Jan

7

Orleans Cardinals Change Name to Firebirds

Posted by Greg | Filed Under News | 9 Comments

orleans-firebirdsA few little birds told us this summer that the Orleans Cardinals would change their name over the winter.  News today from Orleans is that the Cardinals are becoming the Firebirds.

The songbirds are upgrading to raptors.

Congratulations to the Orleans Firebirds organization.  I can’t wait to purchase new Chatham Anglers and Orleans Firebirds baseball caps!

The change was caused by MLB’s challenge of the Cape League’s use of several MLB team names, like the Mariners, Cardinals, A’s, Red Sox and Braves.

Comments

9 Responses to “Orleans Cardinals Change Name to Firebirds”

  1. Andrew on January 7th, 2009 8:55 am

    Looks like this has been in the works for a while. I did a domain lookup for orleansfirebirds.com:

    Creation date: 10 Oct 2008 18:30:03
    Expiration date: 10 Oct 2009 18:30:00

    It’s a very modern name and logo. It will have to grow on me. However, I do like that it should not require a uniform and (in this case) a mascot change.

  2. CapeMan on January 7th, 2009 10:10 am

    Good point about the uniform and mascot. However, I would have rather seen something more “local” like Chatham did.

  3. Joseph F. Cavanaugh III on January 7th, 2009 2:52 pm

    I agree that the name does not have a Cape feel to it (notwithstanding the purported raptor connection), but I like the name nonetheless. It’s good to see the CCBL teams eschewing the MLB names and logos. Personally, I’ll have the most trouble with Harwich changing, since mariners have always been associated with Cape Cod, and Harwich used the name long before Seattle adopted it.

  4. Greg on January 7th, 2009 3:45 pm

    I am curious at this point about why the Braves, Red Sox and Mariners want to keep their MLB names. Is the price worth it?

    I don’t have a strong point either way but I am curious why two teams changed and three teams did not.

  5. Andrew on January 7th, 2009 4:38 pm

    Greg: You forgot the Mets. Step right up and greet the Mets!

  6. CapeMan on January 8th, 2009 9:49 am

    My guess is that those organizations simply did not have the time to get a name change done or are not very tied to local merchants for their souvenirs and uniforms. You’ve got to figure some organizations have a ton of inventory to go through and perhaps want a season to get rid of it. Others might simply not have the offseason bandwith to get it done as I imagine it is quite an undertaking to change names…signs, printed matter, websites, etc. Others may have been far ahead in the ‘09 planning before the decision came down from MLB. They may have already ordered hats, etc for the season. Others may simply not have the money right now to take on a name change.

  7. Wille on January 8th, 2009 11:20 am

    When it all gets sorted out, the Mariners should be the only one to challenge their name. MLB can have the Pilots back….lol

  8. Backstop on January 21st, 2009 2:49 pm

    This name is terrible.

  9. Orleans Cardinals… er, Firebirds - Ataxia on May 6th, 2009 11:21 am

    [...] goodbye to my beloved Orleans Cardinals. They will now be called the Orleans Firebirds. The Chatham A’s also decided to forgo MLB’s onerous merchandise approval process and [...]

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