Minor-League Baseball Team Word Game

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

And here he is, parachuting in from the cultural wonderland that is Brooklyn, New York.

It’s our quiz guide, John Chaneski.

Hi, Grant.

Hi, Martha.

I’m glad you said wonderland and not wasteland, because that’s something I hear sometimes.

That’s great.

The Gowanus has fish now, I heard.

That’s true.

They’re cleaning it up.

And it looks, you know, it’s still going to be another 15, 20 years, but it’s going to be great.

So, you know, it’s funny.

We’re talking about Brooklyn, it kind of ties into the beginning of this quiz. Sometimes I like to use the quiz to highlight an interesting way language is used. This particular example we’re talking today, the names of baseball teams. Now, I’m not talking about your humdrum major league teams. I mean, really, who would name not one, but two baseball clubs after hosiery? I prefer minor league ball. In minor league ball, it’s so much more homey, it’s cheaper, and there’s a lot more creativity there. Now, with few outliers, baseball teams are named for what I call pride in local history or industry, like the New York Yankees, or strength through association, usually with an animal, like the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, my local minor league team, which is a Mets affiliate, does double duty. It sounds as if it’s named for a strong, dynamic weather phenomenon, but it’s actually named for a grand historic wooden roller coaster on the Coney Island boardwalk.

Now, do you know this team?

Yes, I’ve seen them play.

Yeah, the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Right.

Very well-named team.

So let’s see if you know or can deduce these actual names of real minor league ball clubs affiliated with major league teams. These are ones which I find to be interestingly christened.

Here we go.

Now, the Angels affiliate is located in the capital of Utah. And if you know Utah’s symbol and its industrious insects, you’ll know the name.

Must be the bees.

Yes, the Salt Lake Bees.

Yeah.

The Book of Mormon uses the word deseret to translate to this, and it’s all connected.

Here’s the next one.

Now, I said local industry and strength through association with an animal. It’s both when you’re talking about the Reds affiliate in Kentucky. They’re located in a city that’s famous for a specific brand of baseball equipment, not so much flying mammals.

I know that one.

It’s something bats, right?

It’s the Louisville Bats.

It’s the Louisville Bats.

Yeah, I love names that do double duty like that.

Now, several teams combine a descriptive word and an animal, like the Sacramento River Cats or the Midland Rock Hounds. To that end, Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania takes a two-word term for a form of crude ore, and they switch the two words, and the result sounds like a strong, hard farm animal.

A strong…

Oh, iron pigs.

Yes, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.

Oh, yeah, got to get the shirt.

That one’s great.

Oh, yeah, no, it’s beautiful.

It’s like an iron pig.

Now, there are several teams named for titles, like the Barons, the Generals, and the Captains. But what if your team wants to play off of that and also fields of a famous grain grown locally? Now, if you’re in Cedar Rapids, there’s just one homophonic option.

The corn cones?

I don’t know.

No, but the kernels.

Yes.

Oh, the kernels.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Nice.

And spelled K.

Yeah.

That’s a good one.

Yeah, that’s great.

I like that one.

I’ve decided there are worse things I can do than visit minor league ball stadiums.

And I really enjoy them.

Yeah.

I back that play 100%.

John, thank you for a fun quiz.

We’ll have to do the basketball teams next.

Oh, yeah.

The Brooklyn Fishnets?

I don’t know.

I love it.

Thanks so much, John.

Thank you. Talk to you soon.

Take care.

And we’d love to talk with you about any aspect of language, so give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send your questions and stories about language to words@waywordradio.org.