History of Baseball Team Nicknames - Overview

Overview

See also Team names and colors

Athletic teams have long used colors and nicknames as a form of team identity. This echoes the use of colors and nicknames in other activities such as heraldry, the military, and the flags of nations.

Baseball teams began to acquire nicknames early in the development of the sport. Not all teams felt the need for a nickname. The supposed first recorded game of baseball took place between two teams called "New York" and "Knickerbocker", in the mid-1840s. Both teams were actually based in New York City.

After the American Civil War, interest in highly skilled games of baseball resulted in many organized clubs springing up, with names that were the club's official name, now often erroneously retrofitted as the "nickname". However, all of these club names had the words "Base Ball Club" after them. Examples:

New York

• Knickerbocker B.B.C.
• Mutual B.B.C.

Brooklyn

• Atlantic B.B.C.
• Eckford B.B.C.

Philadelphia

• Athletic B.B.C.

Cleveland

• Forest City B.B.C.

Although many of the players on these clubs were de facto professionals, the first openly all-professional team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings, an amateur team that turned professional and began a successful barnstorming tour in 1869. The fame of this team spelled the end of the high-level "amateur" version of the game. It also inspired the use of team colors serving a dual role as the team nickname. Examples:

• Boston Red Stockings and Red Sox
• Chicago White Stockings and White Sox
• Cincinnati Red Stockings / Reds
• Hartford Dark Blues / Blues
• Louisville Grays
• Mutual Green Stockings
• St. Louis Brown Stockings / Browns
• St. Louis Red Stockings

Suggesting an awareness of the significance of colors, in 1882 the National League passed a rule requiring specific stocking colors for each team (Frank G. Menke, The Encyclopedia of Sports, A.S. Barnes & Company, 1955, p. 30):

• Boston: Red
• Buffalo: Gray
• Chicago: White
• Cleveland: Navy blue
• Detroit: Old Gold
• Providence: Light Blue
• Troy: Green
• Worcester: Brown

While the 1882 rules prescribed stocking colors according to club, they also prescribed jersey and cap colors, but according to player position rather than according to club. Thus, on a single player's uniform, his cap and jersey would designate his position, and only his stockings would designate his club.

As the news media (primarily newspapers) began covering games extensively and assigning specialists to write about them, the inventive scribes might use the established names, or they might invent some new ones. Initially, they often referred to a club in the plural form, either by its city name or by its club name. Examples:

• Athletics
• Bostons
• Chicagos
• Mutuals

As the writers became more inventive, they began to refer to teams by some characteristic that made the team or the city unique. Examples:

• Beaneaters (Boston)
• Colts (Chicago)
• Giants (New York)
• Spiders (Cleveland)
• Trolley Dodgers (Brooklyn)

When two or more major leagues existed simultaneously in one city, the writers often appended the league name, which had the chance of evolving into a team nickname. (The Encyclopedia of Sports, p. 32) Examples:

• Boston Nationals (later "Braves"), Boston Americans (later "Red Sox")
• New York Nationals (better known as "Giants"), New York Americans (evolved into "Yankees")

In some cases, such as the Cleveland Indians, the team actually solicited help from the media in inventing a new nickname.

Some of those nicknames changed over time or died with the team, while some are still in use today. Nearly all of the nicknames of the "classic 16" MLB teams were originally unofficial. But once an unofficial nickname became popular enough, it might be adopted by the team and become official. Some teams stuck with a nickname for many years and then changed it to something else. Other teams have never changed their nicknames. Some teams have had two popular nicknames simultaneously for many years. Examples:

• Brooklyn Dodgers/Robins
• Washington Senators/Nationals

In the modern era of sports franchise expansion, nicknames are no longer assigned in a haphazard way by the news media, but rather are chosen by the teams for marketing purposes. The names are chosen in order to establish a strong team identity, and to have an attractive logo to encourage sales of merchandise to fans, such as caps and shirts.