Press Release from the Fort Wayne TinCaps:
Wizards Unveil Most Amusing “Also-Ran” Names
While Fort Wayne will have to wait until 11 AM tomorrow to discover the new identity for the Minor League Baseball team that will man the diamond at Parkview Field next spring, in its final act as the Wizards the team today released some of the most interesting and amusing names proposed by the community that you will NOT see on the team’s uniforms next season.
As with the selection for the team name, there were no shortage of candidates for this list. As General Manager Mike Nutter explained, “among the over 2,500 suggestions received, there were many great suggestions. There were also candidates of questionable relevance, questionable taste and those we just didn’t get. The humorous offerings from the community were much appreciated. In addition to demonstrating some tremendous creativity, they really helped keep the process fun for us as we waded through well over 2,000 serious selections.”
The team received numerous plays on the “Fort” theme, including the “Fort Wayne Newtons,” “Fort Knocks,” and “Back Fort-y,” and some attempts to bring the team name into the 21st Century, with names including “iWiz” (which, in addition to the pun, was apparently meant to update the existing name “Wizards” and reference the trendy Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPod and iMac) and “Fort Wayne Fashizzle.” There were also many, many animal references including “Fort Wayne Squealing Pigs,” “Fort Wayne Mutant Swans,” “Fort Wayne Mudd Ducks,” “Fort Wayne Weiner Dogs” and “Fort Wayne Golden Goats” and baseball references such as “Fort Wayne Sluggernauts” and “Fort Wayne Whacker Smackers.”
The team received numerous suggestions that played on the name of the downtown project (including the “Harrison SquarePants,” “Harry Squizzards” and the “Bennies of Harrison Square”) and the name of the team’s parent organization, the San Diego Padres (such as the “Hoosier Daddies” and the “Fort Wayne.ComPadres”).
Finally, there were those that were incongruous (such as “Fort Wayne Fighting Amish” and “Fort Wayne Mighty Gherkins”), those that were not particularly descriptive (“Fort Wayne Dudes”), those that were not very family friendly (including numerous named derived from that of former Mayor Harold Baals, names referencing the numbers adorning the nearest highways and other inappropriate uses of bats and balls), a few scary ones (“Fort Wayne Forbidden” and “Fort Wayne Freaks”) and those we just didn’t get (“Fort Wayne Crazy Uncles”).
From this list, the team selected the following as its “most amusing” (but still family friendly) suggestions:
10. Fort Wayne Newtons
9. Fort Wayne Dudes
8. Fort Wayne Weiner Dogs
7. Fort Knocks
6. Fort Wayne Fashizzle
5. iWiz
4. Fort Wayne Mighty Gherkins
3. Fort Wayne.ComPadres
2. Harrison SquarePants
1. Hoosier Daddies
At least the TinCaps staff has kept their sense of humor and sanity after all that!
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