The Pecan Park Eagle

Among all the great controversial names ever assigned to minor league baseball clubs, I have to go with the Tampa Smokers as my all time favorite venture into the future of political incorrectness. Of course, it came about in the early twentieth century, during the era in which Tampa, Florida was reknowned for its cigar products, but that kind of explanation probably cuts little ice with the 2009 Surgeon General or his/her legion of anti-smoking lobbies. As a puritanical culture, we still aren’t that forgiving of people found guilty of past addictions, even those that once held their ground as the social norm. I was a smoker for a long, long time, and although I wouldn’t recommend it today to any young person that wants to save his or her lungs, I never became one of those holier-than-thou ex-smokers who enjoyed either beating-up-on or lauding-my-abstinence-over those folks who still smoke. Anyone who really ever went through breaking the tobacco habit, I think, will not soon forget what it was like to be trapped there. It was the toughest bad habit that I ever had to break, bar none, and I didn’t get out early, easy, or without God’s Help. That’s how I see it, anyway.

 I also recall my two earliest social models for smoking in the first place: (1)  The Blue-Purple Haze Belchers included all those fans at Buff Stadium who laid out that blanket of haze from the stands to the field on a windless summer night; and (2) The Holy Smokers, all those men, including my own dad, who raced to the front door of church each Sunday morning after Mass for the sake of starting a cigarette-smoking bonfire outside the building’s front steps. In the end, I hold only myself responsible for getting into smoking. It was only when, years later, and because of God’s Power and my willingness to change that Divine Intervention got me out from under the blue haze of a lifetime smoking habit. Now I’m just grateful it happened, even though I know it would still be so easy to go back to a nicotine-addiction pull that some say is stronger than crack cocaine. One day at a time, with God’s Help, that won’t happen.

Those were the days, my friend! Oh, and let’s just get back to baseball nicknames. In case you’re wondering, that Tampa Smokers jersey, and many others,  is still available to fans through a little company called Ebbets Field Flannels. I have no personal stake or profit interest in “EFF” beyond the fact that I have been a customer in the past, but I think you may find their offerings of interest. The website link is http://www.ebbets.com/

At any rate, here are a few of  my other favorite great names in minor league baseball. Some are there because they are iconic. Some rank up there on my personal favorite list. And others are simply there because they struck me as amusing. You may have some of your own. If you do, please feel free to list them as comments on this article. The more the merrier.

Some of My Favorite Great Minor League Team Names: The Durham Bulls, Hollywoood Stars, New Orleans Pelicans, San Francisco Seals, Sioux Falls Canaries, Sweetwater Swatters, Wilson Bugs, York Prohibitionists, Racine Malted Milks, Hannibal Cannibals, Vancouver Horse Doctors, Kalamazoo Kazoos, Waterbury Frolickers, Grand Forks Flickertails, Albany Nuts, Moose Jaw Robin Hoods, Salina Insurgents, Jackson Convicts, Victoria Rose Buds, Muscatine Buttonmakers, San Jose Prune Pickers, St. Paul Apostles, Freeport Pretzels, Zanesville Infants, Bridgeport Orators, Chattanooga Lookouts, Houston Babies, Toledo Mud Hens, San Antonio Missions, Beeville Bees, Hammond Berries, North Wilksboro Flashers, Saginaw Wa-Was, and, last but not least,  the always  unforgettable Orange Hoo-Hoos.

My All Time Favorite Minor League Team  Name: (What else?) The Houston Buffaloes/Buffs.

Don’t forget to add your own favorites in the comment section below.

Tags: Baseball, culture, History, Houston Buffs

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