http://www.portlandbeavers.com/promotions/namechange/

Is "Sockeyes" distinct enough to tap into the national memorabilia market to override the once-reasonably selling '57 Beavers kits?

There is a "Welcome To The City of Thorns" banner hung at Timbers matches. You can't have it.

If Portland stays AAA for some length of time, is a name change really necessary? How many people do you know who really get the baseball team confused with OSU?

Given the recent success of the Oregon State baseball team, I STILL find it confusing when I first glance at the headlines and see "Beavers" in it. My first reaction is that it is the minor league team, but often it is about some other OSU team. Rich Burk and I differ sharply on this; he believes we should keep "Beavers" for the AAA team because of its historical significance, and also because, when (notice I optimistically did not say "if"!) we finally do get a major league team here, most fans around the country will think "MLB" when they hear the name "Beavers", not OSU. Not so sure I agree with that, but to each his own opinion ...

Anyway, I think the vast majority of fans will vote to keep the Beavers' name, but there has been some discussion among the Beavers' brass, I understand, about changing the teams' colors from black and red to make a sharper contrast with OSU's black and orange. That might help.

Of all the new names on the voting list, I'd prefer "Green Sox" because of the frequency of "Sox" in baseball and a very different color change. Forget "Wet Sox"; it's too bizarre and who likes to wear wet socks?

I like the Sockeyes, but why mess with the name at all?

Hmm, interesting. Where did they get the name Portland Green Sox? I seem to remember coming up w/ that in 2002.

Green Sox is the obvious choice. As I said at the Beavers' website, "It screams baseball, and it screams Portland. None of the other options are even close."

And yes, "Wet Sox" is so ridiculous I might have to boycott the team if they go that route.

lol, am I the only one that actually liked the wet sox one? I think there could be some cool logo's and color schemes for it too. Im not digging green sox.

Red Sox and White Sox and AquaSox and Sky Sox and Bay Sox and Silver Sox... sort of played, no?

It's a nice marketing effort. All that said, short of Green Sox the names could certainly be much better. I like Hank Stern's comments in the WW on Wet Sox... sounds like something that happens when you drink too much.

I vote for Sockeyes, but Wet Sox is good too--hey, it's minor league baseball, y'know--too bad Isotopes is already taken...kidding..kinda...Green Sox is good, but it's too close to the Everett's nickname (Aqua Sox, I believe)....

I think Wet Sox is a perfect MiLB name! I mean its the Minors, lol.

It would be good to consider that this name could also be a MLB name someday. I say Wet Sox is out. Sockeyes is good. What about the Portland Pioneers, or Portland Loggers or Lagers...

I just want it to be part of the public record than I coined the term Portland Green Sox back in 2002.

Any royalities coming my way?

quote:

Any royalities coming my way?

Could be, but you need to copyright it somewhere. Back before the last MLB expansion, some guy in south Florida copyrighted as many names as he could think of for an expansion team in Tampa Bay. When the area was granted a franchise, their first choice of a name was "Tampa Bay Tarpons", simply extending the name of the minor league team there from "Tampa Tarpons". Only thing was, this nut had rights to the name, even though he never planned to do anything with it; he just figured he'd sell the rights to the name to the team. Only the owners wouldn't buy it and came up with their own name - and that's how we got the Devil Rays (which is actually a real fish in the Gulf of Mexico, by the way).

Or better yet get the website.

Maury & I corresponded quite a bit with one of the regulars over at BPG who reserved the site "www.virginianationals.com"... too bad for him (in many, many ways) that they went to DC instead.

The Beavers are still Beavers.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pbeavers/oregonian/index.ssf?...105144010.xml&coll=7

However (and someone on OregonLive nailed this one)...

quote:

Paulson said he hopes that sentiment proves true, but is not sure.

"There is a side of me that worries that this is going to be a difficult challenge," he said. "But there are things we can do to emphasize the fact that this is Portland's team and Portland's Beavers and address some of the confusion that we face."

To that end, he said the franchise plans to emphasize the Beavers' rich history and its ties to the city in designing a new, more recognizable logo and color scheme and likely new uniforms.

The team plans to work with Portland-based Sandstrom Design on the new look. Paulson didn't specify a timeline, but any new designs must be submitted for Minor League Baseball's approval this fall.

I know the Boise Hawks went from red and blue to green and, well, something close to the mid-90s Sonics colors before this season. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the Beavers. Brown?