First we reminded you of Hugo the Hornet dunking a basketball when we mapped out the travels of NBA franchises. Then we made you cry after we showed what became of your beloved Hartford Whalers hockey club when we did the same for NHL teams.
Now it is time to hit another of the “Big Four” sports, historically known as America’s pastime even though it has been left in the dust of football for decades: baseball.
You would figure that baseball teams stick around a city for a while, and you would be correct. Most of the time, anyway. Usually a baseball team name sticks around, but the actual team and the players that make up that team can come and go. Early on, this was due to the sportswriters of a city giving a team their nickname, while the city on the front of their jerseys stayed the same. Later, the name went with the owners of the team. Why? Because nothing says money like trademarking a sports team.
In this installment of mapping out the home cities of sports franchises, you’ll see your team with another team’s name. Sometimes it will be the old name for your team. Sometimes it will be the name of a team long gone. And sometimes it may even be the name of a rival team who you currently hate. It happened to me during the research for this piece, and it will happen to you.
Baltimore Orioles
O no!
Contrary to popular belief, the Baltimore Orioles and Cal Ripken, Jr. were not around when Major League Baseball began in Baltimore. At least, not as the franchise they are now.
The Orioles club as it is known today first emerged in Major League Baseball as the Milwaukee Brewers, and played as baseball’s on-field beer commercial in 1901 after their Western league was absorbed into the American League back when the leagues. The team was originally supposed to be based in St. Louis when the league was organized, but no owner came forward to buy the team. This lead to Milwaukee becoming the land where baseball teams are born, taught to walk, then shipped off to better cities.
In 1902, the Brewers were brought to St. Louis, probably to continually do battle with the Cardinals. This battle lasted for 51 years until owner Bill Veeck decided that his team should be the kings of St. Louis, to the point that he allegedly wanted to drive the Cardinals out of the city. Unfortunately for Veeck, the rest of baseball’s ownership thought that, if any team should be jettisoned, it should be the Browns. After a team buyout, it was so. The Browns were sent to Baltimore in 1954, where they have played to this day.
New York Yankees
Start spreadin” the news…they’re leaving today…
While the team that is now known as the New York Yankees was always planned to be in New York, it wasn’t meant to be right away. In 1901, infancy stages of the American League, a team was set to be placed in New York City but was railroaded by the New York Giants. Yes, even in 1901, sports had political pull. The planned team was instead sent to Baltimore, nicknamed the Orioles, and played two seasons until the American League and National League made a truce, and an AL team was allowed into New York.
That New York team was officially known as the New York Americans based on its membership in the American League, unofficially called the highlanders based on how far above sea level their ballpark was, and uber-unofficially called the Yankees by sports editor Jim Price. This name issue lasted from 1903-1912.
The Yankees name became more official when the team moved into the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants. Geography didn’t quite play into the nickname equation anymore and Jim Price had already gotten the rest of the city calling the team the Yankees, so it was really only official for tax purposes, probably. Over 100 years, twenty-seven World Series championships, and a few stadium and owner changes, and the Yankees are still here, but they used to be the Orioles. How’s that for weird rivalry histories?
Atlanta Braves
Their worldliness doesn’t make their mascot any less racist, though.
While it may seem that there were an awful lot of Braves fans in the early ’90s, it may not have totally been because some people are front-running fans. The history of the Atlanta Braves has circled America, and may have picked up a few family tribes along the way. And sure, maybe some people were just taking a ride on the wagon.
The Braves first entered professional baseball as we know it in 1871. Back then the team was based in Boston, and was first referred to as the Red Stockings, leading to an amazing foreshadowing of events to come. The team was later referred to as the Red Caps, Beaneaters, Doves, Rustlers, and unoffically as the Boston Red Sox farm team when the American League came to town before settling on the Braves in 1912.
After some great success and horrible failures, the rivalry with the Red Sox for ticket sales became too much for the Braves, and the team was moved to the old turnstile baseball city, Milwaukee. However, the city had other plans. They welcomed the team like a recently dumped girlfriend, hugging tightly and trying desperately not to let go.
This worked for 9 years, and the Braves played well. They even gave the world Hank Aaron! Unfortunately, when you have a great product, people want that product. In 1962, the Braves were sold to a company that wanted to market the Braves better by putting them in a different city. In 1966, that city was found to be Atlanta.
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Los Angeles Dodgers
Before there were Mets fans, New York had another group of tortured fans: Brooklyn Dodgers fans. Unfortunately, that fandom didn’t travel as well as the team itself.
The Brooklyn Dodgers were first known as the Brooklyn Atlantics when the team was formed in 1883. Technically, they just took the name of the last team that failed in Brooklyn, which sounds like a horrible way to start a sports franchise. The team went through years of nickname changes, with the name “Trolley Dodgers’ rising to the top of the group but never fully taking over until “Dodgers’ was sewn onto jerseys in 1932, becoming official.
After winning one World Series and breaking the color barrier by playing the legendary Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers ran into stadium issues in the “50s. Basically, no one wanted to help fix or replace Ebbets Field. At the time, Los Angeles had begun wooing baseball teams to come to the West Coast. The Dodgers answered the call, and became the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958.
They dodged Brooklyn. Ha!–wait, no! They–they got out of Dodge. That’s better.
San Francisco Giants
Of course back then they barely even had three radio stations, so you took your entertainment where you found it.
As crazy as it sounds, New York once had three professional baseball teams. Three! Hey, when St. Louis has two teams, you have to at least have one more if you’re New York.
At first, there was only one: the New York Giants. Developed in 1883, the New York baseball team was first known as the Gothams. That’s right, Batman fans, a baseball team named “Gotham.” The power of sports and comics combine in a good way, not in a bad, “SuperPro” way. The nickname didn’t stick, as the “Giants’ name took over in 1886, and even made it to the football team of the same name.
Unfortunately, the Giants didn’t have quite the same winning attitude as that pinstriped team that moved in with them. The giants won a few world Series titles, but still seemed to get their greatest draw from rivalry games with the Brooklyn Dodgers. When the Dodgers left in 1958, the Giants followed right behind them, transferring to San Francisco to give Californians a taste of real, blood-thirsty sports rivals.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Cripes, Angels, just pick a place and official name already.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, may not have as grand a history as our previous teams, but it is a history that would put a smile on the late Raiders owner Al Davis. He would know that he was not alone.
The Los Angeles Angels were an expansion franchise, entering MLB in 1961 along with the Washington Senators. After some modest success, the team found a new stadium in Anaheim. In order to appease their fans in LA, and not hopefully not lose them to the Dodgers, the Angels changed their name to the California Angels, hoping to draw fans from the whole state. Or at least California cities that didn’t have their own team. Yes, there were a few.
When Disney bought the team in 1997 for a potential marketing scheme for Angels in the Outfield 2: Sliding Home (No, not really), the city of Anaheim agreed to pony up some money for a new stadium, but only if the team changed their affiliation to the Anaheim Angels.
In 2005, ownership changed hands once more, with Arturo Moreno taking control. Moreno wished to bring the team name back to its LA roots. Unfortunately, the stadium terms still forced the regional affiliation to be Anaheim, so Moreno changed the name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The city disputed this change in court, but eventually lost.
Milwaukee Brewers
They’re named for beer! This team gets what baseball’s about.
There must have been something about Milwaukee that made baseball teams visit for a season or two. Maybe it’s the idea that beer, bratwurst, and baseball seem to go so well together on paper, but the reality falls a little short. Luckily, one franchise went to Milwaukee, took on the mantle of the Brewers, and never left.
In 1969, Seattle was given a MLB expansion team, the Seattle Pilots, and promptly lost them due to a lack of funding. Apparently, baseball interest hadn’t traveled that far Northwest. That there is hockey country.
The team went into bankruptcy, was bought up by good old Bud Selig, and shipped off to Milwaukee until a new home could be found. By this time, the city of Milwaukee had seen more baseball teams than U.S. presidents come and go, and until this very day hold onto the newly crowned Brewers for dear life.
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Minnesota Twins
With all of those teams stopping by Milwaukee on their way to other things for so many years, you’d figure that Minnesota would have picked up a few of the scraps. Unfortunately, Minneapolis and St. Paul didn’t really catch on to baseball. They had enough on their plate rooting for the Northstars.
Luckily, Minnesota’s luck changed. In 1901, the Washington baseball team entered into professional baseball, and switched its name back and forth from the Senators to the Nationals depending on the political landscape.
In 1960, the city of Minneapolis was finally awarded the rights to an expansion team. This led Washington owner Calvin Griffin to lobby for Washington to get the expansion team. Why? Because he wanted to move his own team to Minneapolis. In order to make his team open to all Minnesotans, Griffith had the team named Minnesota Twins, which paid homage to not on the city the team resided in, Minneapolis, but St. Paul as well.
Sadly, they were triplets before the move, but one of their party died of dysentery on the trail.
Oakland Athletics
They only stopped heading west because they came to the ocean.
The history of the Oakland Athletics is considered by most to be both, at best, ridiculous and, at worst, hilarious. This is besides the idea of naming a professional sports team as “Athletic” because Captain Obvious was on vacation.
The Athletics first began their plight by being the athletic baseball team of Philadelphia in 1901 as part of the American League. This was in opposition to the allegedly un-athletic Philadelphia Phillies, who had been in Philadelphia since 1883.
Surprisingly, the City of Brotherly Love was able to support two baseball teams for quite a while. Then money and power got in the way, as well the foreshadowing of moneyball when the Athletics began trying to fill a baseball team with the least expensive talent possible. Attendance dropped as a result, and the team was sold and moved to Kansas City in 1955 where it had modest success until principal owner Arnold Johnson passed away. Charles Finley bought up a controlling interest in the team in 1960, and allegedly tried to get the team out of Dodge before he even moved into his office at the stadium. That didn’t really happen until 1968, and Finley went as far as he could go: Oakland, California.
Next stop: Japan? The Athletics really can’t go any further West.
Texas Rangers
Is that where “Home, Home on the Range” comes from?
When it comes to sports, Texas is known for its football, but eventually baseball had to get in on the action. Such was the case with the Texas Rangers.
Like I said earlier, Washington D.C. was awarded an expansion team in 1960, which was promptly filled by the Washington Senators to replace the Washington Senators that had moved to Minnesota to become the Twins. Maybe five normal fans actually knew what was going on.
Nevertheless, the new Washington Senators found that the old Washington Senators had the right idea by bailing. In 1971, the new Washington Senators found that the old Washington Senators had the right idea. The Baltimore Orioles were close by and winning, so attendance was low. Stadium and money issues also crept up, and the team was allowed to move to Arlington, Texas to become the Texas Rangers.
Washington Nationals
Baseball is as American as a corrupt Congress.
So whatever happened to the hole that the Washington Senators left, twice? It was filled by Canada. That’s right, the team in our nation’s capital that plays America’s Pastime hails from Canada.
In 1969, the year of baseball expansion, baseball found its way into Canada with the birth of the Montreal Expos. It was a good start probably paved the way for the Toronto Blue Jays. Unfortunately, ownership become muddled to the point that the Expos seemed less like a professional baseball team and more like where players go to develop and sign contracts to bigger teams.
Eventually Canada only had room for one baseball team, and the Expos found themselves playing in Puerto Rico almost as much as Canada. The team finally moved to Washington D.C. in 2005 to become the third team to be known as the Nationals.
Patrick Emmel is a die-hard sports fan, but you won’t find him rifling through athletes’ garbage cans. Unless he’s “lost his wallet.” You can see more of his work at Sports Jeer, The Inept Owl, or heckle him on Twitter @Patrick_AE.
Like accidental awesomeness in football? Patrick invoked his inner Madden to explain some of the most ridiculous plays in the NFL by normal-sized players and fat guy touchdowns.
An icy rivalry.
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