10-25-2022, 11:00 PM
(10-23-2022, 11:57 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:(10-23-2022, 03:43 AM)nguyenivy Wrote: I would say the US team name changes as of late represent the desire to break away from explotative language and instead embrace soemthing more inclusive. In addition, we see considerations of rule changes (am familiar with this only with baseball lately) that give spectators a better experience. In baseball, they recently added more wild card teams this season (allowing for more teams in the playoffs), and next year 2023 will have a new balanced schedule that will allow every team to play every other team. A pitch-clock is another thing looking to be put into place, due to games taking much longer than in prior decades. Some of these sort of changes have already happened in other sports, like expanded playoff formats, so maybe this was just baseball catching up to other US sports?
One of the ironies is that the "Braves" of Atlanta may have been a reference to the men who dressed up like Indians on their raids of the ships of the British East India Company stationed in Boston in the Boston Tea Party. This was initiated when the braves were in Boston before moving in turn to Milwaukee and then Atlanta. The tomahawks were perfectly made for breaking into shipping containers of the time for tea.
This said, "Indians", "Chiefs", and "Redskins" are cultural appropriation. Atlanta's team will soon be the "Hammers" in honor of the team's greatest player in its history, the late "Hammering" Hank Aaron.
While we're on the subject of baseball, I couldn't possibly have been the only one to notice that when my city's baseball team(s) have won the World Series, the world had a major recession right around the same years: 1929, 1980, 2008. The Phillies are now in the World Series again for the 1st time since their 2009 loss to the Yankees & weren't expected to even make the post-season at one point. Coincidence?