National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

The Baseball Encyclopedia ''The Baseball Encyclopedia'' is a baseball reference book first published by Macmillan in 1969. Nine further editions of the book were released between 1974 and 1996. ''The Baseball Encyclopedia'' features statistical summaries for Major League ...

Total Baseball ''Total Baseball'' (latest edition , first published 1989) is a baseball encyclopedia first compiled by John Thorn and Pete Palmer in 1989. The latest edition, published in 2004, is its eighth.Library of Congress and even the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-re ...

itself usually adhere to an artificial naming convention, dating from 1951, which conforms references to 19th-century teams to modern usage (City + Plural Nickname), and which is misleadingly anachronistic: few teams before 1900 had names, and adopting them only really caught on in the first decades of the 20th century. Team nicknames like the "Boston Beaneaters" and "Brooklyn Bridegrooms" were never official; they were the invention of inventive sportswriters. A few of these coinages actually did catch hold with the contemporary fan base, such as "Robins" and "Browns," and some remained popular long enough to be adopted officially, like "Giants" and "Pirates;" but many of the others were either ephemeral quips, like "Rustlers" and "Ruby Legs," or never existed at all, like "Pilgrims."

Overview

''See also Team names and colors'' Athletic teams have long used colors and nicknames as a form of team identity. This echoes the use of colors and nicknames in other activities such as heraldry, the military, and the flags of states, provinces and nations. Baseball teams began to use 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 (1861-1865), interest in highly skilled games of baseball resulted in many hundreds of local organized clubs springing up, many under the umbrella of the new National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) from 1857 to 1870, also sometimes referred to as "the amateur association". These were often 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" listed after them ("baseball" was usually spelled then as two words). Examples:

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

*

Knickerbocker A Knickerbocker is a person from Manhattan (New York City, before 1898). A modern synonym is “New Yorker”. Knickerbocker or Knickerbockers may also refer to: People * Knickerbocker (surname), including a list of people with the surname, an ...

B.B.C. * Mutual B.B.C. Brooklyn * Atlantic B.B.C. * Eckford B.B.C. Philadelphia * Athletic B.B.C. *Olympic B.B.C. Cleveland * Forest City B.B.C. Although many of the players on these clubs were de facto professionals, the first openly all-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 was followed by a second "National Association", that of the

National Association of Professional Base Ball Players The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully- professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 se ...

(NAPBBP) during 1871–1875, with an increasing number of local clubs and for the first time, professional franchise teams. The

Cincinnati Red Stockings The Cincinnati Red Stockings of were baseball's first all-professional team, with ten salaried players. The Cincinnati Base Ball Club formed in 1866 and fielded competitive teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) 1867– ...

team's newfangled uniform of knee-length "knickers" with bright colored high-topped socks or stockings also inspired the use of team colors serving a dual role as a team nickname for the sportswriters of the day, who could add variety to their prose by referring to, e.g., the Hartford club or "Hartfords" alternately as the "Dark Blues" based on their obvious characteristic clothing. None of these early 'color' nicknames were official or used by the teams themselves, however. According to the Association and then the League, the teams were simply e.g. the "Brooklyn B. B. C." Examples: *Boston: Red Stockings/Red Sox and Red Caps *Chicago: White Stockings/White Sox *Cincinnati: Red Stockings/Reds *Hartford: Dark Blues/Blues *Louisville: Grays *Mutual: Green Stockings *St. Louis: Brown Stockings/Browns and Red Stockings/Reds Suggesting an awareness of the significance of colors, seven seasons after its 1876 founding, the following National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (later known simply as the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

) in 1882 passed a rule requiring specific stocking colors for each team: *

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...

: Red * Buffalo: Gray *

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

: White *

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

: Navy blue *

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

: Old Gold *

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

: Light Blue *

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

: Green *

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

: Brown While the 1882 rules prescribed stocking colors according to club, they also prescribed jersey and cap colors, but according to player position rather than according to club. Thus, on a single player's uniform, his cap and jersey would designate his position, and only his stockings would designate his club. As the news and developing sports media (primarily

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

s) 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 and reporters 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 occasionally had the chance of evolving also into a team nickname, especially in the then frequent cities of the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

with two teams, a representative in each league. (''The Encyclopedia of Sports'', p. 32) Examples: *Baltimore Americans (later "Orioles" - also used by previous NL and AA franchises) *Boston Nationals (later "Braves"), Boston Americans (later "Red Sox") *New York Nationals (better known as "Giants"), New York Americans or "Highlanders" (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. All of the nicknames of the "classic 8" NL teams of 1900-1952 were originally unofficial. But once an unofficial nickname became popular enough, it might be adopted by the team and become official. This practice was already coming into vogue by 1901 and the formation of the American League; four of the upstart league's eight franchises had official team names right from the start. A couple of teams stuck with a name for several years and then changed it to something else, such as the Cleveland Napoleons > Indians, but most teams have never changed their names once officially adopted (other than teams which relocated to a new city). 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 and advertising 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. Often the nickname will have some sort of historical, geographical, cultural or economic symbolic connection or representation of the city and more recently, the surrounding state. Nonetheless, fans and media sportswriters may still apply informal tags in the old manner, such as the
"Redbirds" (St Louis Cardinals)
"Birds" or the "O's" (Baltimore Orioles)
"Bronx Bombers" (New York Yankees)
"Friars" (San Diego Padres)
"Halos" (Los Angeles Angels)
"Tribe" (Cleveland Indians).

Atlanta

For years the minor league team in Atlanta was called the Crackers.

Atlanta Braves

The Braves nickname originated in Boston in 1912. (See the Boston, Massachusetts, entry below.) The Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee before the 1953 season and were known as the Milwaukee Braves from 1953 to 1965. The team moved again to Atlanta before the 1966 season, and have been known as the Atlanta Braves since.

Baltimore

Baltimore Orioles

Earliest official adoption: 1901 The team's nickname is taken from the

Baltimore oriole The Baltimore oriole (''Icterus galbula'') is a small icterid blackbird common in eastern North America as a migratory breeding bird. It received its name from the resemblance of the male's colors to those on the coat-of-arms of 17th century ...

(''Icterus galbula''), a small blackbird of the

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

family of fowl in the eastern United States. The bird received its name in about 1808 from the fact that the male's colors resembled those on the coat of arms of Sir George Calvert (1579-1632), the first Lord Baltimore, who was senior of the Calvert family that established the

Province of Maryland The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British Empire, British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in American Revolution, rebellion ag ...

colony in the 17th century. The Baltimore oriole is also the state bird symbol of modern

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

. Most of the professional baseball (and a few other sports) teams in Baltimore have been dubbed the "Orioles", with a few exceptions. The earliest Baltimore clubs, 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 or a variation of gold, and was often called the Canaries or the Yellow Stockings. The

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

club was simply called the "Marylands", in the pluralized style of the day. The names and colors were also used by other local jurisdictions and schools/colleges/universities. The first club to be called the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

was a charter member of the old

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

in 1882. When the AA league folded after the 1891 season, four of its teams were brought into the expanded

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(organized previously 1876), including Baltimore. This club became a dominant team in the older league during the 1890s under player-manager Ned Hanlon, in part because of their innovations and their tough, relentless play. The nickname "Orioles" first appears in the Spalding Guide in the 1895 edition which covered their first championship season, 1894; notably, the previous year's Guide never used the name at all. The term "Old Oriole" is sometimes used to describe a player whose aggressive style fits the legacy of those 1890s teams. The competitive famous team's fortunes took a downturn in 1899 when many of its stars were transferred to the Brooklyn Superbas/Dodgers, and Baltimore was one of the four teams contracted out of existence in 1900 when the NL reduced from 12 franchises to just 8, an arrangement lasting for over a half century. The newly formed

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

of 1901 wanted to compete directly with the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

's

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

, but the Giants used their political clout to block the American League from placing a club there. Instead, one of its 8 charter member franchise teams was placed 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 block letter ''B''. In 1903, after the American and National leagues settled their 2 year old "baseball war" dispute with a "peace pact", the National League allowed the American league to have a competing New York club in the nation's largest city and the Baltimore club, which was originally meant to have been located in New York from the beginning was bought by former player/manager, the legendary

John McGraw John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 189 ...

and transferred to New York City abandoning the Orioles name and, since 1913, known as the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

. A top-level minor league version of the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

replaced the departed major league club, and it would be a force to be reckoned with in the "Triple AAA" high minors for 50 years, winning a number of

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ( ...

championships and also providing a famed local boy, George Herman "Babe" Ruth to the major leagues in 1914. Another Baltimore team was the rival third-party

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

entry of 1914–1915, which called itself the Baltimore Terrapins, after the

diamondback terrapin The diamondback terrapin or simply terrapin (''Malaclemys terrapin'') is a species of turtle native to the brackish coastal tidal marshes of the Northeastern and southern United States, and in Bermuda. It belongs to the monotypic genus ''Mal ...

, the state reptile of Maryland now primarily associated with the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

sports teams. The Federal League Terrapins opened

Terrapin Park Oriole Park (V) is the name used by baseball historians to designate the longest-lasting of several former major league and minor league baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, each one named Oriole Park. Terrapin Park A third major league ...

across the street from the IL minor league and previous AL 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 of the AL, another of the charter "original 8", 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".

Boston

"Neither team had a nickname n 1901 nor would they for several more seasons. Both were simply called 'the Bostons,' although to differentiate between the two clubs, fans, sportswriters, and players commonly began referring to the NL entry as 'the Nationals,' and their American League counterparts as 'the Americans.' Other nicknames, such as the Pilgrims, Puritans, Plymouth Rocks, Somersets (so named after owner Charles Somers), or Collinsmen (after manager Collins) for the AL team and the Beaneaters, Triumvirs, or Seleemen (after manager Frank Selee) for the Nationals, were convenient inventions of the press. Their subsequent use by many historians is misleading. None of these nicknames was ever widely used by either fans or players."

Boston Braves

Earliest official adoption: 1912 Four 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 (such as TSNBBG) say they were renamed the "Red Caps", presumably in deference to the revived Red Stockings entry in Cincinnati. Local newspapers referred to the club as both "Red Stockings" and "Red Caps". In any case, in the 1880s a few sportswriters (not in Boston) referred to them as the Beaneaters on a couple of occasions, a term used for Bostonians in general due to the prevalence of the staple dish

baked beans Baked beans is a dish traditionally containing white beans that are parboiled and then, in the US, baked in sauce at low temperature for a lengthy period. In the United Kingdom, the dish is sometimes baked, but usually stewed in sauce. Canned ...

. Boston itself is often called "Beantown," but generally not by residents. The media-invented nickname "Beaneaters" was still in occasional 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. (Similarly, they were called the Rustlers in 1911 for new owner William Hepburn Russell (baseball).) In 1908, the Americans adopted those colors and became the Red Sox. The Nationals reverted to their red trim and slowly looked for a name of their own. They found one when James Gaffney bought the club. :"The nickname of Braves was first given the club at the suggestion of

John Montgomery Ward John Montgomery Ward (March 3, 1860 – March 4, 1925), known as Monte Ward, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, shortstop, second baseman, third baseman, manager, executive, union organizer, owner and author. Ward, of English desce ...

, when James E. Gaffney, from

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

, became club president in 1912. Previously, the club had been briefly nicknamed 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." (TSNBBG) The Tammany Hall political organization was named after an American Indian chief and used an Indian image as its symbol, hence the "Braves". The 1912 team wore an Indian-head logo, and in 1915 the name "Braves." 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, and to Atlanta in 1966. While still in Boston, the Braves fell into severe doldrums in the 1930s, and were looking for ways to reinvent themselves. :"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." (TSNBBG) The name "Bees" did nothing to improve the team's fortunes, and was abandoned by the end of World War II. In 1935 the uniform shirts had read "BRAVES" and in 1936 they merely said "BOSTON" on the home as well as the road version. They switched to a block "B" on home shirts the next year, which remained the pattern most years until the block-letter "BRAVES" reappeared in 1945. At no point did they wear anything on their uniforms which suggested an actual

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfami ...

other than the homonym of the letter "B". In 1946, the script version of "Braves", complete with

tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Eur ...

, made its first appearance and has been on most of the uniform shirts since then. (Okkonen) The

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

of the NFL began in 1932 as the Boston Braves. They renamed themselves the Redskins the next year, having moved from

Braves Field Braves Field was a baseball park located in Boston, Massachusetts. Today the site is home to Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University. The stadium was home of the Boston Braves of the National League from 1915 to 1952, prior to the ...

to the Red Sox' Fenway Park, serving the dual purpose of sounding similar to their new baseball co-tenants while allowing them to keep the Native American-logoed uniforms they had worn as the Braves, and in 1937 they moved to Washington, D.C., bringing the nickname with them.

Boston Red Sox

Earliest official adoption: 1912 (1908) For years many sources have called the early Boston AL teams "Pilgrims" or "Puritans" or "Plymouth Rocks" or "Somersets" for owner Charles Somers or even the "Speed Boys". Research by SABR writer Bill Nowlin demonstrated that none of those names was used very often and that "Pilgrims", the most popular revisionist nickname today, was barely used at all. In 1901, the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

, led by

Ban Johnson Byron Bancroft Johnson (January 5, 1864 – March 28, 1931) was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League (AL). Johnson developed the AL—a descendant of the min ...

, 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". The temporary decision by the Boston National Leaguers to drop the color red from their uniforms led to a history-making decision: :"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." (TSNBBG) The problem with part of that story is that the "Doves" went through the entire 1907 season wearing white (except for a red old-English "B" on their shirts) while the American Leaguers continued to wear their dark blue during the 1907 season. (Okkonen) On December 18, 1907, owner 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 AL team shirts featured a red stocking across the front labeled "BOSTON". They also wore red stockings, along with white caps. Meanwhile, for 1908, the NL team returned to wearing red stockings as well as red caps, while retaining the old-English "B". So the primary visual differences between the two teams' uniforms in 1908 were the caps and the shirt fronts. The red stocking on the shirt front 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 Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and Boston Braves (baseball), since 1953, i ...

. Through the years, the Red Sox have continued to wear red somewhere in their uniforms. By the 1930s, the color blue was re-added to the mix. (Okkonen) Headline writers often call the team "Bosox", to contrast with the Chicago White Sox or "Chisox". As with Chicago, when the team's fans are talking about their own team, they are apt to call them simply "The Sox". The

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

Boston team, who played their first season at

Braves Field Braves Field was a baseball park located in Boston, Massachusetts. Today the site is home to Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University. The stadium was home of the Boston Braves of the National League from 1915 to 1952, prior to the ...

and called themselves the "Braves" after their hosts, moved into Fenway Park in 1933. Since the old name would no longer do, they changed their Indian-inspired name to "Redskins" to harmonize with "Red Sox".

Brooklyn

Together with New York City across the East River, Brooklyn was the cradle of organized baseball, producing some of the strongest clubs of the amateur and early professional era; these included Atlantic, Eckford and

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

. Atlantic turned pro in 1869 and became nationally famous by ending the Cincinnati Red Stockings' winning streak in 1870.

Brooklyn Dodgers

Earliest official adoption: 1916 The Dodgers have had a number of nicknames through the years. This team began as the Brooklyn Atlantics in the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

of the 1880s, its name a reference to the storied amateur club of the 1860s. Reporters also tagged them the Grays, the typical uniform-color reference of the day. These however were very occasional; overwhelmingly newspaper writeups simply called them "Brooklyn" or, more often, "the Brooklyns." In 1888, six members of the team were married during the season, and the press tagged the club as the Bridegrooms or just the Grooms. (TSNBBG) In the early 1890s, the club had switched to the National League. The city of Brooklyn installed the transportation innovation called the trolley system. Its citizens thus became "trolley dodgers" to the newswriters. By association, the team itself acquired that nickname, as the honeymoon for the "Grooms" was over after several years. (TSNBBG) Officially, however, the team remained the Brooklyn Base Ball Association, ''sans'' nickname. Brooklyn was a separate city from New York until 1898, and its teams retained the name "Brooklyn". 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 stage or circus act called "The Hanlons' Superba". The New York press, in their usual creative way, began calling Ned Hanlon's Dodgers the Superbas. (TSNBBG) Around 1910, the club was briefly tagged as the Infants, from a remark by president Charles Ebbets, who had declared in a speech that "Baseball is in its infancy." In the words of TSNBBG, "The monicker clung until Thomas J. Lynch, then president of the National League, asked baseball writers to accept waivers on it." Once 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 informal nickname in 1916, when the home World Series programs were boldly titled "Dodgers vs Red Sox;" and yet, that same season, the Brooklyn Eagle used "Superbas" in its box scores, years after Hanlon's retirement, and a cartoon on the record 26-inning game vs Boston that year used a robin to represent the team. In 1933, the team put the word "Dodgers" on their shirts for the first time, in block letters. The famous script "Dodgers" first appeared in 1938. (Okkonen) 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 Willard Mullin (September 14, 1902 – December 20, 1978) was an American sports cartoonist. He is most famous for his creation of the "Brooklyn Bum", the personification of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, based on circus clown Emmett Kel ...

, characterizing the citizenry of Brooklyn in an unflattering but humorous way.

Chicago

Chicago is unique in Major League Baseball in that both of its charter member clubs have remained in their original cities. Various other clubs had brief lifespans in the Windy City also. The entry in the one-year wonder called the

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

was called the

Chicago Browns The Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies (also known as Chicago/Pittsburgh) were a short-lived professional baseball team in the Union Association of 1884. They were to battle the Chicago White Stockings, of the National League, for the Chicago ba ...

by some writers. The club lasted half a season and then transferred to Pittsburgh where, continuing their color scheme, they were called the Stogies. The

Players' League The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (PL), was a short-lived but star-studded professional American baseball league of the 19th century. The PL was formed by the Brotherhood of Prof ...

was a one-year rebellion by players. The entry in the Windy City, called the Chicago Pirates, were led by

Charles Comiskey Charles Albert Comiskey (August 15, 1859 – October 26, 1931), nicknamed "Commy" or "The Old Roman", was an American Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key person in the formation of the American League, and was also ...

, who would return to the South Side nine years later, as an owner, and with a decidedly more conservative attitude toward player salaries. When the

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

began its two-year experiment, it placed a team in Chicago. Although the Fed was known for colorful nicknames, the best anyone could come up with for the Chicago Federals' first year, 1914, was the Chi-Feds. For the second and final Fed season, which proved to be a pennant winner for the Chi-Feds, the name Chicago Whales was used, despite the lack of any known whales in

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. The uniforms featured a whale icon inside a large round "C", suggestive of the Cubs' logo of that time, a large round "C" encircling a bear cub. (Okkonen) The Chi-Fed Whales' lasting legacy is

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...

, which the Cubs moved into after the Federal League collapsed and have played there ever since.

Chicago Cubs

First official use: 1907 In 1870, the first openly professional team in Chicago, officially named simply the Chicago Ball Club, was dubbed the White Stockings, in reference to the team colors and in contrast to the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The team carried that nickname along to the NA in 1871 and into the NL in 1876. The Chicago club was indeed frequently referred to in newspaper articles as the White Stockings right from the 1870 season onward, making it one of the few "real" nicknames among those artificially retrofitted to the era's teams by sportswriters. After the team's successes in the first half of the 1880s, the club began trading away its stars, and by the end of the decade the team was populated by young players, with the exception of long-time player–manager

Cap Anson Adrian Constantine Anson (April 17, 1852 – April 14, 1922), nicknamed "Cap" (for "Captain") and "Pop", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 ...

. By the late 1880s, local newspapers had started to call the team "Anson's Colts", or just "Colts". With the advent of the

Players' League The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (PL), was a short-lived but star-studded professional American baseball league of the 19th century. The PL was formed by the Brotherhood of Prof ...

in 1890, what little talent the club still had was drained away, and the nickname, though never "official", became standard. (''The Golden Era Cubs: 1876–1940'', Eddie Gold and Art Ahrens, Bonus Books, 1985, p. 2) an

:"Charley Hoyt wrote a play for

Cap Anson Adrian Constantine Anson (April 17, 1852 – April 14, 1922), nicknamed "Cap" (for "Captain") and "Pop", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 ...

, manager of the team, called 'The Runaway Colt', and subsequently the team was called Anson's Colts."(TSNBBG) Actually, it was the other way around. The play was written and produced late in 1895, and its name was inspired by the club's nickname. (''The National Pastime, Number 25'', SABR, 2005, "Anson on Broadway", p.74-81.) In any case, 1890 is the usual date given for the replacement of "White Stockings" with "Colts" as the club's predominant nickname. The 1894 Spalding Guide refers to the team - once - as "Anson's so-called Chicago 'colts'." The Colts name would stick around, off and on, for the next 15 years. It was reinforced by a squad of many young players, contrasting with the veteran Anson, who had become known as "Pop" by the 1890s. Anson left the team after the 1897 season, and the local papers called the team the Orphans for a while, because they had lost their "Pop". They apparently still had some "pop" in their bats, finishing fourth in a twelve-team league. :"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." (TSNBBG) The 2007 Arcadia book called ''Chicago Cubs: Tinker to Evers to Chance'', by Art Ahrens, contains a series of facts in various places on pages 9–56 that add up to an explanation of the gradual transition from "Colts" to "Cubs": *The newspapers predominantly called the club the "Orphans" during 1898–1900. *The few promising players on the club jumped to the new American League in 1901, including several to the White Sox. The erstwhile "Orphans" had so few good players left that the papers called them the "Remnants", as the 53–86 team's percentage would stand as the club's record low for the next 60 years. *When Frank Selee took over the managerial

rein Reins are items of horse tack, used to direct a horse or other animal used for riding. They are long straps that can be made of leather, nylon, metal, or other materials, and attach to a bridle via either its bit or its noseband. Use f ...

s in 1902, his youth program revived the older nickname, and the team was again called the "Colts" in the papers frequently. *At that same time, also referencing the team's youthful squad, some writers starting calling the team the "Cubs". *The "Cubs" nickname took hold over the next four seasons. ''Sporting Life'' leaned toward "Cubs", while ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' favored "Colts", as did the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''. During 1905, "Colts" was still more common, as Selee preferred that name. But Selee retired due to ill health in mid-season 1905, and

Frank Chance Frank Leroy Chance (September 9, 1877 – September 15, 1924) was an American professional baseball player. A first baseman, Chance played in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs (initially named the "Orphans") and New York Yankees from 18 ...

was elevated to the managing job. With new management and an emerging dynasty, by 1906 the old "Colts" was largely passé and "Cubs" was the primary nickname. *Among various short-lived and little-remembered nicknames laid on the team by the media around 1906, perhaps the funniest was "Murphy's Spuds" or just "Spuds", a reference to Irish-American team owner Charles Murphy, and the stereotype connecting Irish people with potatoes (Irish potatoes were colloquially called "Murphy spuds" or just "Murphys"). By the time the Chicago National Leaguers played their cross-town

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

with the White Sox in 1906, the "Chicago Cubs" nickname was well established. An editorial cartoon after the Series showed a cabin with an unknown figure inside, with only his white socks visible, up on a footrest, with the skin of a bear nailed to the wall outside, and six more white socks hanging on a clothesline (the Sox had beaten the Cubs in six games). (John Devaney and Burt Goldblatt, ''The World Series: A Complete Pictorial History'', Rand McNally, 1975, p. 27). By 1907, the name "Cubs" was appearing on the team's scorecards. (Ahrens) 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 1908 World Series home programs used both the Cubs name and image frequently. The familiar "C" encircling "UBS" first appeared the following year, on the road shirts. With this official acknowledgment, the old nickname of "Colts" was gone for good. Either a bear cub symbol or the word "CUBS" has appeared on home and/or road shirts ever since then. (Okkonen) Despite the best efforts of the MLB Promotion Corporation, which began in the late 1960s, the Cubs did not trademark this iconic circle-C-UBS logo (which has been a steady fixture on uniforms and publications since 1937) until the late 1970s. The nickname "Cubbies", a diminutive of something already small or young, gained favor in large part due to

Harry Caray Harry Christopher Caray (; March 1, 1914 – February 18, 1998) was an American radio and television sportscaster. During his career he called the play-by-play for five Major League Baseball teams, beginning with 25 years of calling the games ...

's famous rendering of "

Take Me Out to the Ball Game "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game prior to writing the song ...

". 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 Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

played their games at the Cubs' Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970, and were renamed (from "Staleys") in honor of their hosts.

Chicago White Sox

First official use: 1906 (Stockings); 1912 (Sox) "Anson's National Leaguers had been known as the White Stockings, and when

Charles Comiskey Charles Albert Comiskey (August 15, 1859 – October 26, 1931), nicknamed "Commy" or "The Old Roman", was an American Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key person in the formation of the American League, and was also ...

brought his

St. Paul Saints The St. Paul Saints are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and have played their home games at CHS Field since 2015. They prev ...

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." (TSNBBG) 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. The transition can be seen in the 1906 Spalding Guide, in which both "White Stockings" and "White Sox" appear. In 1912, the team started wearing the first incarnation of its "SOX" logo on the shirts. (Okkonen) 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". The Hispanic community of Chicago calls them ''Las Medias Blancas'', Spanish for "The White Stockings".

Cincinnati

Cincinnati Red Stockings

The first openly all-professional team was the famous Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869–1870. They began as an amateur organization in the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1866, as interest in baseball grew substantially after the American Civil War. Interest in the Red Stockings themselves grew as they compiled an impressive winning streak while mostly on a road tour or "

barnstorming Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in ...

". The nickname "Red Stockings" was originally a press appellation based on their uniforms, in fact the 1869 Cincinnati club inaugurated the baseball tradition of wearing knickers with knee socks instead of long trousers, a style some contemporary prudes considered shocking and immoral; but player/manager Harry Wright quickly saw its appeal for marketing purposes and by midseason the club had adopted the name and called itself the Red Stockings Base Ball Club of Cincinnati. The Red Stockings went through 1869 and partway into 1870 undefeated, their streak finally ending on June 14, 1870. Interest in the team waned after that, and while the club gained much fame and acclaim, the team's profit margin was slim. The club's executives decided to disband the team for 1871. But the influence of this team was substantial. By 1870, professionalism was wide open, spelling the end of the "amateur era", and paving the way to the first professional league, the

National Association of Professional Base Ball Players The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully- professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 se ...

, which began operating in 1871. With the Cincinnati Red Stockings dissolved, four of its players regrouped in Boston to join the new National Association (often called the NA for short, by modern historians). Manager

Harry Wright William Henry "Harry" Wright (January 10, 1835 – October 3, 1895) was an English-born American professional baseball player, manager, and developer. He assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, t ...

and his brother

George Wright George Wright may refer to: Politics, law and government * George Wright (MP) (died 1557), MP for Bedford and Wallingford * George Wright (governor) (1779–1842), Canadian politician, lieutenant governor of Prince Edward Island * George Wright ...

(baseball's version of the " Wright brothers") brought along

Cal McVey Calvin Alexander McVey (August 30, 1849 – August 20, 1926) was an American professional baseball player during the 1860s and 1870s. McVey's importance to the game stems from his play on two of the earliest professional baseball teams, the origin ...

and

Charlie Gould Charles Harvey Gould (August 21, 1847 – April 9, 1917), nicknamed "The Bushel Basket",Guschov, p. 31 was an American Major League Baseball player during the 1860s and 1870s. He was the first baseman for the original Cincinnati Red Stocking ...

to form the Boston Red Stockings, which eventually evolved into the Atlanta Braves (q.v.)

Cincinnati Reds

First official use: 1911 Due to the influence of the Red Stockings, nearly every professional team in Cincinnati since then has worn red as their primary trim color. The Cincinnati teams have also tended to associate themselves with the 1869-70 club, but there is no direct connection other than the name. When the NA folded, the best teams, and some new ones, regrouped to form the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

in 1876. One of the new teams was called the Cincinnati Red Stockings, reclaiming the old name. The team was expelled from the National League in 1880 for selling beer at games and playing on Sundays. In 1882 a new league formed to challenge the established NL: The

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

. The AA appealed to a different, rowdier market than the stoic NL, by offering cheaper admission prices as well as alcoholic beverages, which at that time were forbidden in the NL ballparks. Ironically, this "AA" became known as "The Beer and Whisky League", and was criticized by the NL leadership for placing so many of its teams in "river towns", characterizing the AA cities as being populated by low-class citizens: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville and St. Louis. The new version of the Cincinnati Red Stockings (later shortened to Cincinnati Reds; the earliest mention of "Reds" in the Spalding Guide dates from the 1895 edition) became prosperous. The team won the first American Association pennant, and survived most of Association's ten-year existence, transferring to the National League in 1890. For 1891, a short lived "Cincinnati Reds" entry joined the Association, otherwise known as " Kelly's Killers". The club failed to finish the season and was replaced by Milwaukee. By then the Association was floundering, and collapsed after the season ended. The NL Reds continue 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 since then. (Okkonen) 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 Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

". During the

McCarthy era McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origina ...

, even though there was no connection between professional 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. (Okkonen) An NFL entry that played briefly in the early 1930s was called the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

. The nickname "Red Stockings" and its descendants reflect one of the oldest nicknames in baseball, topped only by the Athletics, originally of Philadelphia and now in Oakland, and "Mets", a variation of "Metropolitans", a name that goes back to an amateur baseball club in New York in the 1850s.

Cleveland

Cleveland is known as "The Forest City", and its early-1870s pro team was called the Forest City Base Ball Club or just the "Forest Citys", in the style of the day. During the 1871 season, "Cleveland" was often part of their name in newspapers, to distinguish from the

Rockford Forest Citys Rockford Forest Citys (officially the Forest City Club), from Rockford, Illinois was one of the first professional baseball clubs. Rockford played for one season during the National Association inaugural year of . They are not to be confused wit ...

of the same league. The National League entry of the 1890s was dubbed the

Cleveland Spiders The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followe ...

by the press, supposedly because of its long-limbed players. One player during 1897–1899 was Louis Sockalexis, a Native American. His ballplaying skills caught a great deal of attention, though his career was short. During those three seasons, the team was sometimes called the Cleveland Indians.

Cleveland Indians

First official use: 1915 After the 1899 debacle of 20 wins and 134 losses, in which the once-proud Spiders were redubbed the "Wanderers" and the "Exiles" due to being relegated to a road franchise, the NL contracted the Cleveland club out of existence. A new team formed the very next year in the young American League. The uniforms featured dark blue, and the team was labeled the "Blues" and "Bluebirds" by the media, among other short-lived nicknames. In 1903 club ownership conducted a newspaper contest to choose a name for the team, and selected Napoleons for newly acquired star player-manager Napoleon Lajoie; in popular usage this was quickly shortened to "Naps." The fact that they would go to the papers is a reflection of where most of the team nicknames of that era came from. During the tenure of manager

Deacon McGuire James Thomas "Deacon" McGuire (November 18, 1863 – October 31, 1936) was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach whose career spanned the years 1883 to 1915. He played 26 seasons in Major League Baseball, principally as a ca ...

, the team was also sometimes facetiously called the "

Molly Maguires The Molly Maguires were an Irish people, Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the Eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish diaspora, Irish immigrant coal miners i ...

". (TSNBBG) The team was strong in the early 1900s, but lapsed in the 1910s and "Naps" began to be taken as a joke equated to "sleeping". When Lajoie was traded to the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakla ...

in early January 1915, owner Charles Somers asked the local newspapers again to come up with a new name for the team. Legend has it that the team specifically honored Louis Sockalexis when it assumed the name "Indians" in mid-January 1915. Another version is that the media and the team chose Cleveland Indians as a play on the name of the

Boston Braves The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During it ...

, then known as the "Miracle Braves" after going from last place on July 4 to a sweep in the

1914 World Series The 1914 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 1914 season. The 11th edition of the World Series, it was played between the American League champion and defending World Series champion Philadelphia Athletics and ...

. The informal "Indians" name sometimes used during Sockalexis' time with the club reinforced the new name. With the artificial connection to Native Americans, the Cleveland Indians were also often called "The Tribe". In the movie '' Major League'', the Cleveland Indians are referred to by many names, including "The Erie Warriors", "The Sons of Geronimo" and "The Fighting Braves of the Cuyahoga."

Cleveland Guardians

First official use: 2022 In 2020, the club joined other sports franchises with Native American names in exploring whether to modify or change their names. It was announced that the team would cease using the name "Indians" following the 2021 baseball season, after which they would change their name to the Cleveland Guardians. The name "Guardians" was inspired by the eight "Guardians of Traffic"

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

statues displayed on the

Hope Memorial Bridge The Hope Memorial Bridge (formerly the Lorain–Carnegie Bridge) is a art deco truss bridge crossing the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio. The bridge connects Lorain Avenue on Cleveland's west side and Carnegie Avenue on the east side, terminat ...

near their home field.

Dallas–Fort Worth

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 The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

, and the other was the

Fort Worth Cats The Fort Worth Cats was a professional baseball team based in Fort Worth, Texas, in the United States. The Cats were a member of the South Division of the now disbanded United League Baseball, which was not affiliated with Major League Basebal ...

/Panthers of the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

. 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 years in Arlington before the majors came knocking.

Texas Rangers

First official use: 1972 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 Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers and also known as ''Los Diablos Tejanos'' (), is an investigative law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in the US state of Texas. It is based in the capital city of A ...

, the law enforcement agency that was created by

Stephen F. Austin Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas,Hatch (1999), p. 43. he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization ...

in 1823. Up until the end of the 2008 season, the team bore the word "RANGERS" on their home jerseys and "TEXAS" on their road jerseys. Since then, the team has worn "TEXAS" at home ''and'' on the road.

Denver

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies became a new franchise into Major League Baseball in 1993. The nickname "Rockies" alludes to the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

which cover much of the western half of Colorado. The name Colorado Rockies had been used by a

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to inf ...

that lasted from 1976 to 1982, before the team relocated and became the

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The club was founded as the Kan ...

.

Detroit

The first major league team in the city was dubbed the

Wolverines The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscu ...

, who contended in the National League during 1881–1888. The nickname, which is now primarily associated with the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

teams, came from

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

's nickname, the "

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a musc ...

State". The club's ownership spent a great deal of money to bring a championship team to Detroit, and the team won an early

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

in 1887. However, Detroit at the time did not have a large enough population to sustain a major league franchise, and the team folded after one more season. Several minor league clubs came and went over the next few years, typically tagged as Wolverines.

Detroit Tigers

First official use: 1901 The new minor league entry in the Western League was also called the Wolverines. This club came to stay. The league was renamed the American League in 1900, and the Detroit franchise is still in the league, the one Western League franchise still in its original city, nurtured as it was by the growth of the auto industry in the 20th century. There are various legends about how the Tigers got their

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

. One involves the orange stripes they wore on their black stockings: :"Philip J. Reid, a Detroit city editor, tagged the players as Tigers before the turn of the century.

George Stallings George Tweedy Stallings (November 17, 1867 – May 13, 1929) was an American professional baseball catcher and manager. He played in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and Philadelphia Phillies in 1890 and 1897 to 1898 and man ...

, 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." (TSNBBG) Another legend concerns a sportswriter equating the 1901 team's opening day victory with the ferocity of his alma mater, the

Princeton Tigers The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in m ...

. The earliest known use of the name Detroit Tigers in the news was in the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primar ...

'' 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 A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

battles and in the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

. The baseball team was called both the "Wolverines" and 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". Certainly when the team started major-league play in 1901, they were already wearing a tiger logo on their caps. In short, the Tigers most likely wore stripes because they were already Tigers, rather than the other way around which was the conventional story. In fact, the Tigers wore a ''red'' stripe on their socks in 1901, and generally avoided stripes after that until beginning to wear orange stripes for a while in the 1920s. (Okkonen) The

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

of the NFL were named in reference to their then-landlords, the Tigers. The

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, and are ...

of the NHL were originally called the "Cougars", but that referred to their point of origin as the

Victoria Cougars The Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) from 1911 to 1924 under various names, and (after the PCHA's merger with the Western Canada Hockey League) in the W ...

. Their early name's apparent relationship to the Tigers and/or Lions was coincidental. The University of Detroit, the main predecessor to today's

University of Detroit Mercy The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catholic univers ...

, initially used "Tigers" as its athletic nickname. The school changed its nickname to

Titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...

in 1919 or 1924, depending on the source. This nickname remained in use for the rest of UD's separate existence, and was inherited by UDM upon the 1990 merger with Mercy College of Detroit that created the current university.

Houston

The minor league teams of first the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

and then the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

were primarily known as the

Houston Buffaloes The Houston Buffaloes, Houston Buffalos, or Buffs were an American minor league baseball team, and were the first minor league team to be affiliated with a Major League franchise, which was the St. Louis Cardinals. The club was founded in 1888 ...

, or often just "Buffs". They were named after Houston's

Buffalo Bayou Buffalo Bayou is a slow-moving body of water which flows through Houston in Harris County, Texas. Formed 18,000 years ago, it has its source in the prairie surrounding Katy, Fort Bend County, and flows approximately east through the Houston Shi ...

, which has always been a geographic and culturally significant hallmark of the city.

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 Houston Colt .45s, a reference to the famous Colt firearms company. The team itself used a Colt .45s logo, but was most often called just the "Colts", a somewhat ambiguous term as it also applies to young horses and skirted the legal issues that eventually influenced the name's abandonment by the club. In 1965 the team changed its nickname to Houston Astros, a name that had more futuristic overtones (''astro'' is

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

for "star") as since 1961 Houston was the city where

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

trained (and continues to train) all the American

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

s. The team also used the nickname as part of its new home, the

Astrodome The NRG Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas. It was financed and assisted in development by Roy Hofheinz, mayor of Houston ...

, which opened in 1965. This name change was driven in part by legal considerations. ''The Sporting News Official Baseball Guide'' for 1965 explained why the team was renamed: "Late in the year 1964 the Harris County Domed Stadium was officially named the Astrodome after the Houston club changed its nickname, December 1, from Colt .45s to Astros. The move resulted from objections by the Colt Firearms Company to the club's sales of novelties bearing the old nickname." The nickname 'Stros is often used as a familiar name.

Kansas City, Missouri

Being at the fringe of the old west, and thus connected with cowboys and cattle, several of Kansas City's teams have had nicknames reflecting that culture. There were three different short-lived major league teams in the 1800s, members of the

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

in 1884, the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

in 1886, and the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

in 1888 and 1889. The 1880s were the peak years of the great western cattle drives, and Kansas City the biggest of all cow-towns; it was inevitable that sportswriters would tag these men from the Wild West as "Cowboys." The minor league entry in the

Western League (original) Western League may refer to: Baseball * Western League (1885–1899), the predecessor to the modern American League of 1901 in Major League Baseball * Western League (1900–1958), a former U.S. minor baseball league loop. Its region was later re ...

in the late 1890s was the first to be called the 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 American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

during the first half of the 20th century. The team became a

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

farm team in the 1930s. The team transferred to Denver in 1955 when the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakla ...

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 Charles Oscar Finley (February 22, 1918 – February 19, 1996), nicknamed Charlie O or Charley O, was an American businessman who owned Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas Ci ...

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 Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930 ...

, the longest-running of the various

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

teams that operated as an

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

culture until major league baseball was integrated in 1947 by one-time Monarch

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

. 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 Athletics

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 Charles Oscar Finley (February 22, 1918 – February 19, 1996), nicknamed Charlie O or Charley O, was an American businessman who owned Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas Ci ...

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) In 1972 Finley changed the team's official name to the longstanding nickname "A's"; "Athletics" was restored in 1981.

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 Ewing Marion Kauffman (September 21, 1916 August 1, 1993) was an American pharmaceutical entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Major League Baseball owner. Early life and education Ewing Kauffman was born on September 21, 1916, on a farm near Gar ...

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. Also, in an unspoken and possibly coincidental continuation of tradition, the Royals' uniforms carry blue trim.

Los Angeles area

The minor league teams had been known as the

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team h ...

since the founding of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

in 1903, named after the city itself. That team name contained a built-in redundancy if fully translated into English: "The Angels Angels".

Los Angeles Dodgers

The minor league team and the nickname were displaced when the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Californi ...

of the National League moved 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

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 Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...

. 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. The ownership wanted to revert to the original name, Los Angeles Angels, for marketing reasons. This caused legal problems with the city of Anaheim, since the franchise was contractually required to keep "Anaheim" in the team name. As a result, the official designation became the wordy "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim." and the geographic location has been removed from the team's jerseys. The Angels are commonly nicknamed "the Halos".

Miami

Florida / Miami Marlins

Minor league teams had been known as the Miami Marlins for several decades, referencing the

marlin Marlins are fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes about 10 species. A marlin has an elongated body, a spear-like snout or bill, and a long, rigid dorsal fin which extends forward to form a crest. Its common name is thought to deri ...

, a popular sport fish. There were the

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The fra ...

of the International League (1956–60) and the

Miami Marlins (1962–70) The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Fort Myers, Florida, and play their home games at the Lee County Sports Complex at Ha ...

and

Miami Marlins (1982–88) The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Fort Myers, Florida, and play their home games at the Lee County Sports Complex at H ...

of the

Florida State League The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A followi ...

. When the major leagues expanded to the Miami area in 1993, the old nickname was revived, but the team was initially known as the Florida Marlins. By identifying with the entire state instead of the city, the name's alliterative quality was lost. However, the team officially adopted the Miami Marlins name on November 11, 2011. This was part of a funding agreement between the team and the city of Miami for the team's new stadium which opened in 2012. The Marlins are commonly nicknamed "the Fish".

Milwaukee

Milwaukee's various professional teams, going back to the 1870s, had names like the Cream Citys and the Brewers, in reference to the local unique cream brick industry and brewing industry respectively. In particular, some famous breweries included Schlitz ("The beer that made Milwaukee famous"), Blatz, Pabst, and later

Miller Beer The Miller Brewing Company is an American brewery and beer company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1855 by Frederick Miller. Molson Coors acquired the full global brand portfolio of Miller Brewing Company in 2016, and operates the ...

, which held naming rights to the current stadium from its construction in 2001, until it was rebranded American Family Field in 2020. There was a short-lived major league entry, sometimes called the

Milwaukee Grays The Milwaukee Grays were a short-lived baseball team that spent one year, 1878, in the National League. The team was part of the League Alliance, loosely affiliated with the National League, in 1877. It won 19 games and lost 13 (including a 10– ...

, 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 American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

was then called the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

for some 50 years before being displaced by the transplanted

Boston Braves The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During it ...

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 Allan Huber "Bud" Selig (; born July 30, 1934) is an American baseball executive who currently serves as the Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball. Previously, he served as the ninth Commissioner of Baseball from 1998 to 2015. He initially served a ...

began a lobbying group originally called "Team, Inc." and then renamed "Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Inc." The

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

played some home games in Milwaukee in that interval. The current Milwaukee Brewers began as the

Seattle Pilots The Seattle Pilots were an American professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington during the 1969 Major League Baseball season. During their single-season existence, the Pilots played their home games at Sick's Stadium and were a mem ...

, a 1969 expansion team in the American League. After one year of significant 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 1998 as part of the expansion and reorganization of the major leagues.

Minneapolis – Saint Paul

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 American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

for the better part of five decades. The Minneapolis clubs were usually called the

Minneapolis Millers The Minneapolis Millers were an American professional minor league baseball team that played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, through 1960. In the 19th century a different Minneapolis Millers were part of the Western League. The team played first in ...

, 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 Saints or Apostles, including the city's short lived

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

entry in 1884. Later the city's minor league clubs adopted the

St. Paul Saints The St. Paul Saints are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and have played their home games at CHS Field since 2015. They prev ...

nickname, a self-contained redundancy. The Western League club from the 1890s moved to Chicago in 1900 and became the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

. The revived minor league Saints joined their cross-river rivals in the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

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 Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

". 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". The newly transferred Minnesota Twins club wore a cap featuring "TC" for "Twin Cities" to honor both St. Paul and Minneapolis. The shirts included a sleeve patch with an outline of the state and two ballplayers (known as "Minnie and Paul") shaking hands across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

. 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 The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

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 was switched off with the "M" cap until the 2009 season, retired after the team's 2010 move to

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. The stadium hosted the 2014 Major Leagu ...

. (Okkonen) "TC" is usually used as the team's home cap, with "M" as the road cap, though the cap, as with other elements of the team's uniform, is chosen at the whim of the

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

. Another nickname used by fans and writers, but not by the team, is "Twinkies", though that name is used more as an insult by the fans of competing teams, or by disgruntled local fans when the team is performing poorly.

Montreal

Before Major League Baseball expanded to Montreal in 1969, minor league teams in Montreal were usually named the "Royals", in reference to

Mount Royal Mount Royal (french: link=no, Mont Royal, ) is a large intrusive rock hill or small mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The best-known hypothesis for the origin of the name Montreal is the ...

(french: Mont Réal), a volcanic plug immediately west of today's downtown after which the city was named. Hence another redundancy, the "Mount Royal Royals".

Montreal Expos

The

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in ...

were named in honor of

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...

, a

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

held two years before the Expos began play. The Expos moved to Washington in 2005, and the "Expos" name was retired.

New York City

As the cradle of organized baseball, New York City had many clubs in the "amateur" era leading up to 1869–1870, and the "professional" era after that.

Knickerbocker A Knickerbocker is a person from Manhattan (New York City, before 1898). A modern synonym is “New Yorker”. Knickerbocker or Knickerbockers may also refer to: People * Knickerbocker (surname), including a list of people with the surname, an ...

, Mutual and Gotham were some of the more prominent clubs. The short-lived

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

entry in New York was the Brooklyn Tip-Tops. The Fed teams had some innovative names, and this was probably the only major league team ever named for a loaf of bread.

New York Mets

Since the amateur Metropolitan Base Ball Club was founded in New York as far back as 1857, three years before Athletic of Philadelphia, the Mets can claim to have the oldest team name in major-league baseball. The first professional Metropolitan Baseball Club was a member of the 19th Century

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

, a club which lasted until 1887 but could not compete with the Giants. They were normally listed as "Metropolitan" in the standings, and writers would sometimes use the pluralized "Metropolitans" or just "Mets" in the style of the day, to distinguish them from the "New Yorks", their next-door neighbors. The Metropolitans were never referred to as "New York." When major league baseball expanded in 1962, the old name 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 The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

; "MetLife" for the

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

; and so on. The

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The ...

of the NFL, originally known as the New York Titans, were the first of several New York area teams whose names rhymed with "Mets". Others included the

New York Nets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

of the NBA (now Brooklyn Nets), and the New York Sets of the short-lived Team Tennis league.

New York Giants

First official use: 1911 The early entry of this team in 1883 was simply the New Yorks, also sometimes called the Gothams, "Gotham" being a synonym for New York City. According to legend, manager

Jim Mutrie James J. Mutrie (June 13, 1851 – January 24, 1938) was an American baseball pioneer who was the co-founder and first manager of both the original New York Metropolitans and the New York Giants. He had a winning percentage of .611, the highest f ...

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 proud 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." (TSNBBG) The problem with that story is that the Giants nickname was already in use in newspapers by 1884. By 1885, it was well-established in the press. Although unofficial for a long time, it remains one of the oldest team names in MLB. "Giants" was one of the only team nicknames used with any frequency at all in 1886 newspaper writeups, and the only team nickname, ''period,'' found in Spalding's Official Guide for 1889. However, the team's official name, as printed on its scorecards, remained simply the New York Base Ball Club. Although the "Giants" nickname was well established, it wasn't endorsed by the franchise until they put it on the home programs for the 1911 World Series; 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

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

of the NFL were named for the baseball team which was once their landlord. Even though the baseball Giants moved in 1958, the NFL team to this day displays a sign at

MetLife Stadium MetLife Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, 5 mi (8 km) west of New York City. Opened in 2010 to replace Giants Stadium, it serves as the home for the New York Giants a ...

proudly indicating that the team's official name remains the "New York Football Giants."

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 William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

'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 to 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 Hilltop Park was the nickname of a baseball park that stood in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. It was the home of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball from 1903 to 1912, when they were known as the "Highlanders". I ...

" for the American League Park), which contrasted especially with the altitude of the Giants, whose

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

was in the bottomland in the shadow of Coogan's Bluff. Creative members of the press, who liked to make artificial connections between disparate elements of popular culture, dubbed the team "Gordon's Highlanders" (e.g. New York ''World'', April 15, 1903), soon shortened to just "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) A prophetic letter to the editor of the New York ''Sun'', May 7, 1903, p. 8, raised this question: "Name for the American New Yorks. If the new baseball team is to have a name that is in keeping with the 'Giants,' does it not seem reasonable that if they are the 'New York Americans' they might be called the 'Yankees' or 'Yanks'?" The alternate nickname "Yankees" first appeared regularly in the press in 1904. The term "

Yankee The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United S ...

" 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, , a spring training story from

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

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 Harold Homer Chase (February 13, 1883 – May 18, 1947), nicknamed "Prince Hal", was an American professional baseball first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position. During his career, he pl ...

, 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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' writeup about

Cy Young Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered th ...

'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 George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

'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 name must have been considered 'official' at least by 1923, when the team named its new ballpark Yankee Stadium. 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 Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

. 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. One early newspaper usage came in July 1928.

Oakland

The

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

entry was typically called the

Oakland Oaks (PCL) The Oakland Oaks were a minor league baseball team in Oakland, California that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 through 1955, after which the club transferred to Vancouver, British Columbia. The team was named for the city and used th ...

and sometimes the Acorns as an unofficial variant.

Oakland A's

The

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...

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

Philadelphia

Aside from the enduring teams called the "Athletics" and the "Phillies", other professional teams in Philadelphia over the years included the

Philadelphia White Stockings The Philadelphia White Stockings were an early professional baseball team. They were a member of the National Association from 1873 to 1875. Their home games were played at the Jefferson Street Grounds. They were managed by Fergy Malone, Jimm ...

(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 The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

experiment in 1884.

Philadelphia Athletics

First official use: 1901 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 1860s, 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 American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

, 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 John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 189 ...

, then manager of the New York Giants, and bitter enemy of American League president

Ban Johnson Byron Bancroft Johnson (January 5, 1864 – March 28, 1931) was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League (AL). Johnson developed the AL—a descendant of the min ...

, gave out an interview belittling the entry of the American League in Philadelphia, and sarcastically referred to Ben Shibe and

Connie Mack Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds untoucha ...

's club as a '

white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...

'. A Philadelphia newspaperman labeled the Athletics the White Elephants, and they went on to win the first of many flags." (TSNBBG) The

1905 World Series The 1905 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1905 season. It was the second edition of the World Series after the 1903 Series, since the 1904 season ended with no Series held. The 1905 Series matched the Nat ...

pitted the Giants against the A's, and before the first game the A's captain presented a small white elephant toy to McGraw, photos capturing one of the few times McGraw was caught grinning. That "first of many flags" characterization, first written about 1940, was from a time when the A's were still thought of as winners or at least contenders. The team's decline, from the mid-1930s clear into the mid-1960s, would result in the franchise being transferred twice. The elephant logo first appeared on uniforms in 1918, and 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 weathers 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) After owner

Charles O. Finley Charles Oscar Finley (February 22, 1918 – February 19, 1996), nicknamed Charlie O or Charley O, was an American businessman who owned Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas Ci ...

moved the team to Oakland in 1968, he dropped "Athletics" and made "A's" the official team name. "Athletics" was restored in 1981.

Philadelphia Phillies

"They've been the Phillies ever since the team entered the National League in 1883." (TSNBBG). "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. The city itself is often called "Philly" for short. Other uses of that term include the

Philly Cheesesteak A cheesesteak (also known as a Philadelphia cheesesteak, Philly cheesesteak, cheesesteak sandwich, cheese steak, or steak and cheese) is a sandwich made from thinly sliced pieces of beefsteak and melted cheese in a long hoagie roll. A popular r ...

and the popular Phillies Blunt cigar. "Phillies'" earliest appearance in the Spalding Guide was in 1894, in the context of "Bostons," "Chicagos" etc. 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. (TSNBBG) 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 Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street (Philadelphia), Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating capa ...

, the team returned to a stylized letter "P" on their shirts. In 1992, the script "Phillies" was restored to the shirts. (Okkonen)

Phoenix

Prior to its entrance to the Major Leagues, Phoenix used several different nicknames for its ball clubs. They were first known as the

Phoenix Senators The Phoenix Senators were a minor league baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, that played on-and-off from 1915 to 1957. They played in the Rio Grande Association in 1915, the Arizona State League from 1928 to 1930, the Arizona–Texas Lea ...

, then the

Phoenix Giants Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), ...

after their big league affiliate, and lastly the Phoenix Firebirds, for the mythologic bird synonymous with the city's name.

Arizona Diamondbacks

A Diamondback, specifically ''

Crotalus atrox The western diamondback rattlesnake or Texas diamond-backWright AH, Wright AA. (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes''. Comstock Publishing Associates. (7th printing, 1985). . (''Crotalus atrox'') is a rattlesnake species and member of the viper family, ...

'', is a

rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small an ...

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 A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

is also called a "diamond". The team is often called the "D-backs" for short, and as of 2007 the team is wearing shirts that read "D-backs". On the left sleeve is a stylized "db" which forms the head of a snake.

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Pirates

The original Pittsburgh club, formed in 1882, was in the then-separate city of

Allegheny, Pennsylvania Allegheny City was a municipality that existed in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania from 1788 until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. It was located north across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, with its southwest border formed by ...

, 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 American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

during 1882–1886, then transferred to the National League in 1887. However, out-of-town newspapers tended to list the team as "Pittsburg" (as it was often spelled at the time) rather than "Allegheny." The club wore "Pittsburgh" (variously spelled with or without the final ''h'') on its uniforms by 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 The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (PL), was a short-lived but star-studded professional American baseball league of the 19th century. The PL was formed by the Brotherhood of Prof ...

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 John Montgomery Ward (March 3, 1860 – March 4, 1925), known as Monte Ward, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, shortstop, second baseman, third baseman, manager, executive, union organizer, owner and author. Ward, of English desce ...

, a current Major League pitcher and

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

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 rift 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 The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakla ...

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 Allen W. 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. The Spalding Guide was using "Pirates" occasionally by its 1894 edition. By the time of the

1903 World Series The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball. It matched the American League (AL) champion Boston Americans against the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates in a best-of-nine series, wit ...

, the team (officially the Pittsburgh Athletic Company) was commonly known as "Pirates", and represented in cartoons by a pirate figure, although the club did not acknowledge it on their uniforms until 1912. Alternate nicknames such as "Bucs" or "Buccos", short for "

buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 168 ...

", have been used through the years. "Buccaneer" is typically used synonymously with "pirate", although historically "buccaneer" is a more specific term for pirates who operated in the Caribbean, especially along the

Spanish Main During the Spanish colonization of America, the Spanish Main was the collective term for the parts of the Spanish Empire that were on the mainland of the Americas and had coastlines on the Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico. The term was used to ...

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." (TSNBBG) The

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

of the NFL began as the Pittsburgh Pirates, in reference to the baseball team from which they rented

Forbes Field Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers ...

in their early years. There was also a short-lived NHL entry from 1925 to 1930 called the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

.

St. Louis

In the National Association of 1875, St. Louis fielded two entries, called the

St. Louis Brown Stockings The St. Louis Brown Stockings were a professional baseball club based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1875 to 1877, which competed on the cusps of the existences of two all-professional leagues—the National Association (NA) and the National Leagu ...

(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 League ball after the 1877 season due to a betting scandal, but continued to play as an independent semipro team. The

St. Louis Maroons The St. Louis Maroons were a professional baseball club based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1884–1886. The club, established by Henry Lucas, were the one near-major league quality entry in the Union Association, a league that lasted only one ...

of the

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

in 1884, and the NL in 1885–1886, continued the reddish color scheme during their brief tenure. For the 1886 season they wore uniforms sporting a large black diamond shape on the chest, and some reporters referred to them as the "Black Diamonds" that year. In 1887 they decamped for Indianapolis, where they played three losing seasons before folding. The

St. Louis Terriers The St. Louis Terriers were a baseball club that played in the short-lived Federal League in and . They played their home games at Handlan's Park. The team was owned by ice magnate Phil Ball, who later was owner of the St. Louis Browns. In thei ...

of the

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

of 1914–1915 were the only major league club in St. Louis that eschewed being named for a color.

St. Louis Cardinals

The old Browns were bought by St. Louis grocery magnate Chris von der Ahe in 1882 and became a charter member of the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

. The team continued with brown stockings and trim, and was one of the most successful in the AA's ten-year existence under the leadership of 1st baseman/captain

Charles Comiskey Charles Albert Comiskey (August 15, 1859 – October 26, 1931), nicknamed "Commy" or "The Old Roman", was an American Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key person in the formation of the American League, and was also ...

, and was carried forward into the NL in 1892. In 1893 their jerseys were blazoned "St. Louis Browns" (in white, on navy blue uniforms; only their belts and socks were brown). In 1899, the club decided it was time for a makeover. They rebuilt the stands at

Robison Field Robison Field is the best-known of several names given to a former Major League Baseball park in St. Louis, Missouri. It was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League from April 27, 1893 until June 6, 1920. History Today's C ...

after a fire; they stripped the

Cleveland Spiders The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followe ...

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 refreshed 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 TSNBBG, 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

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...

s of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. 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 Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...

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 The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

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 royal Saint. In 1952 they began wearing a sleeve patch with a cartoon face of a " Brownie". The

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...

of the NFL have no connection to the St. Louis Browns, although their color scheme (orange and brown) and their use of a "Brownie" coincide.

San Diego

San Diego Padres

The minor league team called the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

operated during 1936–1968. The name ''Padre'' was taken from the Spanish word for "Father", a term of respect used for Spanish missionaries; San Diego was founded as a mission by Franciscan friars. 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 "Pads" or "Pods" in the media, which rhymes with the first syllable of "PAHD-rays". "Friars" has also been a longtime team nickname.

San Francisco

The San Francisco Seals operated from the inception of the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

in 1903 through 1957. The name "Seals" was revived by a professional hockey team in 1961 which eventually became the

California Golden Seals The California Golden Seals were a professional ice hockey club that competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967 to 1976. Based in Oakland, California, they played their home games at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena. The ...

before departing the Bay Area. A second, shorter-lived club was the

Mission Reds The Mission Reds were a minor league baseball team located in San Francisco, California, that played in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) from 1926 through 1937. First Missions team In early September of 1914, the failed Sacramento Solons team moved ...

, 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 Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...

's team, moved after the 1957 season to make way for the arrival of the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

, who followed the Dodgers from the east coast. The San Francisco Giants have lived up to their name, with sluggers like

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

,

Willie McCovey Willie Lee McCovey (January 10, 1938 – October 31, 2018), nicknamed "Stretch", "Mac" and "Willie Mac", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1959 to 1980, most notably as a mem ...

and

Barry Bonds Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Gian ...

rocketing baseballs out of the San Francisco ballparks just as Mays and

Mel Ott Melvin Thomas Ott (March 2, 1909 – November 21, 1958), nicknamed "Master Melvin", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, from through . He batted left-handed an ...

did in New York.

Seattle

The original

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

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 The Rainier Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Seattle, Washington. It brewed Rainier Beer, a popular brand in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Although Rainier was founded in 1884, the Seattle site had been brewing beer ...

, and indirectly in reference to

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a ...

, 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. Since 1995, the Rainiers name has been used by the Seattle Mariners' Triple-A affiliate in nearby Tacoma.

Seattle Pilots

The AL expansion team in 1969 was named in reference to the prominence of marine activities in the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected m ...

area, primarily after ship pilots who guide large ships into the ports of Puget Sound. The caps even featured the "scrambled eggs" golden-leaf symbol of a ship's captain. The ambitious but underfunded club sank in a sea of red ink, and became the first major league club since the 1901 Milwaukee Brewers to switch cities after one year. Ironically, the Pilots moved to Milwaukee, and became the new

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

.

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 in Seattle for over 40 years with no indications of leaving anytime soon.

Tampa Bay Area

Several minor league teams played in the Tampa Bay area prior to the introduction of the American League ball club in 1998. Named after the local cigar industry, the Tampa Smokers existed in several leagues from 1919 until 1954. Also bearing the Tampa city name were the

Tampa Tarpons The Tampa Tarpons are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. They are located in Tampa, Florida. The Tarpons play their home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field, which is ...

who existed from 1957 until 1988, and were named after the Atlantic-native fish. The St. Petersburg Saints, who were named as such because of their city name, played mostly in the

Florida State League The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A followi ...

from 1920 until 1928 and again from 1947 until 2000. Other teams still exist in the area including a new iteration of the

Tampa Tarpons The Tampa Tarpons are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. They are located in Tampa, Florida. The Tarpons play their home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field, which is ...

and the

Dunedin Blue Jays The Dunedin Blue Jays are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and are the Single-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball club. They are located in Dunedin, Florida, and play their home games at TD Ballpark, ...

(named after their MLB affiliate), the

Clearwater Threshers The Clearwater Threshers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. They are located in Clearwater, Florida, and have played their home games at BayCare Ballpark since ...

(after the

thresher shark Thresher sharks are large lamniform sharks of the family Alopiidae found in all temperate and tropical oceans of the world; the family contains three extant species, all within the genus ''Alopias''. All three thresher shark species have bee ...

), the

Bradenton Marauders The Bradenton Marauders are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are located in Bradenton, Florida, and play their home games at LECOM Park, which also serves as the ...

(a nod to their MLB affiliate, the Pittsburgh Pirates), and the

Lakeland Flying Tigers The Lakeland Flying Tigers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Lakeland, Florida, and play their home games at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. H ...

, who similarly named as a nod to their MLB affiliate, the Detroit Tigers.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays

The club was an expansion franchise in the American League in 1998. The team's logo included an illustration of a

manta ray Manta rays are large rays belonging to the genus ''Mobula'' (formerly its own genus ''Manta''). The larger species, '' M. birostris'', reaches in width, while the smaller, '' M. alfredi'', reaches . Both have triangular pectoral fins, horn-s ...

, also called a devilfish or devil ray. The team was also called the D-rays or the Rays for short. As of 2007, one version of their home uniforms said "Rays", and no version said "Devil Rays", although a patch illustrating a manta ray was used. On November 8, 2007, the club announced that they were dropping the "Devil" part in order to identify themselves primarily with the rays of the sun,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

being the Sunshine State, and their redesigned logo reflects that theme. As noted in the MLB articl

the club stated that they would continue using the manta ray patch as an acknowledgment of their previous identity – a feature easily visible on their uniforms in the super-closeups used by television in the

2008 World Series The 2008 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2008 season. The 104th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Philadelphia Phillies and the Ame ...

, as the former league doormats turned into the American League's champion team in 2008. The club would also retain its furry mascot, called "Raymond", strictly for humorous reasons, as that name has no etymological connection to either the old or the new usage of "ray".

Toronto

The original minor league club in Toronto was the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

, which operated from 1896 through 1967 in the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ( ...

. The

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

club renamed itself the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

in 1927 and has been known by that name ever since.

Toronto Blue Jays

By the time the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor 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 Labatt Brewing Company Limited (french: La Brasserie Labatt Limitée) is a Belgian-owned brewery headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1847, Labatt is the largest brewer in Canada. In 1995, it was purchased by Belgian brewer In ...

, with Imperial Trust and the

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; french: Banque canadienne impériale de commerce) is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario. ...

as minority owners. The name Toronto Blue Jays came about when former Ontario Premier

John Robarts John Parmenter Robarts (January 11, 1917 – October 18, 1982) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th premier of Ontario from 1961 to 1971. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Early life Robar ...

, 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." "Blue" was also the top-selling brand of beer sold by Labatt's, providing an on-air opportunity for TV commentators to take a microscopic pause when saying "You're watching Labatt's Blue...Jays baseball on CBC." 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 The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

(the team that Toronto beat in the

1993 World Series The 1993 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) season. The 90th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the defending World Series champion and American League (AL) champio ...

), 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, and it appears in the 1894 Spalding Guide.

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 to 1904, 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 wear a full team name. 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." (TSNBBG) 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 The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

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 Joseph Edward Cronin (October 12, 1906 – September 7, 1984) was an American professional baseball player, manager and executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop, most notably as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Cronin sp ...

with the caption "Nationals' Manager". Although "Nationals" or "Nats" was still used on

baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stad ...

s issued by

Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...

as late as 1956, by the 1950s, the name "Nationals" was pretty much passé. For example, the popular 1955 Broadway musical ''

Damn Yankees ''Damn Yankees'' is a 1955 musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., dur ...

'' referred to the club primarily, if not exclusively, as the "Senators". Following the

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

season, owner Calvin Griffith decided to officially change the name to Senators, but it wasn't until

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

that the word "Senators" finally appeared on their shirts. (Okkonen) They and their expansion-replacement in

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

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 The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

of the National League, transplanted from the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in ...

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 prohibited by the Texas Rangers still owning the rights to that trademark. Although there was some sentiment to revive the name Senators, political considerations factored into the choice of Nationals, a revival of the first American League franchise's "official" nickname used from

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia ( Shostakovich's 11th Symphony ...

to

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

. Politicians and others in the District of Columbia objected to the name Senators because the District of Columbia does not have voting representation in Congress. Although the Rangers still owned the rights to the Senators name, the Nationals were able to acquire the rights to the curly "W" from the Rangers.

First official adoption of team names (classic 16)

General references

*''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' Baseball Guides through the years, especially during the 1940s when a history of each team's nickname was included. Reference as (TSNBBG) in this article. *''Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century: The Official Major League Baseball Guide'', by Marc Okkonen, 1991, Sterling 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.

References

{{MLB History of baseball in the United States