{"id":8918,"date":"2016-11-02T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T18:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/11\/02\/jumbo-shrimp-an-oxymoron-and-now-a-minor-league-baseball-team\/"},"modified":"2016-11-02T18:25:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T18:25:00","slug":"jumbo-shrimp-an-oxymoron-and-now-a-minor-league-baseball-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/jumbo-shrimp-an-oxymoron-and-now-a-minor-league-baseball-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Jumbo Shrimp: An Oxymoron, And Now A Minor League Baseball Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:16px\">By  <a class=\"colorbox\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/11\/02\/500386998\/jumbo-shrimp-an-oxymoron-and-now-a-minor-league-baseball-team?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=sports\">Bill Chappell<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/11\/02\/500386998\/jumbo-shrimp-an-oxymoron-and-now-a-minor-league-baseball-team?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=sports\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2016\/11\/02\/jumbo-shrimp640x360_wide-8338ddf00f6186962b4d26a590cbdc4c8b44a96b-s1100-c15.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><button>Enlarge this image<\/button><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp unveiled their new team name and logo Wednesday, retiring their previous name, the Suns. <strong>Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><span>Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s a bold move, meant to energize the local fan base. But a Jacksonville baseball team&#8217;s decision to rename itself the Jumbo Shrimp is meeting with a mixed reaction. Some say they can&#8217;t wait to buy a team jersey; in other corners, it&#8217;s being panned like so much scampi. A petition has been started.<\/p>\n<p>Just like a shrimp, the team says, the new name is rich \u2014 with meaning. In addition to highlighting the city&#8217;s connection to seafood, it&#8217;s also a play on Jacksonville&#8217;s role as &#8220;a big small town \u2014 Florida&#8217;s largest city, yet in many ways a richly connected and close-knit community,&#8221; the team says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We understand the rich tradition of this region and wanted to embrace it in a way only Minor League Baseball can,&#8221; said Jumbo Shrimp General Manager Harold Craw, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/news\/article.jsp?ymd=20161102&amp;content_id=207826872&amp;vkey=pr_t564&amp;fext=.jsp&amp;sid=t564\">in a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Minor League Baseball, oddball names are part of the allure, as teams signal that they&#8217;re far from the staid world of national sports leagues. Jacksonville&#8217;s new crustacean identity replaces the Suns, the team&#8217;s former name that dates to the 1960s. The team says it worked with San Diego-based marketing company Brandiose to create its new identity.<\/p>\n<div><span>Article continues after <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/about-npr\/186948703\/corporate-sponsorship\" target=\"_blank\">sponsorship<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Brandiose has been part of several extreme makeovers in Minor League Baseball, including the renaming of Connecticut&#8217;s New Britain Rock Cats as <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/sports\/sports_nut\/2015\/09\/how_brandiose_transformed_minor_league_baseball_from_the_hartford_yard_goats.html\">the Hartford Yard Goats in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Could you wait until 2017 to announce this? We&#8217;ve experienced too much in 2016. <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ylZfd7XqUt\">https:\/\/t.co\/ylZfd7XqUt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Wesley Larkin (@WesleyLarkin7) <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WesleyLarkin7\/status\/793658555777880064\">November 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The Jumbo Shrimp will be a fun, fresh face in town, and I am excited for our fans to see them come to life next spring,&#8221; says team owner Ken Babby, 36, whose plan for the Miami Marlins Double-A affiliate is similar to the strategy he used in shaking up his Akron, Ohio, team that went from being the Aeros to the Rubber Ducks in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The Jumbo Shrimp name was officially announced Wednesday morning \u2014 but Babby unveiled it to <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/jacksonville.com\/jacksonville-suns\/2016-11-01\/jacksonville-suns-changing-name-jumbo-shrimp\">The Florida Times-Union Tuesday<\/a>, calling the Jumbo Shrimp &#8220;a gritty, tough, hard-working shrimp.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Other opinions are available. And in Jacksonville, some of the team&#8217;s fans say they were perfectly happy with the old name. A petition calling on the owner to return to the Suns <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/ken-babby-save-the-jacksonville-suns-from-being-called-the-jacksonville-jumbo-shrimp\">attracted some 4,000 signatures<\/a> in just 14 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the top-rated comment on that petition:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve been the suns since I was born. My parents took me to games and I was looking forward to taking my kids someday. Babby is an out of towner hiring out of town consultants to bugger up a tradition they know nothing about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>By reinventing itself as the Jumbo Shrimp, Jacksonville is aiming for the high bar that&#8217;s been set by uniquely named teams such as the El Paso Chihuahuas, Fort Wayne Tincaps, Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, Wichita Wingnuts and Montgomery Biscuits.<\/p>\n<p>Babby also said he expects a range of reactions to the change. From the comments on that story, and on the newspaper&#8217;s tweets about the name, we&#8217;d say he&#8217;s right.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Please let this article be a joke!&#8221; a reader wrote on the <em>Times-Union<\/em> story, saying the name will be &#8220;another black eye&#8221; for Jacksonville.<\/p>\n<p>The reactions were so varied that the newspaper <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/jacksonville.com\/sports\/2016-11-02\/reaction-jacksonville-suns-name-change-comes-fast-and-furious\">devoted a separate story<\/a> to them, hours after the initial story ran.<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The new Assistant to the Traveling Secretary for the Jacksonville <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/JumboShrimp?src=hash\">#JumboShrimp<\/a>. Previous experience with NY Yankees. <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6ku2Ehw3SV\">pic.twitter.com\/6ku2Ehw3SV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Bee (@TimBeeSports) <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TimBeeSports\/status\/793788307704541185\">November 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via Twitter, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WesleyLarkin7\/status\/793658555777880064\">Wesley Larkin wrote<\/a>, &#8220;Could you wait until 2017 to announce this? We&#8217;ve experienced too much in 2016.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Others were more enthusiastic, saying the local sports scene needed shaking up. And several people announced their plans to buy hats and T-shirts with the new name and logo.<\/p>\n<p>Still others marveled at the headlines and puns the new name could bring. And one commenter simply noted the (potentially delicious) implications of a Shrimp and Biscuits matchup.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, we aren&#8217;t likely to see a giant shrimp out on the sidelines, taking part in mock-wrestling matches with a biscuit or (shall we dream?) a Chihuahua. The Jacksonville team says its mascot duties still belong to Southpaw, the dog character who has been with the team for years.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/\">Let&#8217;s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/fivefilters\/block-ads\/wiki\/There-are-no-acceptable-ads\">(Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source:: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/11\/02\/500386998\/jumbo-shrimp-an-oxymoron-and-now-a-minor-league-baseball-team?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=sports\" class=\"colorbox\" title=\"Jumbo Shrimp: An Oxymoron, And Now A Minor League Baseball Team\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/11\/02\/500386998\/jumbo-shrimp-an-oxymoron-and-now-a-minor-league-baseball-team?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/11\/02\/500386998\/jumbo-shrimp-an-oxymoron-and-now-a-minor-league-baseball-team?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=sports\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2016\/11\/02\/jumbo-shrimp640x360_wide-8338ddf00f6186962b4d26a590cbdc4c8b44a96b-s1100-c15.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><button>Enlarge this image<\/button><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp unveiled their new team name and logo Wednesday, retiring their previous name, the Suns. <strong>Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><span>Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s a bold move, meant to energize the local fan base. But a Jacksonville baseball team&#8217;s decision to rename itself the Jumbo Shrimp is meeting with a mixed reaction. Some say they can&#8217;t wait to buy a team jersey; in other corners, it&#8217;s being panned like so much scampi. A petition has been started.<\/p>\n<p>Just like a shrimp, the team says, the new name is rich \u2014 with meaning. In addition to highlighting the city&#8217;s connection to seafood, it&#8217;s also a play on Jacksonville&#8217;s role as &#8220;a big small town \u2014 Florida&#8217;s largest city, yet in many ways a richly connected and close-knit community,&#8221; the team says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We understand the rich tradition of this region and wanted to embrace it in a way only Minor League Baseball can,&#8221; said Jumbo Shrimp General Manager Harold Craw, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/news\/article.jsp?ymd=20161102&amp;content_id=207826872&amp;vkey=pr_t564&amp;fext=.jsp&amp;sid=t564\">in a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Minor League Baseball, oddball names are part of the allure, as teams signal that they&#8217;re far from the staid world of national sports leagues. Jacksonville&#8217;s new crustacean identity replaces the Suns, the team&#8217;s former name that dates to the 1960s. The team says it worked with San Diego-based marketing company Brandiose to create its new identity.<\/p>\n<div><span>Article continues after <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/about-npr\/186948703\/corporate-sponsorship\" target=\"_blank\">sponsorship<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<aside>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Brandiose has been part of several extreme makeovers in Minor League Baseball, including the renaming of Connecticut&#8217;s New Britain Rock Cats as <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/sports\/sports_nut\/2015\/09\/how_brandiose_transformed_minor_league_baseball_from_the_hartford_yard_goats.html\">the Hartford Yard Goats in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Could you wait until 2017 to announce this? We&#8217;ve experienced too much in 2016. <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ylZfd7XqUt\">https:\/\/t.co\/ylZfd7XqUt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Wesley Larkin (@WesleyLarkin7) <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WesleyLarkin7\/status\/793658555777880064\">November 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The Jumbo Shrimp will be a fun, fresh face in town, and I am excited for our fans to see them come to life next spring,&#8221; says team owner Ken Babby, 36, whose plan for the Miami Marlins Double-A affiliate is similar to the strategy he used in shaking up his Akron, Ohio, team that went from being the Aeros to the Rubber Ducks in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The Jumbo Shrimp name was officially announced Wednesday morning \u2014 but Babby unveiled it to <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/jacksonville.com\/jacksonville-suns\/2016-11-01\/jacksonville-suns-changing-name-jumbo-shrimp\">The Florida Times-Union Tuesday<\/a>, calling the Jumbo Shrimp &#8220;a gritty, tough, hard-working shrimp.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Other opinions are available. And in Jacksonville, some of the team&#8217;s fans say they were perfectly happy with the old name. A petition calling on the owner to return to the Suns <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/ken-babby-save-the-jacksonville-suns-from-being-called-the-jacksonville-jumbo-shrimp\">attracted some 4,000 signatures<\/a> in just 14 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the top-rated comment on that petition:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve been the suns since I was born. My parents took me to games and I was looking forward to taking my kids someday. Babby is an out of towner hiring out of town consultants to bugger up a tradition they know nothing about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>By reinventing itself as the Jumbo Shrimp, Jacksonville is aiming for the high bar that&#8217;s been set by uniquely named teams such as the El Paso Chihuahuas, Fort Wayne Tincaps, Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, Wichita Wingnuts and Montgomery Biscuits.<\/p>\n<p>Babby also said he expects a range of reactions to the change. From the comments on that story, and on the newspaper&#8217;s tweets about the name, we&#8217;d say he&#8217;s right.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Please let this article be a joke!&#8221; a reader wrote on the <em>Times-Union<\/em> story, saying the name will be &#8220;another black eye&#8221; for Jacksonville.<\/p>\n<p>The reactions were so varied that the newspaper <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/jacksonville.com\/sports\/2016-11-02\/reaction-jacksonville-suns-name-change-comes-fast-and-furious\">devoted a separate story<\/a> to them, hours after the initial story ran.<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The new Assistant to the Traveling Secretary for the Jacksonville <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/JumboShrimp?src=hash\">#JumboShrimp<\/a>. Previous experience with NY Yankees. <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6ku2Ehw3SV\">pic.twitter.com\/6ku2Ehw3SV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Bee (@TimBeeSports) <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TimBeeSports\/status\/793788307704541185\">November 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via Twitter, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WesleyLarkin7\/status\/793658555777880064\">Wesley Larkin wrote<\/a>, &#8220;Could you wait until 2017 to announce this? We&#8217;ve experienced too much in 2016.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Others were more enthusiastic, saying the local sports scene needed shaking up. And several people announced their plans to buy hats and T-shirts with the new name and logo.<\/p>\n<p>Still others marveled at the headlines and puns the new name could bring. And one commenter simply noted the (potentially delicious) implications of a Shrimp and Biscuits matchup.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, we aren&#8217;t likely to see a giant shrimp out on the sidelines, taking part in mock-wrestling matches with a biscuit or (shall we dream?) a Chihuahua. The Jacksonville team says its mascot duties still belong to Southpaw, the dog character who has been with the team for years.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/\">Let&#8217;s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/fivefilters\/block-ads\/wiki\/There-are-no-acceptable-ads\">(Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}