Syracuse Mets

43

For most of its existence, this team was known as the Syracuse Chiefs. They were founded with that name in 1934, became the Syracuse SkyChiefs in 1997, and switched back to being the Syracuse Chiefs in 2006. Of course, as time goes on Native American imagery gets seen as more and more problematic, so it was perhaps inevitable that the name was eventually going to go away. It finally happened in 2019, when the Chiefs were bought by the New York Mets and rebranded as the Syracuse Mets.

In a way, I get it. They wanted to get rid of the Chiefs name, there wasn't really another traditional name they could go to (the only other name used by a professional baseball team in Syracuse was Stars, which is hopelessly generic), and the parent team was not only the new owner of the team but also in the same state. So of course the New York Mets decided it would be fine to just let their AAA affiliate be the Mets as well. But just because it's obvious doesn't mean it isn't weak. There must be something distinct about Syracuse to name a team after. And even if they had to go with the Mets name, couldn't they have at least come up with a better logo than just sticking the parent team's wordmark over an outline of New York state?

But that's what happens sometimes when a minor league team is owned by a major league team: the minor league team is an afterthought, and doesn't get to have its own identity. So like I said, I get it. But like I also said, this is weak.

Final Score: 43 points.
Penalties: Script, 7 pts; Offspring, 12 pts; Letter, 24 pts.
Bonuses: None.