Brockton Rox

60

Back in 2002, a new team was founded in Brockton, Massachusetts that played in an independent league called the Northern League. Like all new baseball teams, they needed a name. They settled on Brockton Rox for two reasons: One, they were riffing off the Red Sox name because Brockton is a suburb of Boston. Two, Brockton was the birthplace of Rocky Marciano, a famous boxer from the late 1940s and early-to-mid 1950s who went 49-0 (with 43 knockouts) in his career, making him the only heavyweight champion to retire undefeated. Does that make it a good name? Well, I don't think it's great, but I can certainly see the thinking behind it and I'm not inclined to argue with it. So, sure, we'll say it's a good name.

For a bunch of reasons that aren't really that interesting, this team soon found itself playing in the Northeast League, then the Can-Am League, and then dropped from pro baseball to collegiate baseball in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. Then in 2024 Brockton again got a pro team in the form of the Frontier League's New England Knockouts, a name with an even more obvious connection to Rocky Marciano (and Marvin Hagler, who was also born in Brockton) than Brockton Rox has. The Knockouts and Rox coexisted for one season — in fact, they played in the same stadium — and then the FCBL Rox folded.

The Knockouts immediately pounced on the Brockton Rox name. And not just the name: the FL team is using the same logo as the FCBL Rox used: a BIC (baseball in circle) with the word ROX written in a font so obviously similar to the one the Boston Red Sox use that I'm a little surprised the Rox haven't been sued over it (the Rox are an independent team, not affiliated with the Red Sox in any way), with a pair of boxing gloves hanging from the X. The only change the FL team has made is that the FBCL team had "Massachusetts" written in small letters at the bottom of the circle and the FL team doesn't.

I'm not crazy about the logo. But I get it. Even though what technically happened is the FBCL team folded and the FL team took over the FBCL's identity, they want to present it as the FBCL team returning to its roots in independent minor league baseball. And to do that, they want to keep as much as they can just the way it was. After all, you don't steal someone's identity and then try to use a different signature, right?

Or do you? I've never stolen anyone's identity. I have no idea how it works.

I'm getting off track.

Anyway, Les rox sont mort, vive les rox. There's really not much else to say.

Final Score: 60 points.
Penalties: Misspell, 29 pts; Equipment, 13 pts; Letter, 24 pts.
Bonuses: Local, -6 pts.