Portland Beavers announcer Rich Burk was kind enough to invite me to sit in with him for four innings on the broadcast of the Beavers’ Sunday home game againt Tucson.
And during our on-air conversation, Burk re-established my faith in him when the topic came to new owner Merritt Paulson’s consideration of changing the team’s name. Burk said Paulson asked him on air of the Beavers’ televised game Saturday night what he thought of the idea. Burk’s response: he didn’t like it. Good for him. Neither do I.
Anybody else out there got any thoughts on (old-guy, stuck-in-the-mud traditionalist alert) changing a perfectly fine century-old nickname in what strikes me as some sort of merchandising scheme to sell new gear and re-market the old stuff as vintage?
No changing the name! That’s a sure-fire way to get the town to hate the new guy – by coming in and immediately wanting to change something like our beloved Beavers name. Plus, if they get rid of Boomer the Beaver they’re going to lose the whole target demographic: kids (with their parents).
If they do change the name an excellent sending-off ceremony would be Timber Jim decapitating Boomer with his axe.