Dunedin Blue Jays

25

When I first looked at this team, I figured the name "Dunedin" had something to do with sand dunes. I wasn't certain what (maybe they made a lot of loud noises?), but it seemed logical, given that the city is in Florida. Turns out I was completely wrong. "Dunedin" (which is pronounced "Dun Eden", not "Dune din" as I originally thought) actually comes from "Dùn Èideann", which is the Scottish name for Edinburgh. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Sure, the place was originally settled by Scottish people. But let's be blunt here: Dunedin, Florida looks and feels absolutely nothing like Dùn Èideann, Scotland. The latter is hilly; the former, not so much (in fact, there's a park in Dùn Èideann with more difference in elevation than the entire state of Florida). The average high in the coldest month of the year in Dunedin is warmer than the average high in the warmest month of the year in Dùn Èideann. And so forth. It's hard to imagine the two places being much more different without moving one of them to Mars.

Nonetheless, the city takes its connection to Scotland very seriously. Every year the town hosts the Dunedin Highland Games, never mind the fact that the nearest highlands are somewhere in northern Georgia. The middle school's teams are called the Highlanders and the school has a pipe-and-drum band (the high school has a pipe-and-drum band as well, but the teams are called the Falcons). Dunedin's sister city is Stirling, Scotland. Oh, and there's apparently a really big Mardi Gras there, because of course when you think of Mardi Gras you think of Scotland, right? Right.

Dunedin has been home to the Toronto Blue Jay's spring training since the Toronto team was founded in 1977. And since Florida State League teams generally play in the spring training facilities of parent teams, that also means that when Toronto's Advanced-A team has been in the FSL, it's been in Dunedin, too. For the record, that means the 1978 and 1979 seasons (after which Toronto moved its affiliation to the Carolina League), and then from 1987 to the present day. They've been known as the Dunedin Blue Jays the entire time, because god forbid Florida State League teams be allowed to have their own identity. That also means that team gets to use a variant of the Toronto Blue Jays' logo, although the Dunedin team at least has the decency to not put the maple leaf in their logo. Maybe they should replace it with a thistle?

Or maybe — just maybe — they should just replace the whole damn thing. Slowly but surely, the Florida State League is moving away from every team using the same name and logo as its parent team. In fact, the Dunedin Blue Jays are now one of only four and a half teams that do this (I'm counting the Lakeland Flying Tigers, affiliated with Detroit, as that four-and-a-halfth team). Canadians who come to Florida every year aren't likely to be hanging out in Dunedin during the summer (they can only stay in America for a few months; obviously they're going to pick the winter months rather than the summer months), and Dunedin is no more like Toronto than it is like Dùn Èideann. Maybe they could change their name to something with some suitable (?) Scottish imagery. "Pine Martens", maybe? Bit of a silly name, true. But it still makes more sense than the middle school being the "Highlanders" when the nearest highlands are in northern Georgia.

Final Score: 25 points.
Penalties: Offspring, 12 pts; Equipment, 13 pts.
Bonuses: None.