What if the NY Yankees were still the Highlanders--?

[Arkham House]

--what's in a name, anyone? Seriously--what if they had never changed their name from "Highlanders" to "Yankees", about 1913 or so? Would it have made any difference? Somehow, in some mystical, Jungian way, I think it would. Just as Alois Schicklgruber's name change to Hitler clearly influenced history--can you imagine 80,000,000 Germans chanting, in all seriousness, "Heil Schicklgruber!"--you just can't see the Yankees since 1920 as the Highlanders. I mean--Highlander Stadium? The Highlander-Red Sox rivalry? The Highlander Dynasty? The Pride of the Highlanders? The Highlander Clipper? The Highlander-Dodger World Series'? In fact, had they remained the Highlanders, Babe Ruth would have finished his career in Boston, and the whole Curse would somehow never have happened...and the Highlanders would basically have been just another team...

[KamaAina]

1. Ballgame over! World Series over! Highlanders win!

The-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e Highlanders win!

Yeah, I can kind of see your point.

Then again, the Brooklyn Dodgers were once known as the Superbas, which would have led to several lopsided Highlanders-Superbas World Series.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. The Dodgers were also the Bridegrooms

And, unofficially, the Trolley Dodgers, which led to "Dodgers."

Near the turn of the century, when they were the Superbas, a sportswriter wrote, "The streets around the ball park (Washington Park in Brooklyn) have been made hazardous by these new-fangled street cars, and if a person isn't an alert dodger his chances of reaching the park intact are doubtful." And that's how it started.

The Yankees began as the Highlanders because their first president, Joseph W. Gordon, commanded the Gordon Highlanders of the British Army. They were officially the Gordon Highlanders, but sportswriters hated the name because it was too long. One, Jim Price of the New York Press, started calling them the Yankees, and it stuck.

In the early days, the Braves were the Red Stockings, Doves (for then-club president George Dovey), Redcaps and Beaneaters. The Cubs began in 1876 as the White Stockings and were later the Colts. Cleveland fielded the Spiders and then the Naps, for the great Napoleon Lajoie. The Red Sox were the Somersets (for owner Charles Somers), Puritans, Plymouth Rocks and Speed Boys. They took "Red Stockings" from the later-to-be-Braves when that club switched to white stockings because they were "less dangerous to players suffering spike wounds."



Source: "Bridegrooms Wallop Beaneaters," The Second Fireside Book of Baseball, Simon and Schuster (1956).

[driver8]

2. I would still hate them.

How about "Highlanders Suck"?

[evlbstrd]

3. Good question.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers were once the Bug Eaters.

[reyd reid reed]

4. If Steinbrenner still owned 'em,

I'd still loathe 'em. What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell...oh, wait.

Yankees.

Nemmind.

[Xipe Totec]

6. They'd be using telephone poles for bats n/t

[baldguy]

7. They'd still suck.

[Richard Steele]

8. There would be only ONE!

[FredScuttle]

9. A-Rod would still strike out 3 times a game

Boo-yah!