Watching the World Series, I was reminded of the names of teams and their mascots. It’s interesting that the Boston Red Soxs do not appear to be wearing red socks. Where did the name come from? Apparently, at one time baseball uniforms had stockings and Boston wore red ones. The newspaper writers abbreviated stocking to sox and thus the name Boston Red Soxs.
Even though they don’t wear the stockings they have at least stayed out of trouble with the name. Mascot and team names like Wildcats, Tigers, Lions, are politically correct because the animals can’t put up a fuss. If they were named after a dog then the animal rights people would be all over them. Even names that recognize something distinctive about the area of the team is okay, such as Astros and Rockies.
The names that have caused a great deal of controversy are the ones making reference to Native Americans. The Native Americans consider the names Indians, Braves, Chiefs and Redskins disrespectful and offensive. They are just not politically correct in this day and time.
Some of the public schools in our area have names that seem a little weird for a ferocious mascot. Names like Hutto Hippos and Taylor Ducks seem pretty wimpy. You have to have a great team to be labeled with a name like that.
When I was a kid, The House of David Baseball Team came to my hometown to play our semipro team. It was a great site to see these guys with long hair and beards playing baseball. The beards and hair were the main attraction for the crowd and the stadium was filled. Very little was said about their religion. Since these guys looked a lot like Jesus I thought he might have played on the team at one time. To me, they were a very special team and it was an honor to see them. It was the first time that I really didn’t care if our hometown lost. As a matter of fact, I would have been disappointed if we had won. Those guys have disappeared from the scene and I‘m sure they would be politically incorrect today.
On the porch I do more reminiscing than the actual watching of sporting events. So, even if they change some of the Native American names, they will always be the Indians, Chiefs, Braves and Redskins to me. Those names conjure up an image, in my mind, of a team that is indeed brave, strong and tough to beat.