ramblings

Art Imitating Life Imitating Art – or – My New Favorite Baseball Team

My co-worker Jason will be taking a trip out west in a few weeks. One of the things he likes to do when travelling to different parts of America is to seek out and go to minor league baseball games in those areas. In looking for minor league baseball clubs around Sante Fe, New Mexico, he discovered the greatest baseball club throughout the land: the Albuquerque Isotopes. This club, the Florida Marlin’s AAA club, was named after, yes, you guessed it, the Springfield Isotopes from “The Simpsons.”

This is the second pro-franchise that I know of that has been named after a fictional team. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks were named after the Disney movie of the same name (and not the other way around as some would like to believe) but the ‘Topes are a hell of a lot cooler. I’m hoping that Jason will pick up a tee shirt for me. Ever since learning of this club’s existence, I cannot get the Simpson’s version of “Talking Baseball” out of my head:

We’re talking softball, from Maine to San Diego
Talking softball, Mattingly and Canseco
Ken Griffey’s grotesquely swollen jaw
Steve Sax and his run ins with the law
We’re talking Homer, Ozzie and the Straw….

Even the ‘Topes mascot looks like the mascot from the Simpsons, the one that “Dancing Homer” took over for. I wonder if there are any merchandising tie-ins at the park. I’ll have to wait for Jason to return with his report. I can’t wait…

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