Evers: A history of defunct team nicknames
From Samuel Evers at The Hardball Times on August 21, 2019, with mention of SABR members Tom Gilbert, Bob Brady, and Bill Nowlin:
To understand the early nicknaming rituals in baseball is to understand two things: the long-gone power possessed by sportswriters of the time, and the exercise of identification by variously colored stockings.
Indeed, nicknames for the first handful of decades in major league baseball were just that—informal, un-trademarked, and usually dreamed up by the cigar-toting scribes of the day.
Every team was officially recognized, in some order, simply by its league and its city. For example The American League Baseball Club in New York. The Brooklyn National League Baseball Club. The American League Baseball Club of Chicago.
Read the full article here: https://tht.fangraphs.com/a-history-of-defunct-team-nicknames/
Originally published: August 21, 2019. Last Updated: August 21, 2019.