IronPigs Apparently Not Pigs

It hasn’t even been a week since the announcement that the new Phillies AAA affiliate will be called the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, and already people are bashing the team’s name.

The Allentown Morning Call detailed the public reaction last week, including Lehigh County commissioner Andy Roman, who called the names — when the voting for the team’s name was still going on — “silly” and actually considered drafting a resolution to express the displeasure with the names. (He didn’t.)

It is, though, as simple as this: Minor league baseball teams wouldn’t, normally, be likely to sell much merchandise except to the diehards and people at the ballpark. With a “wacky” name like IronPigs — or, say, the Lakewood BlueClaws — the team can sell merchandise to all over the country. Hey, it’s business. And IronPigs is a fun nickname! Harry Kalas: “Thompson’s up from Lehigh Valley. He hit .345 with the Pigs this season.” Now that’s fun.

As for why the team’s name is IronPigs and not Iron Pigs? Well, IronPigs president Chuck Domino — aka Fats Berry — has an answer for that:

“We didn’t want the word iron being an adjective to describe pig,” Domino said. “We want it to be one word. That way it’s its own species that we can make into anything we want to make it.”

Chuck Domino: IronPigs president and mad bioengineer intent on creating a new species of animal, perhaps to use as an army for world domination.

IronPigs causing controversy, interest [Allentown Morning Call via PhilliesPhans]
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