Transactions

[m2spts]

Caught this on my first perusal of the agate wire Tuesday night.
Tuesday's transactions, according to New York AP, included:

Golden Baseball League
LONG BEACH ARMADA—Announced they have changed their name to Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska.

 

[m2spts]

Just checked out the LB Press-Telegram:

Long Beach Armada changes name to "Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska"; seriously


Move over, Arte Moreno and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. There's a new, longer-named sherrff in town.

It has been announced that the Long Beach Armada will officially change their name to the "Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska", to become the longest named sports franchise in the world.

The Armada, which plays out of Blair Field in Long Beach, decided to take a page out of Moreno's promotional playbook. "Our inspiration was Arte Moreno's brilliant marketing gambit of positioning the Anaheim Angels as an L.A. team," Golden Baseball League CEO Dave Kaval explained in a press release. "Being a real Los Angeles county team, we too wanted to extend our reach as far north as possible."

But why Barrow, Alaska? Turns out in April, the Armada announced a partnership with the frigid township, which boosts a population of 4,500 + people. Barrow is the northernmost settlement in North America, with temperatures near freezing almost every month of the year. You may ask yourself, "Again, why Barrow?"

Turns out, the mayor of Barrow is onboard. A spokesman for Mayor Nate Olemaun, Bob Thomas, sounds excited on the prospect of being aligned with a professional baseball team in a press release. "Our unique location does not preclude a potential fan base."

Armada President and General Manager David A.Wellenzohn agrees. "With all the Armada games being broadcast on the worldwide web, the great people of Barrow will now join the ranks of cities with professional baseball," he said in a press release. The team also announced plans to have a Barrow, Alaska Day at Blair Field on July 30th.

Now that the Armada is aligned with two sister cities, the Golden Baseball League decided it made sense to try and incorporate both in the name of the team. "In order to better reach the larger Armada Nation," said Kabal in a press release. "we felt compelled to lengthen the name to incorporate all our fans stretching from the warm beaches of Los Angeles to the frigid beaches of the artic circle."

Obviously, the league's plan of changing the team's name was to garner some media attention. And apparently it worked, as ESPN anchor Dan Patrick relayed the story on his Tuesday national radio show. So now the teams' abbreviation, LBALACUSNAIBA, stands as a testament to both cities, as well as the league's sense of humor.

 

[mediaguy]

A well-placed gimmick. Can't say I'd even heard of the Golden Baseball League, if it exists, until now.

 

[Shaggy]

That's hilarious.

 

[Armchair_QB]

I think the GBL was the brainchild of a couple grad students who came up with it as part of some class project.

 

[You're With Me Leather]

I think the GBL was the brainchild of a couple grad students who came up with it as part of some class project.

Correct. a class project at the Stanford Business School. The league owns all the teams...or did until this year when they sold a franchise to St. George, Utah. This is the league's third year in existence and likely it's last.

 

[crusoes]

Canseco played in that league.

 

[Willie-Butch]

Didn't Canseco play for a team in that league named the Surf Dawgs or something like that?

 

[DanOregon]

Can't wait to see the uniforms...and the hats...

 

[MertWindu]

This is cute as long as the AP doesn't actually try to use the full name in transactions.

 

[SoCalDude]

The league has tried a lot of goofball promotions, like the Northern League. Rickey Henderson was on the SurfDawgs. Canseco played for Long Beach, I think, since he lives in the San Fernando Valley. He pitched a couple of game ... unsuccessfully. Garry Templeton is the manager at Fullerton and his son is on the team. They traded a guy for some beer, I think. One year, they had an entire team of Japanese players on a season-long road trip.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

Is the nickname Armada and homage to the Queen Mary?

 

[nafselon]

It's been a good year for Barrow. The ESPN.com story on their attempts to have a high school football team prompted a Jacksonville-area high school to raise $500,000 to get them a field turf stadium (you can follow their efforts at http://www.projectalaskaturf.com/)