11/05/24
November 26, 2005
No more Expos: After 12 years as the Expos, Vermont's minor league baseball team has a new name. The New York-Penn League (short-season, Single A) affiliate of the Washington Nationals held a contest this past summer to rename the team. Of the 30,000 entries received, the name Lake Monsters was chosen. General Manager, C.J. Knudsen, hopes everyone will get behind the new name, but also says the Lake Monsters plan to "always remember the Expos and hope to continue to pay tribute to the Expos on an annual basis." For those unfamiliar, the name comes from legendary, Nessie-like monster thought to inhabit Lake Champlain, known as "Champ." I, for one, welcome our new Lake Monster overlords.
I played for an "A" team called the Paintsville Panthers,which by the way,had two other names in 5 years,and coincidentally,my manager and several teammates looked like "lake monsters"
posted by Tubby Fan at 05:43 PM on November 26, 2005
Don't forget about the Lansing Lugnuts as one of the great all time baseball names.
posted by scuubie at 06:53 PM on November 26, 2005
My favorites... Montgomery Biscuits Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 08:36 PM on November 26, 2005
My favorite was the Charleston Riverdogs whose mascot was just a mutt fished out of the river.
posted by texoma-slim at 09:14 PM on November 26, 2005
Better to be named after an Expo than resurrecting a name indicating you're from the national capital. Still, you have give London credit for naming one of their teams the Werewolves.
posted by ?! at 11:02 PM on November 26, 2005
im sorry but the expos used to be the led team in baesball and they were a good family team vermont should have kept the name to honer the francies as it used to be.
posted by JCSpuddin2004 at 11:10 PM on November 26, 2005
JCSpuddin2004: Did you even see the part where the general manager says they plan to honor the Expos on an annual basis?
"We are thrilled that this day has finally arrived and excited that a new era in Vermont baseball has begun," said Vermont Lake Monsters General Manager C.J. Knudsen. "We hope that everyone will get behind our new name, but we will always remember the Expos and hope to continue to pay tribute to the Expos on an annual basis."Its bad enough people don't read the linked articles around here, but geez, you think they'd be able to read the paragraph that makes up the post.
posted by scully at 07:22 AM on November 27, 2005
Riverdogs is pretty good. However, I have a different favorite. Las Vegas 51's (AAA) (Los Angeles Dodgers)
posted by Joe88 at 02:41 PM on November 27, 2005
Minor league nicknames are so much cooler and more imaginative than pro nicknames. I live in Jamestown, NY, where the Vermont Expos moved from several years back. The Jamestown Expos had a long tradition of great players starting their careers with them, such as Randy Johnson and Tim Raines. Jamestown's NY-P team is now the Jammers, which took a long time to get used to, but evidentally does quite well with regards to marketing of minor league products. I'll look forward to seeing the Lake Monsters next year.
posted by dyams at 03:37 PM on November 27, 2005
Funny, I've read most of Russell Bank's novels set in upstate New York, and he never mentions the monster....
posted by owlhouse at 07:32 PM on November 27, 2005
One thing about the name is that the articles have all glossed over the fact that Selig's minions at the MLB head office forced the change. MLB owns the name "Expos" and would only let the Burlington franchise to continue using it for one season. So this wasn't done by choice, though they do seem to have capitalized on the change pretty well. I don't even like baseball jerseys and I might have to get a "Lake Monsters" jersey.
posted by mikelbyl at 10:34 PM on November 28, 2005
That's infinitely better than being named after the World Fair. Minor League baseball teams have such good names. Also, I never realized there were so many lake monsters.