How It Was Named | MLB Teams

Intro & Atlanta Braves [Music] here's how every mlb team got its name first on our list is the atlanta braves the team stakes a strong claim on the title of the longest continuously playing american professional sports team founded in 1871 the team came into existence after the first fully professional team the cincinnati red stockings dissolved in 1870 then player manager and three others moved to boston to help start a new team as the boston red stockings borrowing the uniforms and the name from the cincinnati-based team this new team was a founding member of the national association of professional baseball players or simply the national association in fact the braves remain one of two teams still in existence from that original nap bbp whoo that was a mouthful in 1876 the national league which would become one of the two halves of major league baseball replaced the national association at this point our team was referred to as the boston redcaps because of another already existing team in the national league named the cincinnati red stockings taking the original name from that original cincinnati team another nickname they picked up along the way in 1883 was the boston bean eaters probably paying tribute to those delicious pork and molasses boston baked beans in 1901 the boston americans will get to them later set up shop across town and started a decade-long drought of poor seasons for a red-capped red stock and been eaters in 1907 the owner ditched the red stockings literally and all of the other nicknames and renamed the team the boston doves however still struggling on the field the team tried out another nickname the boston rustlers in 1911 before finally settling on the boston braves in 1912. braves was chosen after the owner james gaffney who was a member of a political organization called tammany hall tammany hall was named after a leader of the lenape people tamanend and members of the organization were called braves the term braves is in reference to native americans and comes from the long history of violent conflict starting with european settlement and continuing through the 19th century with u.s expansion further west the native american warriors were often referred to as braves in order to fully understand the depth history atrocities complex feelings and everything that comes with using native americans as mascots and sports is definitely beyond the scope of this video and not something i would ever claim to be an expert in but this is how the name came about so do with that information what you will p.s this won't be the last time that this comes up after a failed attempt to avoid money problems by signing babe ruth for the 1935 season new ownership changed the team name from the braves to the boston bees and another ownership change in 1941 prompted the name change back to the boston braves but this did little to change their fortunes in 1953 the team relocated to milwaukee becoming the milwaukee braves in milwaukee the braves had success both on the field and financially their success actually inspired three other teams on our list to relocate as well in fact this team was so successful that their entire time in milwaukee they never had a losing season unfortunately all good things must come to an end the team was sold in 1962 and the new owner immediately wanted to move the team to a bigger tv market finally in 1966 and much to the dismay of the city of milwaukee the braves moved to atlanta becoming the atlanta braves that we know today the chicago cubs started life as an experimental team with only a handful of Chicago Cubs contests to test the appetite for baseball in chicago and they were called the chicago white stockings white stockings was chosen as the team name originally because of the white uniforms that the players wore with most teams of this time period the nicknames weren't really official and generally they were picked by the sports journalists that were covering the game the most popular names stuck after a successful test in 1870 the white stockings became a fully professional team joining the national association for their inaugural season in 1871. despite starting in the national association at the same time as the atlanta braves the chicago cubs comes in at number two on our list because they did not play for two years after the 1871 chicago fire in the early days the most prominent player for the white stockings was cap anson he played for 21 seasons with chicago 18 of which he was also the team's manager because of his propensity for trading away star players for younger stronger players by 1890 the team became the chicago cults now when anson left the club the sad sports franchise felt abandoned and was left with a roster full of a bunch of young players nobody had ever heard of the most popular names during this time period were the chicago remnants and the chicago orphans and while both of those nicknames were popularly used they slowly fell out of favor as a new nickname emerged the chicago cubs cubs was a more playful and hopeful outlook on a young team that would set the foundation for one of the most recognizable american sports franchises much better choice than the orphans Cincinnati Reds after losing his baseball team the cincinnati red stockings in 1871 and seeing them essentially become the boston braves the city of cincinnati again lost a second team that was also called the cincinnati red stockings in 1880 now a third iteration of the cincinnati red stockings began playing in the american association in 1882 in 1890 the red stockings moved permanently to the national league and it was at this time that the team dropped their stockings metaphorically and became known as the cincinnati reds and that would be the end of this section if it wasn't for just one slight detour you see this is where we get sidetracked from a great baseball name it's a few years after world war ii and people are freaking out about communism well one person in particular is freaking out about communism the eventually disgraced and officially censured wisconsin senator joe mccarthy mccarthyism also known as the red scare was a period of time in american history where we collectively lost our minds and started attacking our fellow citizens calling them communists and socialists and trying to use those attacks to score political points i'm so thankful that it's not like that today so because of this red scare the cincinnati reds changed their names in 1954 to the cincinnati red legs thankfully for all of us the name change never caught on and in 1959 the team returned to being the cincinnati reds in 1882 the pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pirates pirates were founded in the neighboring city of allegheny as the allegheny baseball club of pittsburgh since that's a really long name they were often referred to simply as the leading them to eventually be called the pittsburgh alleghenies now going into the 1891 season the alleghenies were looking at signing a new second baseman now to retain a player on your roster at this time you had to at least include them on a list of reserved players the philadelphia athletics failed to do that with a player named lou bierbauer who the alleghenies promptly signed the philadelphia athletics filed an official complaint calling the actions of allegheny per radical which is a great word essentially accusing the team of plundering players from other teams like a bunch of swashbuckling pirates perhaps enjoying this infamy and the insult the alleghenies renamed themselves to the pittsburgh pirates in 1891 fun fact allegheny was eventually annexed in 1907 making 1908 the first season the pittsburgh pirates would actually play in pittsburgh the history of the st louis cardinals begins with a team St. Louis Cardinals called the st louis brown stockings this team was named after the color of their socks because that's what you did back then now the brown stockings began playing professionally in 1875 but they were actually thrown out of the league for fixing games now bankrupt a semi-pro version of the team continued to play games through 1881 they would travel city to city playing exhibition matches finally ahead of the 1882 season the team was purchased by a new owner and became a founding member of the american association this marks the beginning of the st louis cardinals as the professional franchise that we recognized today though at the time they retained the name of the previous team they were still the st louis brown stockings because of a uniform change meaning they got different socks after only one season the team dropped stockings from their name becoming the st louis browns in 1891 the team transitioned to the national league but they retained their name new ownership came in 1899 and with it they brought new uniforms with the signature cardinal red color as a trim on the uniform despite having this sweet color the team was renamed to the perfectos however the color change proved to be much more popular than the name change columnist willie mchale overheard one woman called the new color a lovely shade of cardinal and he began referring to the team as the cardinals the popularity of this nickname proved so strong that the very next season the team was officially renamed to the st louis cardinals that we know today the phillies began life in 1883 as an Philadelphia Phillies expansion team for the national league and they were named the philadelphia quakers quaker city is one of philadelphia's famous nicknames along with the city of brotherly love not to be confused with the mid 90s sitcom brotherly love that starred the lawrence brothers real brothers from philadelphia playing brothers also from philadelphia in 1884 the team sought to change their name to the philadelphia philadelphias following the tradition of naming your team after the pluralizing of the city name much like allegheny's but since that is somewhat ridiculous and would have been difficult to print in the late 1800s newspapers continued to refer to them as the quakers or decided to opt for the much shorter phillies by 1890 the team was officially renamed the philadelphia phillies permanently adopting the abbreviation in 1944 the team was sold after the owner was banned for betting on his own team the new ownership tried to change the name to the philadelphia blue jays the name never really stuck though and johns hopkins university whose team is also nicknamed the blue jays objected to being associated with such a bad team ouch blue jays was actually so unpopular that it never even took over the name spot on the front of their jerseys instead the new mascot just appeared on the sleeve in 1950 the team officially dropped the blue jay name and returned as it should have been back to being the philadelphia phillies the san francisco giants began life in San Francisco Giants new york city as the new york gothams in 1883. gotham's was chosen because of its popularity as a nickname for new york so popular in fact that it would later be used as the name of the fictional gotham city in batman comics nearly 60 years later as legend goes after a particularly good victory against those phillies in 1885 then manager jim mutry praised the team calling them my big fellows my giants though this may be an apocryphal story from that point on the team was known as the new york giants in 1958 the giants became one of the two teams to move for the first time to the west coast looking for a new stadium and having multiple seasons of dwindling success they first looked to minnesota before being wooed by the mayor of san francisco becoming the san francisco giants this move however was only going to be allowed if two teams moved to california together expanding baseball out west Los Angeles Dodgers the los angeles dodgers began as the brooklyn greys in 1884. named by reporters after their gray uniforms of course they began playing in the american association and this is where things get confusing the legal name of the brooklyn-based team was the brooklyn baseball club however they often went by multiple different nicknames oftentimes these nicknames all overlapped and none were the official name of the team in 1884 they went by the brooklyn atlantics starting in 1888 they alternated between the brooklyn bridegrooms and the brooklyn grooms because apparently a lot of their players got married that year in 1899 they became the brooklyn super boz named after a popular circus act the handlings superba it was a traveling vaudeville style show and i have no idea why they named their team after it for much of the early 1900s the team was also called the brooklyn robins after manager wilbert robinson who went on to lead the team to the pennant in 1916 and 1920 however amongst all of these nicknames one was common throughout and popular amongst both fans and the newspapers the brooklyn trolley dodgers note the question marks there there is some dispute as to when the name started by one record in 1895 a newspaper reported that the traladatas is the new name which easton baseball cranks have given the brooklyn club trolley dodgers was given to the team as a name because locals believed the moving from the horse-drawn buggies to trolleys posed a great danger for the people of brooklyn at some point the name was shortened to dodgers but it wasn't until 1916 that the team formally recognized dodgers as a nickname for the team printing dodgers on a world series program but even then the team continued using robbins as well and it wasn't until 1932 that dodgers officially appeared on their jerseys now in 1958 much like the giants the dodgers began looking for a new place to build a baseball stadium they eventually began talks with the city of los angeles and agreed to move as long as their crosstown rivals the new york giants also moved to california keeping their rivalry intact that is how we got the los angeles dodgers the baltimore orioles began as a minor Baltimore Orioles league team playing in the western league as the milwaukee brewers in 1900 the western league became the american league and announced that it would be a professional league directly in competition with the national league a few years later the leagues would merge becoming major league baseball playing in the american league's inaugural season in 1901 brewers was the nickname that had been used for baseball teams in milwaukee dating all the way back to the 1800s this references milwaukee's famous brewing industry founding multiple breweries including miller brewing company which was founded in 1855 all of this culminating and giving milwaukee the city nickname of brew city unfortunately this just wasn't the time for professional baseball in milwaukee after only one season in 1902 the brewers moved to st louis becoming the st louis browns if that sounds familiar browns was chosen because it was the former name of their now crosstown rivals the st louis cardinals who abandoned the name in 1898. after those crosstown rival cardinals were sold to new owners the owner of the browns realized that he didn't have the finances to compete for the fandom of st louis residents and the truth was his browns already lagged behind the cardinals in terms of performance on the field the team's first attempt to move was back to milwaukee in 1953 but the move was blocked by the american league owners the second option became baltimore but the league would only allow the move if then owner bill veek would sell his ownership in the team long story short he was not well liked for his antics by the other owners in the american league so in 1954 the team moved to baltimore and became the baltimore orioles orioles was chosen as a nickname because of a minor league team that played in the city previously and was much beloved they even had babe ruth before he became a pro the name also belonged to a different franchise that played in the city in the american league for two seasons but had already moved but more on that later all of these teams were named after a beloved symbol of maryland an oriole specifically the baltimore oriole this bird shares its coloring with the calvert seal section of the maryland flag and became the state bird of maryland in 1947 just seven years before the baltimore orioles baseball team arrived another team beginning in 1901 was the boston red sox Boston Red Sox they too were an original franchise of the american league this is going to be a trend in this video and they set up shop as the crosstown rivals of the boston bean eaters remember them though lacking an official nickname the team often went by the boston americans or the bostonians or the american leaguers or the pilgrims anyway remember when the bean eaters formerly the boston red stockings became the doves in 1907 and stopped wearing red socks when that happened the boston americanian pilgrims jumped quickly to change their name to the boston red sox and they got the socks to match too this move in 1908 began to cement them as the premier team in boston and the rest was history the chicago white sox began playing as Chicago White Sox a minor league team named the sioux city corn huskers and they played in the western league when the western league became the american league they played one final season as a minor league team in a super sneaky move that totally wasn't planned out before the league moved the team from sioux city to chicago's south side and took up the nickname white stockings after this final season as a minor league team the ale announced that they would become a major league team and thus the chicago white stockings were born in 1904 to keep up with sweet abbreviations the team changed their name to the chicago white sox and have remained so ever since oh and yes it was about the color of their socks the cleveland indians also began as a minor league team playing in the western Cleveland Indians league originally playing in grand rapids michigan in 1900 the grand rapids rustlers moved to cleveland and became the cleveland lake shores this makes sense as a name because cleveland is on the shore of a great lake when the american league became a major league in 1901 the team became the cleveland bluebirds the players immediately disliked the name the team tried to shorten it to the cleveland blues that very same season but it still didn't work the players tried to rename the team themselves to the cleveland broncos the next season in 1902 but that name too failed to catch on the team was then renamed in 1903 to the cleveland naps after the team captain who is nicknamed knapp knapp would go on to manage the team as well for a few years until in 1915 he was traded the now naples naps needed a new nickname that new nickname was the cleveland indians we're back in this territory aren't we alright diving in the team is apparently named after a former player of the cleveland spiders team that played in the late 1890s named lewis sock alexis sock alexis was from the pinup scott tribe and had died a few years prior to the team being renamed to the indians he is often credited as the first baseball player of native american descent now in an article from 2012 on clevescene.com writer peter patacos examines the origins of the club's logo mascot and name and he notes that the club's official stance on the name is that they are quote proud to acknowledge and foster the legacy of lewis francis sock alexis but patacos notes that this is a highly unlikely and progressive stance for the team to evade in 1915 he writes when the cleveland baseball club was renamed to the indians from the naps in 1915 the civil rights act was still 49 years from reality women could not vote and racism against all minorities raged across america it hadn't yet been three full decades since custer's last stand and the bloody indian wars continued in the american west into the 1920s in the same article sports writer joe poznianski adds why exactly would people in cleveland this in a time when native americans were generally viewed as a sub-human in america name their team after a relatively minor and certainly troubled outfielder he goes on to say in all versions of the story sock alexis had to deal with horrendous racism terrible taunts whoops from the crowd and so on finally the article continues with an nyu history professor who posits that the franchise was renamed not in honor of soccer lexus but the fun that the crowd had at the time which would seem was often at his expense now these videos that i make are essentially glorified wikipedia deep dives so i don't usually link to every page that i read in researching but i will link this article it's a good read in tackling important questions about the origins of the cleveland indians nickname so much more could and should be said but for now we will leave it here with the cleveland indians again we begin in the western league as a minor league team the detroit tigers Detroit Tigers were already named the detroit tigers the nickname dates back to a military unit called the detroit light guard that is part of the michigan army national guard the detroit light guard adopted the tiger as its symbol in 1882 and it remained the detroit tigers nickname when the american league became a major league in 1901 the minnesota twins also began in the Minnesota Twins western league moving from kansas city to washington dc for the inaugural season of the american league in 1901 they chose the name washington senators because of a previous baseball team that also played in washington the name senators refers to washington d.c being the location of the united states capitol senators are elected by states and sent to represent that state in the upper chamber of congress now because of poor performance on the field the team was rebranded in 1905 to the washington nationals again since washington dc is the national capital gnats for short was used interchangeably with senators and eventually in 1956 the team was renamed back to the washington senators following the death of the owner in 1955 the new ownership sought to move the team and in 1960 minneapolis was granted an expansion team to join the mlb this would be an entirely new team so jumping on this opportunity the senator's owner proposed that they move their franchise to minneapolis and place this new expansion team in washington the league agreed with this proposal and the minnesota twins were born in 1961. twins was chosen for the name because of the twin cities of minneapolis the largest city in the state and saint paul the state's capital these twin cities share a metro area and are built around and divided by the mississippi minnesota and saint croix rivers when the western league became the New York Yankees american league in 1901 they wanted to start with a team in new york city unfortunately they were blocked by the national league in the league decided to start with a team in baltimore maryland instead this is where the other previously mentioned baltimore orioles team comes into place they were the beginnings of what would eventually become the new york yankees now if you're still unclear as to why the orioles was chosen rewind a bit take some notes pop quiz in the morning in 1903 the two competing leagues reached an agreement that would allow the team to move to its desired location new york city they became the new york highlanders highlanders was chosen for a couple of reasons one to highlight the location of the ballpark one of the highest points in north manhattan and also because of a british military unit called gordon's highlanders this only really makes sense if you know that at the time the team president was named joseph gordon so these baseball players were his highlanders within a few years though some sports writers began referring to the new team as the yankees perhaps a more fitting name than the scottish highlander as yankee dates back to the mid-1700s to refer to people living in america by 1913 the name had stuck and the team officially became the new york yankees the oakland athletics or a's for short were also created as a part of the Oakland Athletics western league becoming the american league beginning in philadelphia in 1901 the philadelphia athletics were a direct competitor to the national league's philadelphia phillies the name athletics was chosen after an amateur team from the 1860s named the athletic club of philadelphia by the 1950s the philadelphia phillies began to have significantly more success and overtook the a's as the main philadelphia-based team creating a lot of financial troubles for the a's facing potential bankruptcy in 1954 the team was sold to a new owner that moved the team ahead of the 1955 season to kansas city keeping the nickname to become the kansas city athletics after a new owner bought out the minority owners to control the team in 1960 he began shopping the team around and looking for a new city potential landing spots for the team included dallas fort worth then potentially louisville potential names in louisville were the kentucky athletics the louisville sluggers and even the kentucky colonels which would have kept the kc logo on their jerseys and allowed for potentially lucrative business ties to either baseball bats or fried chicken an initial move to oakland was also tried the same year as louisville but all these were voted down by the other baseball owners eventually after a strange threat to move the team to peculiar missouri yes that's a real place and on the heels of an expiring lease with the current stadium in 1967 the league owners voted to allow the athletics to move to oakland ahead of the 1968 season finally giving us the oakland athletics now there had been a desire in baseball to have a major team Los Angeles Angels on the west coast since at least the 1940s an original plan was even disrupted by the 1941 bombing of pearl harbor eventually the los angeles dodgers became the first team in la in 1958 moving from brooklyn in the late 1950s the continental league was a startup trying to rival the mlb and was looking for places to start teams in a successful attempt to prevent this the mlb announced a round of expansion with two teams joining both the american league and the national league since the dodgers owner owned the exclusive baseball rights to los angeles he was able to block a rival from purchasing the rights to that new mlb team and eventually gene autry an actor singer famous for his cowboy roles was allowed to purchase the team wanting to name it after a pacific coast league team the angels he had to purchase the naming rights from the dodgers owner that owned the name as a part of the dodgers move to la once the name was purchased the los angeles angels then joined the league and began playing in 1961 not only does angels have a history as the name of previous baseball teams in los angeles but los angeles literally translates from spanish to english as the angels so quite the fitting name part of the original agreement that autry made with the dodgers organization meant that the angels played at dodger stadium they were also blocked from building a competing stadium in los angeles eventually the team struck a deal with the city of anaheim and built a stadium and moved the team because they were no longer technically in los angeles but still within the giant metro sprawl team name was changed to the california angels in 1965 ahead of their move for the start of the 1966 season after three decades of heartbreak for the angels disney decided to take a particular interest in 1996. perhaps this had to do something with the 1994 disney film angels in the outfield eventually acquiring a full controlling stake in the club in 1997 disney's subsidiary called anaheim sports which also owned the mighty ducks of anaheim at the time sought to renovate the anaheim stadium part of the new agreement with the city of anaheim meant that they had to have anaheim in the team name so in 1997 the team was renamed to the anaheim angels by 2005 however the team was now under new ownership that wanted to add los angeles back into the team name so the team at that time was redubbed to the los angeles angels of anaheim needless to say this did not go over well with fans or residents of either los angeles or anaheim and this especially did not go over well with the cities of los angeles or anaheim after a somewhat lengthy court battle with the city of anaheim the lawsuit was dropped and the angels were allowed to keep their lengthy name however and probably because of all this confusion and fighting in 2013 the team officially dropped of anaheim from the team name after negotiating a new lease with the city giving us once again the los angeles angels after the original team named the washington senators moved to minnesota and became the twins Texas Rangers in 1961 washington received an expansion team as a part of the deal keeping the name of the team that moved to minnesota the texas rangers began as the washington senators in 1961. however the team struggled financially and on the field and the owners sought to either move or sell the team in 1970. the mayor of arlington texas was particularly interested after trying to previously lure the then kansas city athletics to dallas fort worth in 1971 the owners voted in favor of the move with the team beginning to play in arlington in 1972 upon relocating a new name was chosen in the texas rangers were officially playing baseball in texas rangers was chosen after the statewide law enforcement agency the texas rangers as a part of another round of expansion for the 1962 season Houston Astros houston was chosen as one of the two expansion sites the name that was chosen from a contest was the houston cult 45s the colt 45 was a gun that was popular in the west in the mid to late 1800s it even garnered the nickname of the gun that won the west however the name was short-lived and in 1965 the team was renamed to the houston astros this name was chosen to honor houston's role in nasa's space program and it coincided with their move into the astrodome where they would play on their new artificial field called astroturf they really weren't afraid to go all in on the branding after the dodgers and giants moved to california in 1957 the mlb wanted to add New York Mets another franchise back to new york city in 1962 the league expanded and added the new york mets metz was chosen for the name and is a shortened version of the legal name of the franchise the new york metropolitan baseball club metropolitan was a natural fit as it was the name of a new york-based baseball team that played in the american association back in the 1880s in 1969 the league Kansas City Royals looked to expand again this time by adding four more teams one of those teams was the kansas city royals which began playing just two years after the kansas city athletics left for oakland the name royals was chosen in honor of the american royal a livestock show rodeo and barbecue competition that's been held annually in kansas city since 1899. their name also slides in perfectly around other kansas city nicknames the royals the chiefs briefly the kings and also we can't forget the monarchs of the negro baseball league the milwaukee brewers began life in the mlb as an expansion team Milwaukee Brewers called the seattle pilots in 1969. pilots was chosen because the owner was a part-time pilot and because of the city's role in the aviation industry being the founding location of companies like boeing there were a couple of issues however the teams that joined in 1969 were originally supposed to start in 1971. the timeline was moved up so that all four teams could join at the same time while shortening the gap that kansas city would be without a team having just lost their team to oakland two years prior on top of that part of the agreement required the pilots to pay one million dollars to the pacific coast league that would be losing its seattle franchise as a part of the expansion of the mlb on top of all that the team faced major renovations to the stadium that was built for the minor league team and with poor attendance the team was almost out of money entirely after its first season the team tried to find a new location but a local petition slowed the progress and it became obvious to everyone that due to the finances of the team new ownership was the only option to keep the franchise from going under the original owner agreed to sell the team to bud ceiling yes that bud sealing that would go on to become the commissioner of baseball in 1998 selig then planned to move the team to milwaukee the city of seattle filed an injunction to stop the deal and to keep the team in seattle this was on march 17th after spring training had already begun the players and coaches showed up to spring training not sure where their team was located or what their team name even was the former owner filed for bankruptcy and through the bankruptcy proceedings the sale was allowed to go through just six days before the opening of the 1970 season the team's equipment was literally sitting on a truck in provo utah waiting for word on whether to drive west to seattle or east of milwaukee when the team finally arrived in milwaukee the name brewers was chosen for all of the reasons that we discussed during the baltimore orioles part of the video finally giving milwaukee its team the milwaukee brewers in 1970. the san diego padres also San Diego Padres joined the mlb as one of those four expansion franchises in 1969 playing their entire time in san diego the name padres comes from a pacific coast league team of the same name padres translates his fathers from spanish to english and refers to the spanish franciscan friars that founded san diego in 1769 200 years before the inaugural season of the padres the washington nationals began as the final of the four 1969 expansion teams as the montreal Washington Nationals expos they were the first major league team to be located in canada and were named after the expo 67 world's fair which took place in montreal to great success two years prior following the sale of the team to new owners in 1999 the team failed to secure a new baseball stadium and also could not reach an agreement on tv and radio broadcast deals so in 2001 there was a proposal for mlb contraction that would reduce the league by two teams those teams were to be the expos and the twins and it mainly focused on their inability to secure a new and up-to-date stadium this plan was ultimately postponed but the writing was on the wall that the expos had to move proposed locations included oklahoma city san juan puerto rico monterey mexico portland oregon las vegas and charlotte but it was eventually decided that washington dc would be the best place for the franchise upon relocation in 2005 there was some desire to return to the name senators however the team opted to use the name washington nationals which was used until 1956 by the franchise that eventually became the minnesota twins the reason senators wasn't chosen is because ironically washington dc does not have any senators and has no voting representation in congress this makes washington dc the only place an american can live in the u.s where they can vote for president but have no representation otherwise write your congressperson support dc statehood anyway relocating to dc gave us the washington nationals and finally returned america's pastime back to the nation's capital the seattle mariners were founded as a part of an Seattle Mariners ongoing lawsuit after the previous franchise the pilots moved to milwaukee in 1970 after losing their team the city of seattle and the state of washington sued the american league for breach of contract in 1976 the american league agreed to give the city an expansion team if the city agreed to drop the lawsuit this began the expansion process and seattle officially joined the mlb again in 1977 the name mariners was chosen by the team after a contest was held in which fans submitted names for the team mariners was the winner because of how well it fit the city of seattle and its marine base culture and industry the toronto blue jays were also a part of the same round of 1977 Toronto Blue Jays expansion their name two was chosen by fan suggestion the blue jay was a popular choice and ultimately one it refers to the bird of the same name and the color blue fits with the colors of other toronto-based sports franchises well mostly in 1993 the mlb Colorado Rockies again decided to expand by two more teams one location that was chosen was denver denver had long wanted a team in the majors after successfully fielding minor league teams they even built mile high stadium for their denver bears minor league team with the intention of being able to expand it in the future for a major league team once denver was chosen they quickly settled on a name the colorado rockies rockies was chosen because of denver's proximity to the rocky mountains and because the name was used formerly with an nhl franchise that was based in denver also called the rockies Miami Marlins the other team included in this expansion was the miami marlins before they were named the marlins they considered names like the florida flamingos hey it's got alliteration going for it but that might be all that it's got going for it they eventually settled on the marlins which had been used by a former minor league team also named the miami marlins however they decided to ditch the alliteration altogether and started as the florida marlins in 1993. in 2012 the marlins moved to a new stadium and as a part of an agreement with miami-dade county where the stadium is located they agreed to change their name to the miami marlins restoring alliteration and peace to the universe Arizona Diamondbacks the final round of expansion at least so far happened in 1998. one of the franchises was awarded to phoenix which had grown from the 99th largest city in the u.s in 1940 to the ninth largest by 1990. phoenix also made sense because of the presence and the success of spring training baseball happening all over phoenix every spring now the name chosen for this expansion team was the arizona diamondbacks intentionally adopting the regional representation of arizona over the localized phoenix diamondbacks diamondback was chosen because of the prevalence of the western diamondback rattlesnake and its distinctive diamond pattern on its scales these are found all over arizona and can make for a bad day for hikers that aren't paying too close attention in only three years the diamondbacks would win the world series making them the fastest franchise ever to do so in creating one of my favorite childhood sports memories tampa bay was the other location chosen Tampa Bay Rays for expansion in 1998 choosing a team name became a little problematic originally they wanted to use the name tampa bay stingrays but they ran into a naming rights issue as the name was already used by the hawaii winter baseball team the maui stingrays the team then opted instead for a local type of ray and began as the tampa bay devil race in 1998. in 2008 the team underwent a bit of a rebrand after considering a few other names and refreshing their uniforms the team settled on tampa bay rays it must have proved lucky because that very same year the team made its first world series appearance and there it is how every mlb team got Outro! its name if you enjoyed the video please like and subscribe so you don't miss future videos and in the meantime check out the other videos on the channel you