Just because a name went away doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good name. Some historical team names simply evaporated due to moving cities. That is a reasonable choice for any new venture. It’s pretty nuts how long the NBA team once in New Orleans (a city known for Jazz music) has continued to be called the Jazz in the middle of Utah. Below I’ve collected some interesting options for a North Carolina expansion team.
National Ghosts
Having a connection to history can help make a bad name work eventually. Montreal decided to name its team after the world’s fair it hosted in 1967, Expo ‘67. As in a trade show, an expo, short for exposition, which is kind of like an exhibition… it’s just a bad name. But over the years, its badness, combined with its weird logo-letter-mash-up, combined with the Quebecois of it all… kind of cool! They don’t have that team anymore. It comes up in expansion talks, but I can’t see it in this round. I think Vancouver is a long-shot, but somehow seems more likely than another go-round in Montreal. Regardless, Raleigh shall not be naming its team the Expos. They are just an interesting case for tying the name to something rooted in historical meaning.
Cleveland had the Spiders for the last decade of the 1800’s. I used to scoff at the Richmond University teams being named the Spiders, but it has grown on me over the years. I remember in 2017 a first-grade class from Asheville tried to get the state legislature to pass a bill for an official NC spider. They argued for the Golden Silk Spider. The bill never made it out of committee which is pretty wild given the lay-up of PR passing that bill represented. Raleigh Spiders? Eh, probably not.
I think my favorite option of this post (yes I love to bury the lede/lead) comes from the pacific northwest. The Seattle Pilots were an expansion team that played for one year (1969) out west before relocating to Milwaukee to become the Brewers. Most license plates around these parts feature the Wright Brothers’ plane. Seems like a natural fit. Tons of options for visual inspiration as one can pilot a multitude of aircraft. Seattle meant it in the style of commanding a sea-faring craft, and, heck, we can take that too for all the shoreline floaters. Full disclosure of bias- I’m nothing if not transparent- my dad is a pilot.
NC Ghosts
The earliest professional baseball team in Raleigh was the Senators (1901). We still have state senators in Raleigh, so technically this is an option. But it’s a generic feature of every state capital and the later version in Washington eclipses the historical significance by quite a bit. I’d put the Red Birds (1902) in the same category- too many derivations with more historical footprint (Cardinals, Reds- not bird-related, but the word is taken!).
The Raleigh Capitals should be the focus of this post. The franchise played many years of professional baseball in Raleigh (1913 through 1962). Hall of Famer, Carl Yestrzemski played for the Capitals in 1959. The team eventually evolved into a farm team for the Mets, Cardinals, Pirates, and Red Sox. A professional team that played in downtown Raleigh for decades? That’s the best fit with my theme. Do you sense a ‘but’ coming from my use of “should” above? You’re right. The ‘but’ is… Capitals? Like the hockey team in DC, but a lesser capital? Like every state has? Meh. Do you really want to worry about the end of the word for years to come: Capitals/Capitols? I wouldn’t be mad about it, but it’s not my favorite.
Of the teams that existed in NC historically, I like the Grays the best. The Grays played some years during WWII down in Fort Bragg. Alongside the Grays, there were quite a few semi-pro and pro black teams in NC: Tigers, Aces, Black Sox, Tar Heels, etc. But I like “Grays” best. Raleigh Grays? I don’t know how exciting that is, but it is clean and classic. The problem here is that more famous/notable Grays existed elsewhere. The Homestead Grays were one of the best-known black teams of that era. And…. The Brooklyn Grays were the original Brooklyn Dodgers. The Grays feels like it belongs more to the history of these other places. “But the Pilots belong to Seattle’s history!” Yeah, I guess, but, one year? With the flight connection in NC? I think we take it.
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