Reading Fightin Phils

58

As any baseball fan knows, Philadelphia's baseball team is the Philadelphia Phillies. And as pretty much anyone who hears that name can guess, Phillies is simply a shortened form of Philadelphias. This raises some uncomfortable questions about whether the world needs more than one Philadelphia, but I'm not here to raise unnerving philosophical questions.

And, as anyone who follows minor league baseball knows, it's pretty common for minor league teams to use the same name as their major league affiliate, especially when (as is the case with Reading's team) the minor league team is owned by the major league affiliate. Often this works out fine. Blue jays have a range covering all of the U.S. and southern Canada east of the Great Lakes, so Dunedin Blue Jays works just as well as Toronto Blue Jays. The team in Worcester wears the same color socks as their affiliate in Boston, so Worcester Red Sox works just as well as Boston Red Sox. And, of course, Braves is just as offensive in Rome as it is in Atlanta, so Rome Braves works just as poorly as Atlanta Braves.

But Reading Phillies doesn't make anywhere near as much sense as Philadelphia Phillies. And that's true even though Philadelphia Phillies doesn't make much sense in the first place. (Can you imagine a team called the Washington Washies? New York Newies? Seattle Seaies?) So the team in Reading tried to do something to fix it. Unfortunately, they just made it worse. First they changed Phillies to Phils, which I'm sure they thought was an improvement and which I'm equally sure was nothing of the sort. Then they added Fightin for no good reason. And please note: Fightin. Not Fighting. Not Fightin'. Fightin.

It would have been better had they just used the formula that Philadelphia used, but based on their own home city. Reading Readies. Not, I'm not claiming its a good name, but it's definitely better than Reading Phillies, and much, much better than Reading Fightin Phils. And as a riff on Philadelphia Phillies, it's even almost clever. Almost.

As for the logo, well, it's a logo. That's about all I can say in its favor, and now that I think about it I'm not entirely convinced it counts as a logo. But is it fair to expect much better, given the name? They tried for a few years to have a logo that wasn't just letters, but it didn't work. The logo featured an ostrich holding up fists (the ostrich had arms instead of wings for some reason) as if it was spoiling for a fight. It was, quite frankly, embarrassing. This current blahfest is actually an improvement, and this despite the fact that it only has part of the name. I guess they figured that Reading Fightin Phils wouldn't fit into a meaningful logo. And they were right on that point.

Given the name and the logo, though, I'd say it's about the only point they're right on.

Final Score: 58 points.
Penalties: Offspring, 12 pts; Letter, 24 pts; Name, 10 pts; Logo, 12 pts.
Bonuses: None