In Hoffaman's article this week he discovered that the Astros talked about changing their name when they moved to Enrom.
Thought it was interesting (and stupid).
Thought it was interesting (and stupid).
quote:
• I got an e-mail from reader Jim Pawlowski. He wrote:
"When the Houston Baseball Team moved to the Dome in 1965, they changed their name from the Colt .45's to the Astros because of their new space motif. When they moved to their downtown stadium in 2000, which has no space motif, why didn't their name change?"
I thought the reader was making a joke. You know my readers … everybody's a comedian. But I forwarded the e-mail to the Astros, because that's what I do.
The joke's on me. It turns out the Astros did consider changing their name when they moved from the Astrodome to Enron Field in 2000. The team even held a focus group with fans, who put the kibosh on any name change. Fans were emphatic that they love the name Astros and were shocked the team was even thinking of dumping the name. It was never brought up again.
Tal Smith, president of Baseball Operations for the Astros, added a note that some might have forgotten.
"When the team's name was changed (from Colt. 45's to Astros) in 1965, it was done primarily to recognize the space industry in the greater Houston area - not the playing venue. In fact, the team name was changed first, and then the Harris County Dome Stadium began being referred to as the Astrodome."
I can think of only two professional sports teams in recent history that changed their name without moving to a new city.
In 1996, the NBA's Washington Bullets became the Wizards because the word "Bullets" has a violent image, especially in a city with a high crime rate like Washington. The team let fans vote for a new name, and Wizards won.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays dropped "Devil" from their name in 2007 because they were tired of finishing in last place and wanted a new identity. It was not because they were scared of the devil. The team considered names like the Cannons, Stars, Wave and Dukes, before settling on Rays. Whatever, it worked. The Rays went to the World Series the following year.
