Some time ago, I wrote that the Wheeling Nailers were the epitome of a great logo for a horrible name. The South Carolina Stingrays are the opposite. The name is great, but don't get me started on the logo. Actually, nevermind: the whole point of this website is to get me started on the logo. So here goes:

When I wrote the rules for the Bush League Factor, I gave it a lot of thought (a lot more than should have been devoted to something this pointless). But every once in a while I start to think I need to add a rule to cover something the current rules don't cover. Looking at this logo is one of those times. I need a rule about animals breaking sticks in their teeth.

There are two problems with adding a new rule. One is that I need a name for the rule. "Breaking sticks in its teeth" is a bit unwieldly for a name. As much as possible, I prefer to have one-word names, even if it does lead to words twenty-letter monstrosities such as "Anthropomorphization". About the best I can do here is the two-word phrase "dietary-fiber"...which, come to think of it, isn't half bad.

The other problem is that I've already scored roughly sixty teams (more, if you count the ones I've taken down because the team no longer uses that logo for whatever reasons). If I add a rule now, I have to either have inconsistent scoring (because some teams don't get penalized for rules added after I reviewed them) or go back and rescore sixty teams. It isn't worth it. Maybe when I get completely caught up, I'll revamp the rules and start doing teams again. But that would require effort, so I probably won't.

The teeth themselves could be a source for another new penalty. In case you're wondering, yes, stingrays do have teeth. But they don't look like that. I can't exactly call it anthropomorphization, because the teeth in this logo don't look like human teeth. In fact, actual stingray teeth look much more like human teeth than these do, so it's a sort of anti-anthropomorphization. Okay, let's just be honest: we all know that the logo designers gave this guy shark teeth. So what would be call this? Sharks come from the superorder Selachimorpha, so can we call it Selachimorphamorphization? No, that's just too silly. Maybe it should be be called "Anatomically-incorrect" -- which is a rule could have used earlier this month when I scored the Austin Ice Bats. In any case, this has the same problem as the "Dietary-Fiber" rule. I don't want to rescore all these teams just to deal with a couple of teams that don't know what animals look like. Fortunately, in this particular instance we're covered. They gave this creature eyebrows. Anthropomorphization it is, then.

In addition to all this, the logo breaks a rule that gets broken so rarely I've considered removing it: The "Fade" rule. So basically what I'm saying is, not only does this logo break a lot of rules, it almost single-handedly justifies a few.

But as I said, it's a great name. Good names, in my opinion, are names that have connotations that inspire respect of some sort -- admiration, fear, you name it. Stingrays clearly inspire fear. Part of this is because most of us don't really know much of anything about rays, but the name sounds vaguely ominous (if nothing else, it brings back unpleasant memories of high school geometry). The other part is that it has the word "sting" in it. Anything that has "sting" as part of its name must be scary (possible exception: the guy from The Police). So the name "Stingrays" inspires fear. That's good. And of course, it gets extra credit for being unusual. When the team was founded, there wasn't another hockey team anywhere in North America named after rays -- indeed, to my knowledge there wasn't a team in any sport anywhere in North America named after rays when this team was founded (they're five years older than the Tampa bay Devils Rays, in case you're wondering).

What makes the name even better is the extremely subtle pun in the name. For those that don't know, another name for the stingray is "skate". I had to give the team the "wordplay" penalty for that, but between the subtlely and the cleverness I decided to make it a half-penalty.

I also had to ding them on the "South Carolina" part. Simply put, they shouldn't call themselves "South Carolina" when four other teams have moved into the state since they made their debut (admittedly, one has folded, a second has suspended operations, and a third is in a different league, but they're still not the only ECHL team in South Carolina). I'm already bracing for the e-mails on that one. Several years ago when I was posting earlier versions of the Bush League Factor, I could always rely on the Stingrays fans to get bent out of shape over them getting penalized. (Lest anyone think I'm picking on them, I got this complaint from multiple Stingrays fans and never from a fan of any other team in any other league). The Stingrays were the first ECHL team in the state, and what were they supposed to do, change the name?

As a matter of fact, that is exactly what they need to do. When the Greensboro Monarchs joined the ECHL, the "Carolina Thunderbirds" (previously the only ECHL team in either of the Carolinas) responded by changing their name to the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds. If the Thunderbirds could do it, why can't the Stingrays? It's not like anyone from Spartanburg is going to drive all the way to the Charleston area to catch an ECHL game; they'd sooner drive to Charlotte. Furthermore, "Charleston Stingrays" actually flows better. So yes, they should definitely change the "South Carolina" part of the name.

But they should change the logo first.

NOTE: The rules state that the "region" penalty automatically gets one egregious penalty for each other team in the same league in the region, and two for each older team (which makes me wonder if the Stingray fans even bothered to read the rules before asking why they were getting penalized; doesn't that make it obvious they will?). One thing I didn't take into account when I made that rule was the possibility of teams in suspended operations. I decided not to count those.

Final Score: 51 points.
Penalties: Region (doubly egregious), 7 pts; Wordplay (half penalty), 4 pts; Alliteration, 2 pts; Cartoon, 17 pts; Anthropomorphization, 10 pts; Name-Logo, 2 pts; Equip-Logo, 5 pts; Fade, 6 pts; Yucky-Logo, 5 pts.
Bonuses: Cool-Name, -4 pts; Local, -3 pts.