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Recently, the good folks over at Fox Sports, who are incredibly adept at getting fans to interact with the teams via their regional broadcasting arms, led a charge to choose a nickname for the 2013 Atlanta Braves lineup which has already become known for some prolific hitting.
Braves fans from all over the country tweeted their entries in to Fox Sports’ Elizabeth Moreau, and much to her delight those tweets numbered in the hundreds, with over 400 different entries finally making the list.
Some of the finalists included names like “Atlanta Lumber Company” and “Dixie Sticks”, and in obvious tribute to the retired Chipper Jones, “Yicketty City”.
In the end, fans voted on the clever “Peach Clobbers” as their favorite nickname, one which announcers Joe Simpson and Chip Caray were both seemed to hold in high regard as well.
So Peach Clobbers it is, and it will no doubt be tweeted with hashtag afront and be repeated time and again throughout the Braves broadcasts on Fox Sports South.
But what if the Braves offensive onslaught slows down, and they become a mere shadow of what they have done through this long and arduous first two weeks of the season? Getting my drift? Yeah, it’s a little early to be slinging nicknames around, less yet to be branding a teams lineup with them before they’ve really had a chance to prove anything.
Of course it was all done in fun, and was yet another tremendous way to get fans involved with the team and with the broadcast, so I give full marks for creativity and all-around enthusiasm to Moreau and all her colleagues over at FSS. I just think it was perhaps a little misguided.
Nicknames just happen, they are even earned at times. To try to create and vote in a nickname (especially for a team’s hitting prowess) seems a little forced, almost plastic.
Hey, I’ll admit it…I sent in my entry (a couple by my recollection), because at it’s first inception it just sounded like they wanted some fan creative input, not a way to brand the lineup for the season moving forward.
Truthfully, I think Peach Clobbers is wonderful. It’s creative and has that dual-connotation between my favorite baseball team and one of my favorite desserts, so I hope the Braves continue to hit dingers and put up crooked numbers on the scoreboard all season long.
It would be shame for such a dandy little nickname to end up being material for mockery by the Braves’ rivals and their fans.
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Michael Collins is a Rant Sports Senior Writer, and Atlanta sports columnist. Follow him @GaSportsCraze on Twitter and here on Facebook
