March 31, 2005

Baseball Team Name History



I have always been curious about the history of the game of baseball. Since I’ve done all my fantasy drafts, read all my team previews, and researched all my depth charts, I ran out of things to do. So that’s why I looked up the history of each team’s name. Here are some of the interesting things.

11 teams had only one name and had been in one city. Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays. Other than those, another 8 teams has always stayed in the same city, but did change their names. Here are the teams: Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals.

The teams with the most name changes are the Atlanta Braves (9 names) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (8).

Teams that have been in the most cities are the Atlanta Braves (3), Baltimore Orioles (3), and Oakland Athletics (3).

Some teams had a name for one season before changing it or moving to another town. I’m guessing those team marketing people got fired. These teams are: Milwaukee Brewers 1901, Boston Rustlers 1911, and Seattle Pilots 1969.

Some team decided that they had it right the first time by switching their name back to an earlier name. They are: Boston Braves, Cincinnati Reds (due to the McCarthyism period, I’m guessing), and Brooklyn Dodgers.

Some team names has withstood the test of time, such as the Orioles, the Brewers, the Sox, the Reds, the Tigers, the Indians, the Pirates, the Cardinals, the Athletics, the Giants, the Phillies, and the Dodgers, but other names have not. Looking back at some club names, we wonder what the hell are they thinking?? Some of the names include: the Doves (how weak can you sound?), the Beaneaters (true for Boston, but come on!!), the Orphans (uhh…), the Stockings (very ladies-like once again), the Bridegrooms (hahaha!!), the Superbas (the Superbas or the Super-Bras?), and the Perfectos (the PerfecNOs for David Spade).


The start of the modern era in 1901 consisted of 16 teams. They are: AL – Baltimore Orioles, Boston Americans, Chicago White Stockings, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Athletics, and Washington Senators. NL – Boston Beaneaters, Brooklyn Superbas, Chicago Orphans, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals. Don’t let the team names fool you. Of those teams, the Baltimore Orioles eventually became the New York Yankees, and the Milwaukee Brewers became the Baltimore Orioles of today!! The Americans became the Red Sox, White Stockings the White Sox, Blues became the Indians, the Athletics moved to Oakland, Senators became the Minnesota Twins, the Beaneaters became the Atlanta Braves, Superbas became the Los Angeles Dodgers, Orphans became the Cubs, and the Giants moved to San Francisco.

In addition to the 16 teams in 1901, 14 more teams were added on 6 occasions.
1961 – Los Angeles Angels (AL), Washington Senators (AL)
1962 – Houston Colt .45s (NL), New York Mets (NL)
1969 – Kansas City Royals (AL), Montreal Expos (NL), San Diego Padres (NL), Seattle Pilots (AL)
1977 – Toronto Blue Jays (AL), Seattle Mariners (AL)
1993 – Colorado Rockies (NL), Florida Marlins (NL)
1998 – Tampa Bay Devil Rays (AL), Arizona Diamondbacks (NL).

If you are interested in the complete list of team names, go to http://baseball-almanac.com

March 28, 2005

Odd Pitcher Jersey Numbers



It seems like some of the best pitchers have jersey numbers like offensive linemen. If you watch baseball, you probably know that the most coveted jersey numbers are the numbers 0-9. Most of the time, these numbers go to everyday-players rather than pitchers; however, aces on the team gets fairly “good” numbers such as 22(Roger Clemens, Mark Prior), 31(Greg Maddux), and so forth. If you got a number between 50-99, then you probably aren’t going to stick around too long, but these pitchers did stick around, and some of them are pretty good.




Number Name


57 Francisco Rodriguez

75 Barry Zito

51 Dan Kolb

52 John Thomson

55 Brandon Webb

57 Shawn Estes

52 CC Sabathia

50 Jaime Moyer

55 Gil Meche

54 Zach Day

61 Livan Hernandez

51 Trevor Hoffman

61 Chan Ho Park

52 Wade Miller

74 Ugueth Urbina

57 Johan Santana

56 Mark Buehrle

Site Meter