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February 08, 2006
Reeks Of Lucchino
From CBS Broadcasting Inc -
The Lowell Spinners, the Red Sox minor league affiliate, are trying to eliminate the "Yankees" name from all youth baseball leagues in New England.
Instead of "Yankees", they want the teams to be named the "Spinners".
The team estimated that nearly half of the youth baseball leagues in the region include a team named the "Yankees," and they've already begun contacting organizations in an attempt to convince them to adopt the name change.
"When you are a kid playing baseball it is pure fun and worrying about what team you are on should be the least of your concerns," Spinners general manager Tim Bawmann said in a press release. "It becomes an issue where kids are devastated when they find out they are on the Yankees. Many kids actually pray they will not be on the Yankees when the rosters and teams are announced."
If a league agrees to eliminate their Yankee teams and replace them with the Spinners, the team said it will pay the cost of replacing the uniforms and allow those squads to play at the minor league club's home field this summer.
Hey, instead of "Spinners" why not "Schlemiels"?
Posted by Steve Lombardi at February 8, 2006 05:49 PM
Comments
Steve, I'm sure you'll concur but, the last two seasons aside, New England is not as monolithic a Red Sox stronghold as I'm sure Messr's Lucchino and Henry would like to think. Many, many New Englanders grew up rooting for other teams...yes, a whole lot of them root for the, gasp, Yankees. It's typical Seligistic bullshit to paint the entire region Red (oh, there's money to be made, you know, in that deception). And, give 'em time, a lot of today's Red Sox faithful will disavow them if, as I expect, the near-term future includes a few seasons of missing the playoffs and the sale, yet again, of the Old Towne franchise. Larry Lucchino will probably be telling youth baseball leagues in the D.C. area not to name any teams after the Orioles in, oh, 2007 onward. Theo will be producing bad Ben Affleck TV movies by then as well.
Posted by: JohnnyC ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.waswatching.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 8, 2006 08:56 PM
You'd think people would have better things to do with their time and money...
Great game, but the people running it need to have their heads examined.
Posted by: Raf at February 8, 2006 10:47 PM
As a Yankee fan who lives 20 miles SE of Boston, I can say with certainty that there are a lot of us out here in "Red Sox Nation". Tons of transplanted NYers and lots of people especially in central MA of Italian descent who grew up Yankee fans because of DiMaggio and passed it along to their kids.
This PR stunt is a load of crap, and I for one will simply ignore the non-existant team in Lowell from here forward.
Posted by: Shaun P. at February 9, 2006 09:25 AM
Just another sad example of the Sox inability to identify themselves as anything other than anti-Yankees. Hopefully, reason will prevail before it affects any baseball-playing children.
Posted by: hopbitters at February 9, 2006 10:33 AM