AS THE MAJOR LEAGUE baseball season gets underway, Sox fans look forward to a summer of getting to know Josh, Coco, and Wily Mo. But while the Sox were training in Florida, there was minor league news up here.

It was reported recently that a Boston attorney has had discussions with city officials about bringing a minor league baseball team to the city. Talks so far have centered on big-picture issues like financing, stadium location, and potential neighborhood concerns. Important issues, to be sure, but this team cannot afford to wait for things like a field or financing if it intends to hit the ground running. For starters, it needs a name. Fortunately, minor league baseball in America provides a rich history of some truly inspired team names: Lansing Lugnuts, Cairo (Illinois) Egyptians, St. Paul Apostles, Asheville Moonshiners, Hannibal (Missouri) Cannibals, Joliet Convicts, Topeka Populists, and the Walla Walla Walla Wallas. Even some newer minor league team names are creative and eye-catching, like the Rancho Cucamonga (California) Quakes, who play in a park called the Epicenter. Clearly, the best names are those that capture something unique, even whimsical, about the team's home. Indeed, minor league franchises have often connected solidly on that score (Tulsa Drillers, Hollywood Stars), while many major league cities have whiffed miserably (Pittsburgh Pirates ?). Take the use of animals in team names. No one associates actual tigers with Detroit, cubs with Chicago, or cardinals with St. Louis. But what person with a working sense of geography and zoology could argue with the Tucson Sidewinders, Brevard County Manatees, or the Savannah Sand Gnats? (Not to mention baseball's only redundantly-named franchise, the Buffalo Bisons.)
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