Name Changing | Game Changing

Previous work has shown that people with names that have positive associations do especially well in life. For example, teachers tend to award higher essay grades to children who they believe have more likeable names (Rose, for instance), college students whose names have undesirable associations experience high levels of social isolation, and those whose surnames happen to have negative connotations (such as Short, Little, or Bent) are especially likely to suffer feelings of inferiority.

• Richard Wiseman, Professor and Author

It’s true for baseball team names, as well.

After the 2007 season, following several years of futility, Tampa Bay changed their name from Devil Rays to simply Rays.   In 2008, the newly named Rays were the American League champions.

Between 1876 and 1889, the Chicago baseball club was flawlessly nicknamed the White Stockings and won six National League pennants.  In 1890, the ball club was unwisely nicknamed the Colts and in 1898 the Orphans.  They never won another pennant during those years.  In 1902, the club nickname was changed to the Cubs, which was adopted as the official team name in 1907.  You know what happened after that?  Back to back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908. 

In 2008, the Dead Cougars were born.  We lost every game we played that spring.  We dropped the Dead and changed our name to simply Cougars on July 2, 2008, the day after our first victory (go ahead - search seven years of archives – it’s true).  Not too long after, on August 16, 2011, we won our first championship.

Why do I write this?  Well, we played a new team to the league Tuesday night named Team He Gone.  Like the Dead Cougars, Devil Rays or Orphans, Team He Gone is ineptly named.  The reference is presumptuously homage to Hawk Harrelson’s strikeout call of “HE GONE!”

After the Cougars beat Team He Gone 10 - 5 Tuesday night, my helpful suggestion would be to rename their team.  How about “Team You Can Put It On The Board, YES!”?  (The Cubs may want to get in on the rename game too.)

Moving from renaming to recapping:

The Cougars came out strong with three quick runs and held Team He Gone to two runs over two innings.  The Good Guys slid a couple across the plate in the third for a 5 - 2 lead but the Bad Guys, unlike their name, were not going anywhere with three runs in the middle innings to tie it up 5 - 5.  Mercy!  The Cougars were not going to sit there Stone faced and be Wimpy about this game.  In the final two innings we put up a crooked number to make the game 10 - 5 and say that the ballgame was o-vah!  Dadgum right!

Let’s go to the highlight reel – we were all picks to click:

• Boom was on fire!  He crushed three hits, beat out a force play at second base with lightning speed and cannoned the ball to third base to destroy an advancing runner.

• Thejokewriter drove in runs right and left (well, really just to the left side).

• Martini had three RBI with an almost homer.  He stole a base.  He also pitched a gem.  In a 30 second span during a crucial part of the game he recorded two outs.  First, with two strikes on the batter and a man on first base, he jumped froglike off the mound towards the third base line for an angled pitch.  He caught the batter looking and notched a backward K.  After Philthy returned the ball, Martini stepped on the mound, faked a pitch and fired it to JD at first base to pick off the runner (who was only inches off the base.)

• JD rocked the ball, raced the bases and was a defensive marvel.

• Bobi extended his team lead for triples and had two other singles.

• Diddy demonstrated why he was given that splendid nickname and sprayed the ball over the field and saved our tails repeatedly with running and diving catches.

• Philthy drilled the ball harder than he drills molars with a 3-4 effort, including a double.

• Flandog had a crucial single with two out in the top of the last inning and was flawless on the defensive side.

• Singin’ Dave, in his first game in over a year, demolished the ball at the plate, injuring a few defensive fingers.

• Diamond Dave went down hard hustling out a single.  Our Diamond may be rough for a while.  

Singin' Dave helping Diamond Dave out of the park.

Oh, don’t worry, we are not skipping the postgame show.  That’s the best part.

We all grabbed some bench, cinched it up and hunkered down with BBQ, beer, bags and birthday cake.

The Flandog family hosted a fantastic feast festival, which was closed down by the female Cougars.  

It was a Hecky of a spread!

Flandog turns fortysomething!

Just waiting for more ribs.

With the Cougars victorious we will not be changing our name any time soon.  

Although, the more I think about it, the name Wilmette Winners has a nice alliterative melodic ring to it.