Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

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The good folks of Baltimore will soon be deciding, probably by a phone-in poll, the nickname of their new National Football League franchise. You know, the one that replaced the Colts, who sneaked out of town under the cover of darkness to Indianapolis in 1984.

The nickname Ravens is a choice of many Baltimoreans, and it's definitely a literary front-runner. It's because Edgar Allen Poe, the American poet who wrote "The Raven," is buried in Baltimore. Never mind that he was born in Boston and that Baltimore's most famous native son is Babe Ruth.

Among the other nicknames bandied about are the Marauders, Americans, Steamers and Railers. Marauders proved to be a choice of many, because the World War II B-26 bomber was manufactured in Baltimore.

Baltimore Bombers wouldn't be bad in this day and age of bombs-away football. But of course you'd have the antiwar protesters up in arms. The NBA Washington Bullets have waved the white flag and will drop the nickname that connotes violence.

The owner, Abe Pollin, has settled on the nickname Wizards, of all things, which will soon be shortened to Wiz, I'm sure, in future sports headlines. But whether the Wizards will live up to their new name remains to be seen.

THE city of Baltimore faces this dilemma because it can't have back the original name, Colts. Franchise owner Art Modell tried to buy back "Colts" and the horseshoe logo from Indianapolis, but struck out.

Actually, when Robert Irsay left Baltimore for Indianapolis, he should have called his team the "500" instead. Or the Racers. But, then, when you buy a team you get to keep the nickname as well, I suppose.

That's why we have the absurdly inappropriate nickname, Jazz, for the straight-arrow state of Utah when the NBA franchise in New Orleans moved to Salt Lake City. Only one city should ever have the nickname Jazz - New Orleans.

The NBA also has two other teams with nicknames that don't end with an "s" - Orlando Magic and Miami Heat.

Taking a cue from the NBA, Major League Soccer, which begins its inaugural season next month, as if any baseball fan will notice, has a bunch of teams with s-less nicknames:

Columbus (Ohio) Crew, Dallas Burn, San Jose Clash, Los Angeles Galaxy, Tampa Bay Mutiny, New England Revolution and the (Washington) D.C. United. The latter sounds like an airline shuttle.

Historically, the MLS (which sounds exactly like the disease) is in a heap of trouble.

I ought to know. I was around when the World was created 22 years ago - the World Football League.

Of the 12 teams - we had one called the Hawaiians - five didn't have a nickname that ended with an "s." So if anything, the ill-fated WFL can be blamed for the trendy collective singular nicknames.

The "Wiffle," as it came to be called in its brief existence, had the Philadelphia Bell, the Chicago Fire, the Southern California Sun and the Portland Storm besides the Memphis Southmen.

In less than two years, the Bell stopped tolling, the Fire went out, the Sun sank in a sea of red and the Storm dissipated. Also, the Wheels fell off in Detroit and the Stars simply fell in New York. And it took a little more than two decades for Sharks to transmogrify into Jaguars in Jacksonville.

Thankfully, major league baseball has never gone for nicknames that didn't end with an "s" except for the Sox - Red and White - and once in 1891 with the Washington Statesmen.

So cheers to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who start playing ball in 1998.