The Yankees Are Classy

Back in September of this year, the Staten Island Yankees decided to get into the game of crazy minor league team names.  They even held a contest, which asked fans to choose their favorite name from a list of God-awful names, if you asked me.  ”The New York-Penn league affiliate of the New York Yankees has narrowed a list of  five finalists in a “Name the Team” contest — Bridge Trolls, Heroes, Killer Bees, Pizza Rats and Rock Pigeons (in alphabetical order),” reported Silive.com.  Terrible names, why would I want a cap adorned with Rock Pigeons or Bridge Trolls.

“It’s just that in order to boost ticket sales, minor league teams tend to focus a bit more on the gimmicky side of baseball versus the sport itself,” reports Mashable.com.  Maybe it its infancy stages, yes, but today, with all the hype around home growing your teams, minor league ball games are attracting crowds without the need to hype around a silly name.

Much like avoiding the uniform hype, The Yankees are classic baseball.  No need to drop the pinstripes for throw backs because the pinstripes are the throw backs.  No need for numbers because at the Yankees, you know you are great because you made it to the Bronx.  The Yankee brand should be threaded through all of its minor league teams- Scranton, Tampa, Trenton, Charleston and Pulaski. No need for silly names like Riverdogs and Rail Riders.

I will end this with a conversation between my son and me when we learned that the Staten Island Yankees decided to abandon its name change, at least for now.

The Yankees are classy the way they are.  No need to change.  We just need to win.

–Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof