Team Name Tributes

I'll follow up on that Mets theme, but in an entirely different direction. Back in the mid-80s when the Mets and Cards battled annually for what was it - the eastern division? - we here in St. Lou "lovingly" referred to the Mets as pondscum (have no idea where that came from). So when I was delegated the Mets franchise that included that era in one of Andy's franchise-theme leagues, naturally I had to honor that team with an appropriate name:

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1113129

Got some of the guys from that era like Keith and Darryl ("Darryl, Darryl, Darryl") Gooden, Orosco, but alas, no Ho-Jo or Dykstra.

So...does that qualify as a "team tribute"?

I like to use team names that could plausibly be the names of actual baseball teams but that might also serve as shout-outs to notable things outside baseball.

A sequence of my recent teams have been named the Cardiff Giants, after one of the great hoaxes of the 19th Century. (See the Wikipedia article if you don't know the story.) The Cardiff Giant is on display in the Cooperstown's Farmers Museum, which is just a few blocks from the Hall of Fame, which provides a link to baseball.

Another set of teams is named the North American Mustangs, after the greatest fighter plane of WW2.

Jesus Christ Dream Team in honour of that guy from the "Holy Land."

I've named a lot of my teams for various themes. My first tear in the Barnstoemers I named my teams in honor of American fighter aces, including the pacific Aces (managed by Dick Bong), the Halesworth Wolfpack (managed by Hub Zemke, who flew out of and later commanded the fighter group based in Halesworth, England), the Espiritu Black Sheep (managed by Pappy Boyington, a real person some of you may know from the TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep), the Tuskeegee Airmen (managed by Benjamin Davis, who was their unit CO), the Lafayette Escadrille (managed by Eddie Rickenbacker), and the MIG Alley Sabers (managed by Ted Williams, of course).

When we used to have live draft leagues, I named my teams in them after states. I've also had teams named the Berlin Irvings, the Shea Hey Kids, the Sofia Lorens, the Baker Irregulars, the Xarathustra Fuzzies (named after an alien race featured in several sci-fi novels by H. Beam Piper), and the Casablanca Barkeeps (managed by Rick Blaine, as you have no doubt guessed).

My current Barnstormer teams are named after the planets, with nicknames often tied in to "The Planets," a series of musical compositions by Gustav Holst.

Besides my obvious Zappa tribute titles, here are a few others:

Reaver's BBQ - Firefly tribute : managed by Jaine Cobb
Pretty Hate Machine - NIN tribute : managed by Trent Reznor
Walken Dead - I love Chris Walken and the Walking Dead : managed by Chris Walken

-The Sheik

Most of my recent teams have been named after Cryptids which are creatures presumed extinct, hypothetical species, or creatures known from anecdotal evidence and/or other evidence insufficient to prove their existence with scientific certainty. My managers name is Crypt O Zoologist a take on the name of scientists who search for cryptids. Some of my recent team names:

Texas Chupacabra's
Mongolian Death Worms
Honey Island Swamp Monster's
Boggy Creek Fouke Monster's
Texas Flying Humanoid's
Everglades Swamp Apes
Texas Jackalope's
Point Pleasant Mothmen
Lake Worth Monster's

Besides my obvious Zappa tribute titles, here are a few others:

Reaver's BBQ - Firefly tribute : managed by Jaine Cobb


-The Sheik

That disturbs my calm

For a 12 team 12 season league in which each person rotated through managing 12 franchises (the Negro League players were designated as one of the franchises.) When it was my turn to manage the Negro League players I used the team name "Eddie's Klep-tomaniacs" to somewhat honor Eddie Klep, the first white player to play in the Negro leagues.

I try to name teams after persons, places, and things.
Here's a sampling
Persons:
Sante Fe Ray
Port Arthur Ash
Fort Wayne Newton
Cheyenne Ran
Fort Lewis Black
Austin Car
Santa Rosa Parks

Places (where we have lived)
Mount Vernon Fuller
Mount Vernon Wells
Medina With Andre
Medina Shore
Dublin Off the Wall

Things:
Yuma So Ugly
Hamilton Beach
Carlsbad Vibes
Flint Stones
Bucharest Warrant

Maxie

Newest Zappa tribute:

Centerville Hot Nuns - 200 motels/Keith Moon tribute

-The Sheik