* It now seems as traditional as the scheduling of “It’s a Wonderful Life” for Christmas. It seemingly wouldn’t be Christmas Eve without a slate of televised NFL games, including the Bucs, and it wouldn’t be Christmas Day without NBA games from noon till midnight.
Sad, albeit well-watched and well-sponsored. Too bad the two leagues can’t emulate the NHL, which never plays on Dec. 24-25. Classy move.
* Name game: It’s now official that the New York Yankees’ Class A affiliate, the Staten Island Yankees, will not be changing its name. It was put to a fan vote and “Yankees” held off, among others, Pizza Rats and Bridge Trolls.
Takes me back to my Philadelphia days when an expansion NHL franchise was coming on board in the late 1960s. It would, of course, need a marketable, possibly cool name. As part of its market outreach, the new team submitted to a fan vote that was conducted by local media. Obviously Flyers won out. “Colonials” was another contender. Alliteration and historical underpinnings. Yo, we get it.
But long forgotten is what the official runner-up was. And it was pitch perfect Philly, sometimes referred to by locals as the “city of brotherly mug”–only in a complimentary way, you know. Anyway, finishing second was “Ice Picks.” Vintage.