{"id":30120,"date":"2018-06-04T23:30:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T23:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=30120"},"modified":"2018-06-04T23:30:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T23:30:33","slug":"sod-poodles-lets-think-about-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=30120","title":{"rendered":"Sod Poodles? Let’s think about this"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I am about to deliver a assessment or two I hope I won’t regret.<\/p>\n

I’ve been giving more thought to the silly list of “finalist” names delivered by the owners of Amarillo’s future AA minor-league baseball team. I also have been trying to digest the reasoning behind the five names chosen to be considered for team’s nickname.<\/p>\n

My thought at this moment is this: I am starting to understand better what the team ownership is trying to convey to the community that will sit in the ballpark that is currently under construction in downtown Amarillo.<\/p>\n

They want<\/em> a silly name that elicits a community conversation. They want<\/em> the name to be the subject of good-natured giggles. They are striving for something different, perhaps a bit unique that becomes a talking point in minor-league — maybe even major league — baseball circles.<\/p>\n

That all said — and I am hoping to avoid being struck by lightning by adding this point — I am actually sort of thinking Sod Poodles isn’t such a bad idea … after all!<\/p>\n

I want to be candid on one point. I have never heard the term used to describe prairie dogs. I had no idea on Earth that it is some sort of “historical” term used in the old days to refer to the critters that are the bane of ranchers and farmers. Don’t hold against me that I am not a Texas Panhandle native. I mean, I have known about prairie dogs since I was a little boy growing up in Oregon; sod poodles<\/em> never crossed my radar — ever!<\/p>\n

None of this discussion is about me or whether any of us have heard of this term. It’s about prompting a community discussion.<\/p>\n

The owners of the team that begins playing hardball in Amarillo in the spring of 2019 have done that very thing.<\/p>\n

Look, I mentioned once already that I hated<\/em> the name of my hometown professional basketball team when it was announced in 1970. Portland’s new NBA team would be called the “Trail Blazers,” prompting a good bit of community angst. We grew to accept and actually like the name. Hey, it was meant to pay tribute to Lewis and Clark, who “blazed a trail” from the Midwest to the Pacific Ocean in the early 19th century.<\/p>\n

Whichever name Amarillo’s minor-league baseball team owners select will attract its share of collective teeth-gnashing. Eventually, Amarillo’s baseball fans likely will accept it.<\/p>\n

Maybe they will even learn to like<\/em> it. I wonder, for example, if baseball fans in Toledo hate the “Mud Hens.”<\/p>\n\n

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I am about to deliver a assessment or two I hope I won’t regret. I’ve been giving more thought to the silly list of “finalist” names delivered by the owners of Amarillo’s future AA minor-league baseball team. I also have been trying to digest the reasoning behind the five names chosen to be considered for … Continue reading Sod Poodles? Let’s think about this<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[1436,5631,3153,3232,5752],"class_list":["post-30120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-sports-news","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-minor-league-baseball","tag-mpev","tag-nba","tag-portland-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30122,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30120\/revisions\/30122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}