Fwd: ABCNEWS.com -- What's in a (team) name?

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

this reporter started by mailing david beaver (i'm not sure why), who
passed it on to the Language Loggers in general, and now i'm passing it
on to the ADS, where there actually are onomastics folks (some of whom
are also sports fans, and might actually *know* something about the
questions).  the reporter's deadline is way too soon, of course,
especially on a holiday weekend.

REPLY TO THE JOURNALIST (Michael.James at abc.com), NOT TO ME, please.

arnold

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "James, Michael" <Michael.James at abc.com>
> Date: May 28, 2004 10:24:08 AM PDT
> To: "David Beaver" <dib at csli.stanford.edu>
> Cc: <llog at surprise.cis.upenn.edu>
> Subject: RE: ABCNEWS.com -- What's in a (team) name?
>
> Excellent. ... The more people I hear from on this, the better. I'm
> really reaching out to you and other experts to liven up the story a
> bit
> and give it color to elevate it beyond simply a random observation that
> the styles of team names are changing.
>
> So people don't have to scan down, here's a tweaked version of the
> query:
>
>> I've noticed the names of sports teams have changed a lot over the
>> years from things like Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and Giants, to names
>> such as several in a newly formed women's softball league -- Arizona
>> Heat, New England Riptide, NY/NJ Juggernaut and Texas Thunder.
>>
>> I'm wondering if the changing names say anything about the way sports
>> are marketed, or about the idea of sports and competition in society.
>>
>> As a side note: If you'd be willing to weigh in about recent naming
>> controversies - such as teams with Indian-related names, or women's
>> college teams retaining the masculine team names of the college with
>> the word "lady" appended to the front - I'd love to hear about that
>> too.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> Just a note, though: I'm wrapping this up by Sunday, when I'll be in
> the
> office. I hope to have the story out on our site next week.
>
> --Michael James
> ABCNEWS.com