Ken Stanford: Why not... the Buford Buzzards?

All the talk leading up to the start of the Gwinnett Braves first season took me back to another time and another part of Georgia when every town with more than one traffic light, it seems, had a minor league baseball team. And, I got to thinking about some of the unusual nicknames some of today's minor league franchises have.<br /> <br /> I've written about the Georgia-Florida League before in a column that dealt with the the names the teams in my hometown, Moultrie, had over the years. But usually they were the same as the parent club or something close. The Moultrie Redlegs (Cincy was the Redlegs at that time, not the Reds); the Colt 22s (Houston was the Colt 45s not the Astros then); and the Moultrie Phillies.<br /> <br /> The other teams in the league followed suit. There were the Albany Cardinals, Valdosta Tigers, Waycross Braves, Brunswick Pirates, Thomasville Dodgers, etc. Nothing as clever and catchy as some of what we have today.<br /> <br /> The idea seems to be to hang a monicker on your team that makes it stand out from the rest. The Las Vegas 51s, for instance... an acknowledgment to the nearby and mysterious desert locale known as Area 51. The Savannah Sand Gnats. They have lots of beaches and sand in and around Savannah, so, one would presume, lots of Sand Gnats. <br /> <br /> Log on to MiLB.com (the official Web site for Minor League Baseball) and you find a listing of all of the minor leagues plus the complete rosters for those teams, their schedules, player and team stats, etc. And, yes, their nicknames.<br /> <br /> The California League has the Modesto Nuts and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes; the Florida State League, the Charlotte Stone Crabs; the New York-Penn League has the Aberdeen Ironbirds (I don't know. Look it up); in addition to the Sand Gnats, the South Atlantic League has the Augusta Greenjackets (I would have thought Augusta National had that copyrighted); and, the Southern League, the Montgomery Biscuits and the Chattanooga Lookouts (the Lookouts I get. But the Biscuits?).<br /> <br /> Then, there's the International League, with the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs (I wonder if they hang out with the Ironbirds in the off-season), the Toledo Mudhens (remember Klinger on M*A*S*H?), the Louisville Bats (remember when the Louisville Slugger was the bat every kid on the block wanted but few could afford?); and, of course, the Gwinnett Braves, among others, which got me to thinking: why couldn't the Braves have dubbed their relocated AAA team the Buford Buzzards? <br /> <br /> I don't know that Buford is known for its buzzards. But the name rolls of the tongue nicely. The Buford Buzzards. <br /> <br /> Think of the Georgia-Florida League possibilities. The Valdosta Vultures, the Albany Ants, the Thomasville Ticks, the Waycross Swamprats, and, of course, the most logical one of all... the Brunswick Stew. <br /> <br /> <I>(Ken Stanford is the news director for radio stations WDUN NEWS TALK 550, MAJIC 1029 and SPORTS RADIO 1240 THE TICKET and editor for AccessNorthGa.com.)<I>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2009/5/219523