"New York Rangers" naming mystery (1926)

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Thu Dec 2 03:19:39 UTC 2004


At 2:03 PM -0800 12/1/04, FRITZ JUENGLING wrote:
>I recently had a discussion about this team's rival, the New York
>Islanders,  with a buddy of mine who is from NYC.  He told me the
>team does not represent NYC, but New York state, as the team does
>not play in NYC, but rather further out on the Island. Sorta like
>the California Angels as opposed to Anaheim Angels. I was under a
>false impression all these years.
>Fritz

I think this is a bit disingenuous.  The profile of NYC is too high
to allow random teams from outside the NY metro region to be called
"the New York Whosies" simply because they're based in the state of
New York.  And they wouldn't choose to be so called anyway.  On the
other hand, teams that *are* based in the metro area *can* (although
they don't have to) be called "the New York Whatsits" even when
they're not located within the confines of New York State proper.
Thus, cf. the Buffalo Bills or the Buffalo Sabres, neither of which
could ever be called the New York Bills/Sabres, nor could the old NBA
teams the Rochester Royals or the Syracuse Nationals or the CBA team
the Albany Patroons or whatever they are.  But the two NYC-area NFL
teams are the New York Giants and the New York Jets, even though they
play in the (New Jersey) Meadowlands (but in a stadium visible from
the West Side Highway in Manhattan).  The basketball and hockey teams
housed nearby are, to be sure, the New *Jersey* Nets and Devils
(well, in principle the Nets play basketball even this year and in
principle the Devils would play hockey if there were any).  But
presumably they could call themselves the New York Nets/Devils if
they chose, and I find that more likely in those cases (well, the
former will be the Brooklyn Somethings after they move) than that the
Sabres would call themselves the New York (State) Sabres.  So I'd
argue that indeed they're the New York Islanders because of the
proximity of the city, not because of the location within the state.

Neat story about Tex's Rangers, which I hadn't known about.

Larry, surprised that Ken Jennings didn't know *any* of those crucial
sports venues, even the Nassau Colisseum, on his fatal night...

>  >>> Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL 12/01/04 01:10PM >>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: Bapopik at AOL.COM [mailto:Bapopik at AOL.COM]
>>  Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 3:05 PM
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  Subject: "New York Rangers" naming mystery (1926)
>>
>
>>   A nickname is bit of a New York misnomer,
>>  but then again, Madison Square Garden is not in Madison  Square.
>>
>
>Yes, but is it a garden?



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