acknowledged in an unusual way that year, with an orange letter "O" on their uniform shirts, probably the only major league team ever to sport a symbol that looked like a "zero". The 1902 shirts substituted a more conventional "B". In 1903 the club was transferred to New York City and is now known as the New York Yankees.

A top-level minor league version of the Baltimore Orioles replaced the departed major league club, and it would be a force in the minors for 50 years, winning a number of International League championships and also providing local boy Babe Ruth to the major leagues.

Another Baltimore team was the Federal League entry of 1914-1915, which called itself the Baltimore Terrapins, after the diamondback terrapin, the state reptile of Maryland now primarily associated with the University of Maryland, College Park sports teams. The Federal League Terrapins opened Terrapin Park across the street from the minor league club's own ballpark, which was acquired by the Orioles after the Fed folded. That began a chain of events which led to Baltimore's return to major league status, a story covered in more detail in the article on Memorial Stadium.

In 1954, the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore, and the team adopted the city's old traditional baseball nickname.

Many fans, and the team itself, also refer to the team as the "O's" or the "Birds".

Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Cubs

In 1870, the first openly professional team in Chicago was called the Chicago White Stockings, in reference to the team colors and in contrast to the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The team carried that nickname along to the NAPBBP as well as into the NL. Eventually the nickname faded in favor of "Anson's Colts" or just "Colts" in reference to manager Cap Anson and his squad of young players.

As early as 1902, and for the same reason, Chicago newspapers started calling the team "Cubs", a name which was officially adopted by the team a few years later. The first uniform acknowledgment of the nickname came in 1908, when a bear cub holding a bat was placed inside the round "C" that was already on the uniform shirt. The familiar "C" encircling "UBS" first appeared the following year, on the road shirts. Either the bear cub symbol or the word "CUBS" has appeared on either home or road shirts since then.

The nickname "Cubbies", a diminutive of something already small or young, gained favor in large part due to Harry Caray's famous rendering of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". Instead of drawing out the single-syllable "Cubs" into two syllables in place of "home team", Caray used "Cubbies" to make the line flow better.

"The Chicago National League club was known as the White Stockings for a time after the league was established in 1876. Then Charley Hoyt wrote a play for Cap Anson, manager of the team, called 'The Runaway Colt', and subsequently the team was called Anson's Colts. The nickname was discarded in 1898, after Anson's career as manager had ended, and the appelation of Orphans was used because the team had lost its long-time pilot. Then a Chicago newspaper held a contest to select a new name. The term Cubs was chosen, but as other newspapers ignored the name at first, it was some time before the new nickname came into general use. Fred Hayner, sports editor of the Chicago Daily News, was among the first to use the name of Cubs." (BBG)

Chicago White Sox

The new American League entry adopted the abandoned colors and nickname of their National League rivals. They were initially called the "White Stockings", a nickname quickly shortened to "White Sox" by the press. In 1912, the team started wearing the first incarnation of its "SOX" logo on the shirts.

The team is often called the "Chisox" by headline writers, to distinguish from "Bosox". The synonym "Pale Hose" is also used. Within the city, as with Boston, the team is often just plain "Sox".

"Anson's National Leaguers had been known as the White Stockings, and when Charles A. Comiskey brought his St. Paul team into the city of his birth in 1900, Carl Green of Detroit and Irving E. (Si) Sanborn, covering baseball in the Windy City, revived the name White Stockings, possibly on suggestions by the Old Roman [Comiskey] and his then warm friend, Ban Johnson." (BBG)

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati Reds

The first openly professional team was the highly successful Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869-1870. The best players from that team regrouped in Boston in 1871, taking their nickname with them. A new team formed in Cincinnati as charter members of the National League in 1876. This team reclaimed the old nickname. However, this Cincinnati Red Stockings club was dropped from the league after the 1880 season.

In 1882, a new Red Stockings club was organized, as a charter member of the American Association. This team proved successful, and joined the National League in 1890. Around that time, the name became permanently shortened to "Reds". That team continues to play in Cincinnati to this day.

The team first used the single "C" on its uniforms in 1905. The word "Reds" was placed inside the "C" for the first time in 1911. Variants on that style have been used in most years to this day.

Having shortened their name brought them some trouble in the 1950s, or more accurately the fear of trouble. The term "Reds" in the political arena had long been a synonym for "Communist". During the McCarthy era, even though there was no connection between baseball and Communism, the team was concerned that their traditional club nickname would associate them with the Communist Threat and the Cold War, so they officially changed their name to the "Cincinnati Redlegs". From 1956 to 1960, the club's logo was altered to remove the term "REDS" from the inside of the "wishbone C" symbol. The "REDS" reappeared on the 1961 uniforms, although habits being what they were, by then they were often called "Redlegs", and that name took a few years to totally fade out.

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is known as "The Forest City", and its early successful pro team was called the Forest City Base Ball Club.

Cleveland Indians

Legend has it that the team honored a former star player, Louis Sockalexis, when it assumed its current name in 1915. Sockalexis, a Native American, had played in Cleveland when it was a member of the NL during 1897-1899.

On the contrary, when the "Naps" sent longtime leader Napoleon Lajoie to the Philadelphia Athletics at the end of the 1914 season, owner Charles Somers asked the local newspapers to come up with a new name for the team. The fact that he would go to the papers is a reflection of where most of the team nicknames had come from originally. They chose "Indians" as a play on the name of the Boston Braves, then known as the "Miracle Braves" after going from last place on July 4 to a sweep in the 1914 World Series. Proponents of the name also acknowledged that the Cleveland Spiders of the National League had sometimes been informally called the "Indians" during Sockalexis' short career there, a fact which merely reinforced the new name.

With the artificial connection to Native Americans, the Cleveland Indians are also often called "The Tribe". The source for the above information is the book Our Tribe, by Terry Pluto, 1999.

"In the National League, the club was known as the Spiders. The team of 1899, which lost 134 games, was called Wanderers or Exiles because its games at home were transferred. When Cleveland entered the American League, the club was nicknamed the Blues; Naps (when they were directed by Nap Lajoie); and the Molly Maguires during the brief period when Jim McGuire was head man. The present name of Indians was adopted in 1915." (BBG)

Denver, Colorado

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies became a new franchise into Major League Baseball in 1993. The nickname "Rockies" alludes to the Rocky Mountains which cover much of the western half of Colorado. The name Colorado Rockies had been used by a National Hockey League team that lasted from 1976-1982, before the team relocated and became the New Jersey Devils.

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit Tigers

There are various legends about how the Tigers got their nickname. One involves the orange stripes they wore on their black stockings. Tigers manager George Stallings took credit for the name; however, the name appeared in newspapers before Stallings was manager. Another legend concerns a sportswriter equating the 1901 team's opening day victory with the ferocity of his alma mater, the Princeton Tigers. The earliest known use of the name "Tigers" in the news was in the Detroit Free Press on April 16, 1895.

Richard Bak's 1998 book, A Place for Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium has the full story. In the 19th century, the city of Detroit had a military unit called the Detroit Light Guard, who were known as "The Tigers". They had played significant roles in certain Civil War battles and in the Spanish-American War. The baseball team was informally called both "Wolverines" (referring to the 1880s team as well as the state's nickname) and as the "Tigers" in the newspapers. Upon entry into the major leagues in 1901, the ballclub sought and received formal permission from the Light Guard to use its trademark, and from that day forth the team has been officially the "Tigers".

In short, the Tigers most likely wore stripes because they were already Tigers, rather than the other way around which is the conventional story.

"The Detroit club was known as Wolverines when it was in the National League, and in the International League, too. Philip J. Reid, a Detroit city editor, tagged the players as Tigers before the turn of the century. George T. Stallings, manager at Detroit during 1899-1901, always claimed the nickname came after he put striped stockings on his players, but they have always been Tigers in the American League." (BBG)

Houston, Texas

The minor league teams were primarily known as the Buffaloes, or often just Buffs.

Houston Astros

Houston joined Major League Baseball in 1962 when the National League expanded and placed a franchise in Texas for the first time. The team's original nickname was the Colt .45's, a reference to the famous Colt firearms company. In 1965 the team changed its nickname to "Astros", a name that had more futuristic overtones (astro is Greek for "star") as since 1961 Houston was the city where NASA trained (and continues to train) all the American astronauts. The team also used the nickname as part of its new home, the Astrodome, which opened in 1965 and was once dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World,", although it is no longer the Astros home.

The nickname 'Stros is often used as a familiar name.

Kansas City, Missouri

Being at the fringe of the old west, and connected with cowboys and cattle, Kansas City has had baseball teams reflecting that culture.

There were three different short-lived major league teams called the 'Kansas City Cowboys in the 1800s.

The minor league entry in the Western League (original) in the late 1890s was the first to use the name Kansas City Blues, presumably from their team colors. The Western League became the American League in 1900, still a minor league. When the American went major in 1901, the Kansas City entry was dropped.

A revived minor league club also called the Kansas City Blues operated in the American Association during the first half of the 20th Century. The team became a New York Yankees farm team in the 1930s. The team transferred to Denver in 1955 when the Philadelphia Athletics came to town as the Kansas City Athletics. Ironically, that "Yankees Kansas City farm club" situation continued, as the A's ownership fed numerous quality players to the Yankees until the 1960s when Charles O. Finley acquired the team. Finley soon incurred the wrath of Kansas City fans also, and transferred the team to Oakland in 1968.

Perhaps the most famous team in Kansas City was the Kansas City Monarchs, the longest-running of the various Negro League baseball teams that operated as an apartheid culture until major league baseball was integrated in 1947 by one-time Monarch Jackie Robinson. Continuing the dubious Kansas City tradition, the Monarchs effectively served as a "farm club" for all of the major leagues in their waning years, supplying a number of star black players to the majors before folding in the 1960s.

Kansas City Royals

The American League expanded in 1969, and made good on a pledge to return the majors to Kansas City, by creating the Kansas City Royals. Pharmaceutical executive Ewing Kauffman won the bidding for the new Kansas City team, which was named the Royals after the American Royal Livestock Show held in Kansas City every year since 1899. Some sources have incorrectly reported that the team was named in honor of the Kansas City Monarchs. Apparently it is just a happy coincidence.

Los Angeles, California area

The minor league teams had been known as the Los Angeles Angels since the founding of the Pacific Coast League in 1903, named after the city itself. That team name contained a built-in redundancy if fully translated into English: "The The Angels Angels".

Los Angeles Dodgers

The minor league team and the nickname were displaced when the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League moved from coast-to-coast in 1958. The Los Angeles Dodgers carried their successful ways, and there were no trolleys to be dodged in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

When major league baseball expanded in 1961, a new entry in the American League revived the old nickname. The team was renamed the California Angels in 1965, anticipating their move to Anaheim.

After 32 years as "California", the team became the "Anaheim Angels" starting with the 1997 season, as a result of a contractual agreement connected with renovations to their stadium.

Starting with the 2005 season, the club again changed its name for what it decided were good marketing reasons, to the unusually wordy "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim". This caused no small amount of public relations and legal problems for the organization, and the words "Los Angeles" do not actually appear on the team uniforms or merchandise. The emphasis is on "Angels".

Miami, Florida

Florida Marlins

Minor league teams had been known as the Miami Marlins for several decades, referencing the marlin, a popular sport fish. There were the Miami Marlins of the International League (1956-1960) and the Miami club of the Florida State League starting in 1963, who were known as the Miami Marlins during 1963-1970 and then again in 1982-1988.

When the major leagues expanded to the Miami area in 1993, the old nickname was revived, but by identifying with the entire state instead of the city, the name's alliterative quality was lost.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee's various professional teams, going back to the 1870s, had names like the Cream Citys and the Brewers, in reference to the local dairy industry and brewing industry respectively. In particular, some famous breweries included Schlitz ("The beer that made Milwaukee famous"), Pabst, and Miller Beer, the latter being the sponsor of the current stadium.

There was a short-lived major league entry, sometimes called the Milwaukee Grays, which operated in the National League in 1878.

Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers of the minor Western League of the 1890s were retained during the league's inaugural major league season as the American League in 1901, before being moved to become the St. Louis Browns.

The revived minor league club in the American Association was then called the Milwaukee Brewers for some 50 years before being displaced by the transplanted Boston Braves in 1953. The major league club retained their traditional nickname as the Milwaukee Braves during their stay in Milwaukee, before moving on to Atlanta in 1966.

The city was mostly without professional baseball for a few years. Future team owner and later Commissioner Bud Selig began a lobbying group originally called "Team, Inc." and then renamed "Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Inc." The Chicago White Sox played some home games in Milwaukee in that interval.

The current Milwaukee Brewers began as the Seattle Pilots, a 1969 expansion team in the American League. After one year of signficant financial losses, the team was transplanted to Milwaukee, under the new ownership of Selig, whereupon they revived the traditional name "Brewers". The team was switched to the National League in 1994 as part of the expansion and reorganization of the major leagues.

Minneapolis, Minnesota / St. Paul, Minnesota

The two adjacent cities have had a long-standing, mostly-friendly rivalry, and each city had high-level minor league clubs, including teams in the American Association for the better part of five decades. The Minneapolis clubs were usually called the Minneapolis Millers, Minneapolis being known as the "Mill City". St. Paul, as the state capital, avoided the usual stereotype of teams called "Senators", "Solons" or "Capitals", and instead went for a more direct stereotype. The city's early teams were typically called the St. Paul Apostles, including the city's short lived Union Association entry in 1884. Later the city's minor league clubs adopted the St. Paul Saints nickname. The Western League club from the 1890s moved to Chicago in 1900 and became the Chicago White Sox. The revived minor league Saints joined their cross-river rivals in the American Association for much of the first half of the 1900s. The Saints name was revived by an independent minor league club in 1993.

Minnesota Twins

Minneapolis - St. Paul is commonly known as the "Twin Cities". The formal name of the team, which transferred from Washington, D.C., in 1961, was initially the Twin Cities Baseball Club, now known as Twins Sports, Inc. The Millers caps had featured an "M" and the Saints caps an interlaced "StP". In order not to "offend" the residents of St. Paul, the newly-transferred Minnesota Twins club wore a cap featuring "TC" for "Twin Cities" instead of an "M". The shirts included a sleeve patch with an outline of the state and two ballplayers shaking hands across the Mississippi River.

By 1987 the Twins were regionally established, and a cap featuring an "M" for "Minnesota" was adopted. The "TC" logo migrated to the sleeve in place of the previous patch. The team won the World Series that year, so the "M" cap became a symbol of success and continued to be used exclusively for a number of years afterward. The "TC" cap reappeared in the late 1990s, and is now switched off with the "M" cap. (Okkonen)

Another nickname used by fans and writers, but not by the team, is "Twinkies".

New York City including Brooklyn, New York

Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers

This team began as the Brooklyn Atlantics in the 1880s, its name a reference to a once-renowned amateur team of the 1860s before the professional era began in 1869-1870. The team acquired various nicknames through the years. They were the "Bridgerooms" or the "Grooms" for awhile in the 1880s, due to several players having gotten married in quick succession. When trolley service was installed in Brooklyn, the papers referred to its citizens as "Trolley Dodgers", and by association the name was applied to the baseball team also.

Brooklyn was originally a separate city from New York, and the Dodgers retained their separate identification generations after Brooklyn was merged into New York City.

During the late 1890s, when Ned Hanlon was the manager and the Dodgers won the pennant (thanks in part to raiding the Baltimore Orioles roster), there happened to be a circus act called "Hanlon's Superbas". The New York press, in their usual creative way, began calling Ned Hanlon's Dodgers the "Superbas". Later, when Wilbert Robinson was well-established and beloved as the Dodgers manager, the team was called the "Robins" as often as anything. The nickname "Dodgers" continued to be used also. After Robby retired, the team became just the "Dodgers" again. The club finally acknowledged its own nickname in 1933, putting the word "Dodgers" on their shirts for the first time, in block letters. The famous script "Dodgers" first appeared in 1938.

When the club moved to the west coast in 1958, they brought their nickname with them, although it had no particular meaning in Los Angeles.

The "Bums" nickname arose due to the cartoons of Willard Mullin, characterizing the citizenry of Brooklyn in an unflattering but humorous way.

"Dodgers, a contraction of Trolley Dodgers, first appeared as a team nickname in the early 1890s, when the City of Churches was setting the pace in the then-new mode of transportation. In 1888, when six members of the team were married during the season, the club became known as the Bridegrooms. This was continued several years. When Ned Hanlon moved his Baltimore team to Brooklyn in 1899, it was called the Superbas, after "Superba", a well-known stage show of that period, which was produced by the Hanlon Brothers. That name prevailed until 1910, when, for a brief period, it was known as the Infants, from a remark by president Charles Hercules Ebbets, who declared in a speech that "baseball is in its infancy." The monicker clung until Thomas J. Lynch, then president of the National League, asked baseball writers to accept waivers on it. In compliment to Wilbert Robinson, the Dodgers were called Robins through much of his regime." (BBG)

New York Mets

The original Metropolitans were a member of the 19th Century American Association, a club which lasted until 1887 but could not compete with the Giants.

When major league baseball expanded in 1962, the old nickname was revived in the form of the Metropolitan Baseball Club of New York, otherwise known as the New York Mets. "Met" is a common short form of "Metropolitan", as in "The Met" for the Metropolitan Opera; "Met Life" for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; and so on.

New York / San Francisco Giants

The early entry of this team in 1883 was simply the New Yorks, also sometimes called the Gothams, a synonym for New York City. According to legend, manager Jim Mutrie was bragging to newspaper reporters about the stature of his players, "My big fellows! My giants!" and by about 1885 the name was stuck on the team for good.

"The club was first called the Giants about 1885. P.J. Donohue, New York World baseball writer, probably picked up a chance to get into a type argument with Harry Palmer] of Chicago and Charles F. Mathison of Detroit. All three scribes followed teams that had big men, were pround of that fact, and stressed the poundage and height of their athletes. The New York Nationals, after playing an exhibition game with Newark in 1886, were called Giants; and when they appeared in St. Louis later the same year, Joe Pritchard, Mound City expert at that time, alluded to them as the Gotham Giants." (BBG)

Although the "Giants" nickname was well-established by 1900, the prosaic "NEW YORK" or simple block letters "NY" were used on uniform shirts until 1918 when "GIANTS" first appeared. (Okkonen)

Eventually the alternate nickname "Jints" (rhymes with "pints") was picked up as a colloquial pronunciation of the team name. It followed them, along with their real nickname "Giants", when they moved to the west coast in 1958.

The popularity of the Giants inspired several Negro League baseball clubs to adopt a variation of that name, such as the Baltimore Elite Giants and the Chicago American Giants.

The New York Giants of the NFL were named for the baseball team which was once their landlord.

New York Yankees

Modern writers tend to refer to the New York AL club as the "Highlanders" for its 1903-1912 era and as the "Yankees" from 1913 onward. The two nicknames actually developed in parallel starting around 1904, with "Highlanders" initially more often used, and "Yankees" becoming the predominant nickname before "Highlanders" was fully dropped in 1913.

Initially the team was simply the "Greater New York Baseball Club", a designation imposed on them as part of the "deal" allowing the Baltimore club to transfer to New York. Giants fans considered them to be "Invaders", and publisher William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal initially referred to the new club by that name in 1903.

Both "Highlanders" and "Yankees" were also initially inventions of the press. The first president of the new New York American League entry was Joseph Gordon, who served from 1903-1906. There was a noted British military unit called The Gordon Highlanders. The new team built its new ballpark on a high point of Manhattan called "The Hilltop" (hence the informal nickname "Hilltop Park" for the American League Park), which contrasted especially with the altitude of the Giants, whose Polo Grounds was in the bottomland under Coogan's Bluff. Creative members of the press, who liked to make artificial connections between disparate elements of popular culture, dubbed the team the "Highlanders", and the name stuck with them for the better part of a decade.

There is no evidence that "Highlanders" was ever officially adopted by the team itself. The uniforms only sported a large block "N Y", which eventually evolved into the well-known curving NY logo of the Yankees. (Okkonen)

The alternate nickname "Yankees" first verifiably appeared in the press in 1904. The term "Yankee" or "Yank" is a synonym for "American". The new team was in the American League, and the papers for cities with two teams (such as Boston) would often call their teams "Nationals" or "Americans" to distinguish them. The term "Yankee" was also in the news frequently at that time, especially with the success of George M. Cohan's Broadway musical, Little Johnny Jones, and its centerpiece number, "Yankee Doodle Dandy". To the creative writers of the New York press, the connection was easy to make.

On April 7, 1904, a spring training story from Richmond, Virginia carried the headline "Yankees Will Start Home From South To-Day." The New York Evening Journal screamed: "YANKEES BEAT BOSTON".

The Sporting Life for a game of April 4, 1905, discussing the acquisition of Hal Chase, referred to the team as the "Americans" and the "Highlanders" in the same writeup.

As the decade progressed, the nickname "Yankees" began to be used more and more often. The New York Times writeup about Cy Young's no-hitter of June 30, 1908, referred to the club exclusively as "Yankees" or "Yanks" throughout the article, with no mention at all of "Highlanders". The Times also consistently referred to the Hilltop by its formal name, "the American League Park". (The Complete Book of Baseball: A New York Times Scrapbook History, Arno Press, Bobbs-Merrill, 1980, p.8)

The Philadelphia Inquirer for a game of April 21, 1912, an exhibition between the two New York clubs, was headlined "Giants wallop Yanks", while in the article the teams were referred to as the "Nationals" and the "Giants"; and "the American League team", "Americans", and "Highlanders"; respectively.

The New York Times for opening day 1912 reported that "The Yankees presented a natty appearance in their new uniforms of white with black pin stripes."

In 1913, the American Leaguers left the Hilltop after ten years, and began what would become a ten-year sub-lease with the Giants at the Polo Grounds. At that point the term "Highlanders" made no logical sense, and was dropped by the press. The club was exclusively the "Yankees" from then onward.

It is uncertain exactly when the Yankees began referring to themselves by their popular nickname. By the time of Babe Ruth's arrival in 1920, the "Yankees" nickname was well-established, but the name still did not appear on the uniforms. In fact, the Yankees have seldom carried their nickname on their uniforms. The only time was during 1927-1930, when the word "YANKEES" first appeared, in lieu of "NEW YORK" - on the road shirts. This was continued through the 1930 season, and then "NEW YORK" was restored to the road uniforms. (Okkonen)

The popular and successful Yankees have acquired many other unofficial nicknames through the years, such as the "Pinstripers" for obvious reasons, and jokingly as the "Evil Empire", a term originally applied to the Soviet Union by President Ronald Regan. Probably the longest-lasting unofficial nickname has been the "Bronx Bombers", which was applied many decades ago in reference to the Yankees' power hitting, dating back to the Ruth era.

Oakland, California

The Pacific Coast League entry was typically called the Oakland Oaks (PCL) and sometimes the Acorns as an unofficial variant.

Oakland A's

The Oakland Athletics, who began in Philadelphia and resided in Kansas City for a few years, settled on the west coast in 1968. The nickname "Athletics" is the oldest in baseball, dating to the early 1860s.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Aside from the enduring teams called the "Athletics" and the "Phillies", other professional teams in Philadelphia over the years included the Philadelphia White Stockings] (also sometimes called the "Pearls" or even the "Phillies", who played in the National Association in the early 1870s in direct competition with the A's; and the Keystone club of the one-year Union Association experiment in 1884.

Philadelphia / Kansas City / Oakland Athletics

In the peak of the amateur era of baseball in the 1860s, the strongest team in the Quaker State was the Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia, or just "Athletic" for short. Prior to the early 1900s, this club was typically always listed in standings as "Athletic" rather than "Philadelphia". When called the "Athletics" it was the pluralized style of the day, just as the National League entry would have been called the "Philadelphias".

As early as 1866, the Athletics uniform shirts featured the stylized letter "A" that is still used by the team's nominal descendants today. The team had turned professional by the late 1960s, and continued playing through the first year of the National League in 1876, before disbanding.

The team name "Athletic" was revived by the American Association, and again by the charter Philadelphia entry in the American League in 1901.

The AL team was originally listed in the standings in the traditional way, "Athletic", but soon evolved into the "Philadelphia Athletics". Another enduring symbol of the team soon emerged:

"In 1902, John McGraw, then manager of the New York Giants, and bitter enemy of American League president Ban Johnson, gave out an interview belittling the entry of the American League in Philadelphia, and sarcastically referred to Ben Shibe and Connie Mack's club as a 'white elephant'. A Philadelphia newspaperman labeled the Athletics the White Elephants, and they went on to win the first of many flags." (BBG)

That characterization, first written about 1940, was from a time when the A's were still thought of as winners. The team's decline, from the mid-1930s clear into the mid-1960s, would result in the franchise being transferred twice. The elephant logo evolved into a circus elephant of varying colors, depending on the trim chosen for the uniform in a given year.

As the team typically wore a stylized "A" on both their home and road shirts, and eventually on their caps, the nickname "A's" also arose. The first break with the "A" tradition came in 1920, when the team featured the elephant logo on shirts for the first time, displacing the "A", albeit in a dark blue. The elephant, worn as a badge of defiance following McGraw's remarks, had previously appeared on just the warmup weaters and then on the uniform sleeve. The elephant was changed to its titular white in 1924, and in 1928 the team went back to the traditional "A". (Okkonen)

In 1954, the club's last year in Philadelphia, the "A" was replaced for the first time with the word "Athletics", on both home and road shirts. At no time in their 54-year tenure in Philadelphia did the word "Philadelphia" appear on their shirts. The team transferred to Kansas City in 1955 and continued to wear "Athletics" on both home and road shirts. The city name finally appeared on road shirts for the first time in 1961, after Charles O. Finley had acquired the team. Finley began a well-documented series of influential uniform innovations that are beyond the scope of this article. He moved the A's to Oakland in 1968, where they have remained to this day. (Okkonen)

Philadelphia Phillies

"They've been the Phillies or the Quakers ever since the team entered the National League in 1883. (BBG)

"Phillies" or "Phils" is a short form of "Philadelphias", in the style of the 19th Century, when a city would be referred to by writers that way ("Bostons", "Chicagos", etc.) The city itself is often called "Philly" for short. Other uses of that term include include the Philly Cheesestake and the popular Phillie Blunt cigar.

Bob Carpenter acquired the Phillies in the late fall of 1943. The following spring, a new name, "Blue Jays", was selected in a fans' contest. (BBG) This change never caught on with the general public, especially as the uniform shirts continued to say "Phillies", albeit with a blue jay shoulder patch. That experiment was dropped after a couple of years.

In 1900, the team's road shirts said "PHILA", a common abbreviation of "Philadelphia". The Phillies' uniforms otherwise carried only a simple block or stylized letter "P" for several decades. The first time the word "Phillies" appeared was 1933, in a script-style that has appeared frequently in the decades since then. 1942, the word "Phils" appeared on the road shirts and the block letter "P" re-appeared on the home shirts, just for the one season. The script "Phillies" continued until 1970 when, in anticipation of the move to Veterans Stadium, the team returne to a stylized letter "P" on their shirts. In 1992, the script "Phillies" was restored to the shirts. (Okkonen)

Phoenix, Arizona

Arizona Diamondbacks

A Diamondback, specifically Crotalus atrox, is a rattlesnake which is a very common sight in the Arizona desert and a fearsome symbol. The club adopted the symbol upon its formation in 1998. A baseball field is also called a "diamond". The team is often called the "D-backs" for short.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh Pirates

The original Pittsburgh club, formed in 1882, was in the then-separate city of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, across the Allegheny River northwest of downtown Pittsburgh. Thus the club was called "Allegheny" in the standings, and in the style of the day, the "Alleghenys" (note that it was not "Alleghenies"). The Alleghenys played in the American Association during 1882-1886, then transfered to the National League in 1887. The team restyled itself as "Pittsburgh" (then often spelled "Pittsburg") around 1890, although Allegheny remained a separate city until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907.

The club was accused of "pirating" Lou Bierbauer in the Players' League settlement following the 1890 season, which led to their nickname. This fact is a detail of the larger story of what was happening in professional baseball around that time.

In 1888, baseball owners established rules to categorize players and pay them according to rank. Since the owners set the categories themselves, their new system at first lowered, and then eventually froze players salaries. Shortly before this, in 1885, John Montgomery Ward, a current Major League pitcher and Columbia Law School graduate, had founded the "Brotherhood of Base Ball Players" an association to protect and promote players interests. Baseball owners had instituted their new rules in the off-season without talking with the players, and this led to a riff between them and the players. Despite yearlong efforts to negotiate with the owners over these new restrictions on players, Ward could not get them to bargain or even recognize the Brotherhood. Players revolted and in 1890 they started a new league called the Players' League. The Players' League was spearheaded by Ward, who not only gained financial backers, but he also solicited star players to jump from the National League and American Association to the new league.

With three professional leagues competing, many in the same cities, there was not enough revenue to go around, and each league lost money. Although the Players' League's attendance was the best of the three leagues, it folded after one year. The financially hemorrhaging American Association folded one year later, and the National League absorbed four of its teams.

In 1890, Philadelphia Athletics players Lou Bierbauer and Harry Stovey had jumped to the Players' League. After the Players' League collapsed, through a clerical error the Athletics had failed to reserve Bierbauer's and Stovey's services. Pittsburgh signed Bierbauer and Stovey to contracts. The Athletics protested losing these players, and this led to an impartial Arbitration Board, which included American Association President Allan Thurman. The board ruled in Pittsburgh's favor. Despite the ruling, the Athletics still grumbled at the decision, and ridiculed their cross-state rivals by calling them "Pirates" for "stealing" their players. The "Pirates" tag stuck and the alliterative name was eventually adopted as Pittsburgh's official team nickname. By the time of the 1903 World Series, the team was commonly known as "Pirates", although the club did not acknowledge it on their uniforms until 1912.

Alternate nicknames such as "Bucs" or "Buccos", short for "buccaneer", have been used through the years. "Buccaneer" is typically used synonymously with "pirate", although historically "buccaneer" is a more specific term that refers to pirates who operated in the Caribbean Sea, especially along the Spanish Main coast.

"No Smoky City club ever had a nickname until 1890. Then the team, which lost 113 games while winning only 23, was tagged the Innocents -- apparently being innocent of victorious aspirations. In 1890, during the off-season, Pittsburgh owners signed second baseman Louis Bierbauer, whom the bankrupt Athletic club of Philadelphia had forgotten to reserve. The Pittsburgh club became known as the Pirates, in reference to so-called "pirating" of players." (BBG)

The Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL began as the Pittsburgh Pirates, in reference to the baseball team from which they rented Forbes Field in their early years.

St. Louis, Missouri

In the National Association of 1875, St. Louis fielded two entries, called the St. Louis Brown Stockings (or Browns); and the St. Louis Red Stockings, (or Reds). The Reds did not survive the season. The Browns were better organized and were carried forward into the new National League in 1876. The club abandoned professional ball after the 1877 season due to a betting scandal.

The St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association in 1884, and the NL in 1885-1886, continued the reddish color scheme during their brief tenure. The St. Louis Terriers of the Federal League of 1914-1915 were the only major league club in St. Louis that eschewed being named for a color.

St. Louis Cardinals

A new professional team formed in 1882 and was a charter member of the American Association. The team revived the nickname St. Louis Brown Stockings, which again was soon shortened to St. Louis Browns. The team was one of the most successful in the AA's ten-year existence, under the leadership of Charles Comiskey, and was carried forward into the NL in 1892.

In 1899, the club decided it was time for a makeover. They rebuild the stands at Robison Field after a fire; they stripped the Cleveland Spiders of their star players, hoping to take a major leap in the standings; and, according to most sources, changed their uniform color that year, from brown to red. The refresehd team was labeled the Perfectos by a perhaps over-optimistic press. The team jumped from twelfth to fifth, rather short of its lofty goal.

The team was also being called Cardinals by season's end. According to BBG, it was William McHale, baseball writer for the St. Louis Republic, who dubbed the red-trimmed team the St. Louis Cardinals. By 1900, that name was in universal usage, and they have been known by that nickname to this day.

The term "Cardinal" for both the bird and the color originated from the traditional vestments of the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church.

The red-trimmed uniforms at first were only labeled "ST. LOUIS", on both home and road shirts, later replaced by the familiar interlocking "StL" logo. The word "Cardinals" first appeared on both home and road shirts in 1918. The term went from just being a color to also being a symbol in 1922, with the first incarnation of the two Cardinal birds perched on a bat across the word "Cardinals". (Okkonen)

The synonym "Redbirds" and the abbreviation "Cards" are also in broad usage today.

The St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL transferred from Chicago to St. Louis in 1960, and from St. Louis to Phoenix in 1988. The Football Cardinals were not named after the Baseball Cardinals, but for the same reason that the Baseball Cardinals acquired their name -- from the color of their jerseys, which were originally hand-me-downs from the University of Chicago Maroons.

St. Louis Browns

The nickname St. Louis Browns was revived in 1902 by the AL entry that transferred from Milwaukee. Moving from one major brewing city to another, they could have retained the nickname "Brewers", but for marketing reasons they chose to adopt the recently-abandoned colors of their established rival.

The Browns were the better team in the Mound City for the first 25 years or so of their co-existence, but the Cardinals returned to winning form in the mid-1920s and the Browns struggled after that. The club was looking for a city to transfer to in the early 1950s. They considered coincidentally returning to their roots in Milwaukee, but the Braves beat them to it. They settled for a move to Baltimore in 1954, where they were renamed the "Orioles", ending the life of the "Browns" nickname.

Although known from the beginning as the "Browns", and wearing brown trim most of the time (except for 1906 when they experimented with all-black trim), the club did not wear the word "BROWNS" on their shirts until 1934. (Okkonen) The team had various logos. In the early years they had an interlaced "StL", as with the Cardinals. In the 1930s, they began wearing a patch featuring an illustration of the famous statue of the personification of the Saint. In 1952 they began wearing a sleave patch with a cartoon face of a "Brownie".

The Cleveland Browns of the NFL were named for their original coach, Paul Brown. They have no connection to the St. Louis Browns, although their color scheme (orange and brown) and their use of a "Brownie" coincide.

San Diego, California

San Diego Padres

The minor league team called the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League operated during 1936-1968. The name Padre was taken from the Spanish word for "Father", a term of respect used for Spanish missionaries. When Major League Baseball expanded to San Diego in 1969, the old nickname was retained for the new team.

The team is frequently called the "Pods" in the media, which rhymes with the first syllable of "PAHD-rays".

San Francisco, California

The San Francisco Seals operated from the inception of the Pacific Coast League in 1903 through 1957.

A second, shorter-lived club was the Mission Reds, who played in San Francisco during 1925-1937. They were sometimes called the "Missions".

San Francisco Giants

The well-established Seals, which had once been Joe DiMaggio's team, moved after the 1957 season to make way for the arrival of the New York Giants, who followed the Dodgers from the east coast. The San Francisco Giants have lived up to their name, with sluggers like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds rocketing baseballs out of the San Francisco ballparks just as Mays and Mel Ott did in New York.

Seattle, Washington

The original Pacific Coast League minor league club in Seattle was initially called the Indians, due to the Native American legacy of the area. The team was later named the Seattle Rainiers, directly in reference to the Rainier Brewing Company, and indirectly in reference to Mount Rainier, for which the brewery was named. The Rainiers operated through 1968, when the major leagues expanded. After the one-year major league experiment, a new Rainiers ball club was formed and played during 1972-1976, when the majors were ready to try Seattle again.

Seattle Pilots

The AL expansion team in 1969 was named in reference to the prominence of marine activities in the Puget Sound area, such as fishing, both industrial and recreational. The caps even featured the "scrambled eggs" golden-leaf symbol of a ship's captain. The ambitious but undefunded club sank in a sea of red ink, and became the first major league club since (technically) the 1901 Milwaukee Brewers to switch cities after one year. Coincidentally, the Pilots moved to Milwaukee, and became the new Milwaukee Brewers.

Seattle Mariners

The AL again expanded to Seattle, in 1977, with the formation of the Seattle Mariners. The nickname again alluded to fishing and other marine activities. The Mariners have been been in Seattle of over 30 years with no indications of leaving anytime soon.

Tampa, Florida

Tampa Bay Devil Rays

The club was an expansion franchise in the American League in 1998. The team's logo includes an illustration of a manta ray, also called a devilfish or devil ray, although the creature (like the team for which it is named) has proven to be mostly harmless. The team is also called the D-rays or the Rays for short.

Dallas, Texas / Fort Worth, Texas / Arlington, Texas

There have been minor league clubs in the Dallas - Fort Worth area since at least 1888. One was the Dallas Rangers of the Pacific Coast League, and the other was the Fort Worth Cats/Panthers of the Texas League. In 1965, the Dallas club left the city, and the Fort Worth club moved to Arlington, a city about halfway in between the two major cities. The renamed Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs operated for seven year in Arlington before the majors came knocking.

Texas Rangers

The 1961 expansion version of the Washington Senators moved to Arlington, Texas, in 1972 and took on the nickname Texas Rangers. The name refers to the famous Texas Ranger Division, the famous law enforcement agency that was created by Stephen Austin in 1823.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The original minor league club in Toronto was the Toronto Maple Leafs, which operated from 1896 through 1967 in the International League.

The National Hockey League club renamed itself the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927 and has been known by that name ever since.

Toronto Blue Jays

By the time the American League expanded to Toronto in 1977, the NHL club's strong identification as the Maple Leafs precluded any chance of reviving that name for the baseball team.

The Toronto franchise was originally owned by Labatt Breweries, with Imperial Trust and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as minority owners. The name Toronto Blue Jays came about when former Ontario Premier John Robarts, a member of the team's board of directors, started talking about a morning routine: "I was shaving this morning and I saw a blue jay out my window."

The short form "Jays" has been used extensively for much of the team's history.

Coincidentally, the nickname "Blue Jays" was used briefly by the Philadelphia Phillies, from 1944 to 1945.

Washington, D. C.

Baseball clubs in Washington, D.C., have been known by a variety of nicknames since the first professional teams appeared in 1870. One team was called the "Olympics", another was called the "Nationals". Both of those names persisted through the 1870s. Later teams in the 19th Century were called the "Nationals" and also obvious other Capital City nicknames such as "Statesmen" and "Senators". By the 1890s, "Senators" was commonly used in the media for the National League entry.

Washington Nationals/Senators

The "Senators" nickname carried over to the new American League entry in 1901. The team was generally called the Senators from 1901-04, as the old National League club had been. Washington Star newspaper owner Thomas C. Noyes, along with an ownership group of Benjamin Minor, Harry Rapley and others bought the team in 1905.

Before the 1905 season, Noyes solicited fans and writers for a new nickname. In an effort to remarket the team Noyes decided to officially name the club the "Nationals", reverting to the older nickname.

"The new owners desire to get as far away as possible from the old regime and start the coming season without any barnacles to hinder its move toward prosperity. With that end in view it is proposed to bury the moss-covered title of Senators and secure a nickname that may be lucky and popular." - Tom Noyes, 1905

During 1905 and 1906, the team wore "Nationals" on their new shirts, the first team to do so. Otherwise, the shirts either read "Washington" or carried a plain block "W". (Okkonen)

"Fans, by ballot, decided their club was to be called the Nationals, instead of the Senators. The only trouble with the vote was that its result was not binding on headline writers. Therefore, the Washington club still is often called Senators, as well as the Nats and Griffs, the latter nickname being derived from the name of owner Clark Calvin Griffith." (BBG)

Some reluctance could have been due to the inherent ambiguity of the name. Writers frequently referred to individual major league teams as "Americans" or "Nationals" in reference to their league affiliation -- and the Washington Nationals were in the American League.

Newspaper articles for decades used the names "Senators" and "Nationals" (or "Nats") interchangeably, often within the same article. Baseball guides even said "Nationals or Senators" when listing the nickname. This was long before teams made nicknames registered trademarks for marketing purposes.

Thus the Washington ballclub was known by two nicknames for most of its history prior to moving to Minnesota. Although there have been other teams with dual nicknames, such as the Brooklyn "Robins"/"Dodgers", or the New York "Highlanders"/"Yankees", the longevity of this dual nickname was unique.

The nickname "Senators" was kept alive especially by out-of-town writers. World Series programs in the same year referred to the team by different names: In 1933, the programs for the games played in New York City advertised "Giants vs. Senators", while programs for the games played in Washington included a photo of Washington manager Joe Cronin with the caption "Nationals' Manager".

Although "Nationals" or "Nats" was still used on baseball cards issued by Topps as late as 1956, by the 1950s, the name "Nationals" was pretty much passé. For example, the popular 1955 Broadway play Damn Yankees referred to the club primarily, if not exclusively, as the "Senators".

Following the 1956 season, owner Calvin Griffith decided to officially change the name to Senators, but it wasn't until 1959 that the word "Senators" finally appeared on their shirts. (Okkonen) They and their expansion-replacement in 1961 would remain officially the "Senators" for good, although space-saving headline writers continued to refer to them as "Nats" frequently.

Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals of the National League, transplanted from the Montreal Expos in 2005, revived the old Nationals name, and with modern marketing techniques it appears the name will stick this time. The time-honored headline abbreviation "Nats" has also been revived. Any possibility of using the name "Washington Senators" was inhibited by the Texas Rangers still owning the rights to that trademark.

General references

• The Sporting News Baseball Guides through the years, especially during the 1940s when a history of each team's nickname was included. Reference as (BBG) in this article.
• Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century: The Official Major League Baseball Guide, by Marc Okkonen, 1991, Steling Publishing, Co. Referenced as (Okkonen) in this article.

These books about baseball parks also contain a lot of information about the minor league teams:

• Green Cathedrals, Philip J. Lowry, 1986, SABR, with revised editions in later years.
• Ballparks of North America, Michael Benson, 1989, McFarland.

Reference books specific to one team's history are embedded.