What’s In a Team Nickname?

History and etymology are involved when naming a team. Kannapolis. NC and its baseball team whiffed on both counts.

Juliet said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But is that true?

Courtesy: Ballpark Digest

My hometown of Kannapolis, NC, just announced the name for its Low-A Sally League baseball team, a farm team of the Chicago White Sox. It’s the Cannon Ballers.

A mouthful, it’s a sure-thing that fans will shorten it to something less wieldy. I hope it’s not “Ballers.”

The name–as bad as it may be on the surface–misses the mark in another way. One reason is that the town has lost its history.

Yes, the name of James William Cannon, founder, and owner of Cannon Mills has been memorialized in the town’s name and now its baseball team (the city’s name was truncated and altered from the ponderous, ‘Cannonopolis.’) But so many historical buildings and places no longer exist. Gone is the lovely park with its splendid shade trees and green park benches. Wiped out was the fine old railroad station and the huge trees along the same section of North Main Street.

Recently, when I attended my 55^th A.L. Brown High School reunion (not Kannapolis Brown as in the sports pages), I noticed that the east side of Main Street, which was once a major retail section, lay in rubble. I noticed that several historical buildings, such as the Gem and Sewanee Theatres, have been spared the ax of progress. So, too, has the First Baptist Church, which still holds court across from the Gem. But I wonder whether the west side of Main Street will become rubble just like the east side–also in the name of ‘town improvement’?

The announcement (photo, Salisbury Post)

The baseball naming committee stressed the desire to reference Kannapolis’ history. The chosen, Cannon, certainly connects the team and town to Mr. Cannon and Cannon Mills. And while I applaud the committee’s intent and seeming diligence in making a historical connection, it’s important to point out that city leaders have followed the lead of the eponymous destroyer by ripping out the guts of what remained of the colonial-styled cotton mill town. Old trees, buildings, streets, and even brick sidewalks are gone for the peel of progress and business.

For the sake of hoped-for and uncertain economic growth, my hometown has lost its individuality. Having become g like so many other nondescript places, why should consumers visit Kannopolis when it has little uniqueness to offer?

Other towns, such as Mooresville, Concord, and Salisbury NC, have retained their historical buildings and turned them into sources of revenue. Not only do the restored old buildings serve as shops and such, they also offer charm and character. For example, Mooresville turned its old railroad station into an arts center, and a former cotton mill is now the town’s historical museum.

The suffix er means “one who.” That means, for example, that the word ‘racer’ means ‘one who races.’ Thus, ‘baller’ is ‘one who balls.’ But the meaning of ‘baller,’ like any word, has varied over time and with usage. Long ago, it was used to describe ‘one who cries,’ that is, a weakling. During the mid-1990s, it referred to a dealer in cocaine because said distributor ‘sold in balls.’ More recently, it has referred to a skilled ballplayer, especially in basketball. An older usage makes vulgar reference to a sexual act.

Courtesy: YouTube

It’s not possible to ignore etymology or the history of a word. It matters. Sure, LOL today means to ‘laugh out loud.’ But not too long ago, it meant ‘lots of love,’ as it still does to me.

Many names for the baseball franchise were nominated, says the committee. Perhaps Mr. Cannon’s name was the only proper name considered seriously and–if so–fine. But could the committee not have shown creativity as did those who named the A.L. Brown High School yearbook, Albrokan, a name that carries a reference to school and town?

For sure, the team’s nickname is now cast, and, with that, there is no return. As sports fans alter its marbled-mouth name, I hope that they won’t refer to either whining or sex. No matter, though, the civic leaders of Kannapolis could have saved some of the town’s guts had they gone in a different direction. Instead, they chose to make it like so many other places–places that have died during their presumed re-creation.

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Editor’s Note: Established in 1995 as the Piedmont Phillies, the team nickname was changed in 1996 to the Piedmont Phillies and, later, to the Piedmont Boll Weevils. From 2000 onward, the team was called the Kannapolis Intimidators because, in 2001, Dale Earnhardt purchased a share in the team, and ‘The Intimidator’ was Earnhardt’s nickname. Selecting the new nickname, Cannon Ballers, meant removing reference to Earnhardt, and that was a controversial move.