51s’ impending name change needs cash-register ring to it

As team nicknames go, the sports world at all levels forever will chase and never catch Yuma High School in Arizona. Having once occupied the buildings that served as a territorial prison, the school adopted with pride the name Criminals and created a mascot whose image is that of a hardened convict. The student merchandise shop is known as the Cell Block. Team uniforms have included prison stripes. It’s classic stuff all the way around.

What’s in a name?

Money. Interest. Things that help all teams flourish, those from minor league baseball included.

The 51s need a new ballpark more than a fresh marketing campaign, but until the state legislature potentially pursues an important task City Hall mistakenly considers inferior, nickname and logo changes are coming next season.

It’s a good thing, in as much as a team from such an entertainment-based city being named for a once-secret military base and having an alien as its primary insignia grew a bit stale over eight years.

But what to call the team now owned by the Stevens Baseball Group? It’s no simple chore. Players who make up minor league rosters are temporary, but the right nickname and logo can mean financial gains for years. You would be shocked how well the Lansing Lugnuts and Montgomery Biscuits have done at the cash register.

“The (51s) wasn’t that catchy,” said team president Don Logan. “We didn’t do any sort of branding campaign with it. We just said, ‘Here we are. We’re the 51s. Let’s go get ’em.’ There’s a lot more to it than that.

“Whatever we go to (next season), we’ll make a concerted effort on a multi-media front to launch the name and logo. If you do it right and it’s something people embrace and gravitate towards, then you’re going to have a winner.”

Let’s consider a few options being thrown around Cashman Field before Saturday night’s game against Portland:

• The Relics: This doesn’t have any long-term potential but would definitely fit today, given when you combine the roster of this year’s group with those of my daughter’s 8-and-under softball team, Las Vegas would still field an average-aged player of, oh, 43.

• The Rebels: The suggestion came from a guy named Saul who was wearing a UNLV hat and strolling the concourse. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, but he had obviously thrown back five too many before the first pitch. Marketing and promotion are the lifeblood of any team, and just the mere whisper of Rebels in this town brings negative images about both areas.

• The Stars: It’s apparently getting a lot of support, but I look at it as more been-there, done-that. The only other nickname in Las Vegas team history, it conjured blissful memories of the old Pacific Coast League and yet also introduced local baseball fans to the hideous history of Padres uniforms. I say a new identity is better than a used one.

• The Desert Dodgers: Another popular option with a potentially big problem. Las Vegas is in its final year of its affiliation with Los Angeles, and the Dodgers have been quite clear on their feelings about Cashman: They hate it like they do the Giants.

“A new facility is the key and what would really get people excited,” Logan said. “But we’re not counting on (Mayor Oscar Goodman) because we can’t count on him. If a stadium deal was going to happen with Oscar, it would already have been done.”

Of course, but why would Goodman and his cohorts be interested in a project that would create jobs and additional tax revenue? Reno, by the way, will have done both with its new state-of-the-art ballpark in 2009.

Which makes it official: They not only have better college football coaches up there, but also smarter politicians.

• The Aces: Lots of people like this one, including 51s play-by-play voice Russ Langer and Mickey and Patricia Rigney, fans from Northwest Las Vegas. “It would have something to do with Las Vegas, help bring local fans in, and you could do a lot of fun stuff with the logo as different playing cards,” said Mickey, who I’m unofficially nominating for the apparently vacant position of marketing director for UNLV athletics.

• The Gladiators: I’m not serious about this one, but when things get slow and boring around here, don’t you for a second miss that buffoon Jim Ferraro?

“I want to hear what our fans think,” Logan said. “I want it to be a campaign where they help decide how we go on this. This is something that could take on a life of its own and go forward for five, 10, 20 years.”

Yuma High became the Criminals in 1917.

Tough act for anyone to match.

Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.