![\"bearcat\"](\"https:\/\/internetmanifestation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/bearcat-300x169.jpg\")
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I have a connection with Binghamton, New York, so it was with interest that I read about the city’s double-A baseball team name change<\/a>, despite my generally solid indifference to baseball. \u00a0But of course, you may have already heard about it, thanks to the\u00a0fact that they’ve opened the name change to an internet vote, and limited the choice to\u00a0some frankly bizarre names (Bullheads, Gobblers, Rocking Horses, Rumble Ponies, Stud Muffins, or Timber Jockeys). \u00a0I assume that Boaty McBoatface<\/a> hangs heavy over their decision not to let folks on the Internet actually suggest names, but given that they should have asked someone who had, like, good ideas.<\/p>\n This is something of a sore point for me, since my alma mater, in the same area, used a committee to decide on a new mascot for SUNY-Binghamton (shortly after another committee decided to stop calling it SUNY-Binghamton). \u00a0Granted the old mascot “The Colonial” was kind of dumb, but the new mascot, the Bearcat, is worse. \u00a0Not that I have anything against bearcats, per se. \u00a0I mean, look at the little fellow:<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n No, the problem is that the committee that decided on the mascot had somehow heard<\/em> of bearcats but never bothered to research what they were, and in fact, based on their press release, labored under the misapprehension that bearcats are mythical, like griffins, or hippogriffs. \u00a0So the logo looks something like a pissed-off bear rather than a cuddly, musk-emitting rodent.<\/p>\n It seems Binghamton just has trouble with sporting names, because this latest committee seems to have developed a strange fixation on Binghamton’s connection to carousels. \u00a0Which, okay, be proud of the carousel thing, I guess, but Binghamton has so many other historical connections that seem a bit more vigorous and manly than carnival rides. \u00a0For example, the famous shoe people Endicott-Johnson started there (technically in the suburbs of Endicott and Johnson City, I guess). \u00a0Why not call them the Binghamton Booters, or Ass-kickers? \u00a0And of course, IBM was big in Binghamton once. \u00a0How about the Binghamton Business Machines? \u00a0There’d have to be some awesome logos for that. \u00a0The flight simulator was invented there – how about the Binghamton Fake Flyers? \u00a0Or the team could be named after the local delicacy – the Binghamton Spiedies sounds athletic, right?<\/p>\n All that said, “Timber Jockeys” works, I guess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have a connection with Binghamton, New York, so it was with interest that I read about the city’s double-A baseball team name change, despite my generally solid indifference to baseball. \u00a0But of course, you may … Continue reading ![\"bearcat_wave\"](\"https:\/\/internetmanifestation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/bearcat_wave-300x215.jpg\")
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