Ripped Off by a baseball team

BLOG #559: We shouldn`t have to accept that a U.S. club that wants to settle down in our fabled stadium proposes to name itself in a way that belittles the values London holds dear, one of which is treating people with respect and integrity.

Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011 – London

Around the dinner table last night we conducted one of those straw polls that so often define how families view the world. The question was, is Rippers a good or appropriate name for London’s new team in the U.S.-based professional Frontier Baseball League.

The result was 2-1 in favour.

My wife likes the name because it’s strong and virile.  “It’s not wimpy like some baseball names,” she explained, ticking off such famous monikers as Red Sox, White Sox, Cardinals and Cubs. “Rippers. It’s tough sounding. It plays into the whole mind-game thing of competitive sports – we’re gonna rip the ball to beat you.”

My daughter, a mature PhD student at Western this year, likes the name because it made her laugh. “You know, let ’er rip. Or who just ripped one.” And she was giggling again. “Jack the Ripper? Oh I suppose, but that’s a bit of a stretch isn’t it?”

Now I should acknowledge both these women would describe themselves as feminists, not strident perhaps but certainly far enough along neither is shy about expressing displeasure at anything that puts down women.

Interestingly both of them think Megan Walker should lighten up.

I don’t like the name. To me it did instantly make a connection with the old London over there and Jack the Ripper, and that was even before I learned the team’s top hat wearing mascot is nicknamed Diamond Jack.

But more to the point, what does it say about our London?

Well London certainly had a lot to say back yesterday. There was the mayor of all the people (even if he was actually elected by only a quarter of us) at the beginning of yesterday’s Finance and Administration Committee meeting reading this statement for the cameras:

“On behalf of London City Council, we want to express serious concerns about the name of London’s newest baseball team. While the team owner’s intention may not have been to draw a connection to Jack the Ripper, we believe this name is unfortunate particularly in light of our focus on ending woman abuse. We will be speaking to the owner today and give him an opportunity to reconsider the name.”

Whether this needed to escalate so quickly to the highest office in the town is debatable. But there it is. We’re now all officially engaged in this fuss with little room to manoeuvre. What apparently started out as bit of fun on the part of a new baseball team is now the stuff of bad feelings and boycotts.

The mayor’s meeting, it seems, didn’t come off yesterday; perhaps after he returns from China. However Ms. Walker, executive director of the London Abused Women’s Centre, was front and centre on the TV last night urging “community support” for her campaign to either get the name changed or the team run out of town. Maybe both.

Professional minor league baseball, we should remember, is about fundamentals for the players and fun for the fans. The players at this level are green and keen, competing against long, long odds for the few chances each year of stardom in the big leagues.

Player development costs money so attracting fans to minor league games is an important way of subsidizing the expense. And to get bums in the bleachers you’ve got to create excitement that transcends the game itself – which, even to this ardent baseball enthusiast can, at times, be harder to watch than drying paint.

So minor league teams have contests and game nights, funny logos and strange uniforms – and sometimes names that conjure images that may not always be entirely appropriate.

We get that. The chance to watch a future hall of famer before his ego get as big as his bank account is a rare joy for a true fan and all the rest is the price you pay for that.

What we don’t get, and shouldn’t have to accept since this gang of out-of-towners will be playing in our fabled stadium which is owned, lock, stock and home plate too by each and every one of the citizens of this community, is a name which in any way belittles the values London holds dear, one of which is treating people with respect and integrity.

Jack the Ripper was not a fun guy, he did not play baseball; he killed women.

Rippers indeed. One guesses more than a few Londoners who looked forward to watching this team now feel something else: Ripped Off.