London team name gets ripped

The new London (Ont.) franchise has announced its nickname, and it has not been well-received by some folks.

The team will be known as the London Rippers.

Apparently, the nickname did not go over well at London's City Hall. City officials, though a written statement, have asked team owner David Martin to change the name. Officials took the time out of their finance and administration committee meeting to announce the following:

“On behalf of London City Council, we want to express serious concerns about the name of London’s newest baseball team. While the team owner’s intention may not have been to draw a connection to Jack the Ripper, we believe this name is unfortunate particularly in light of our focus on ending woman abuse.”

Let's start by simply rating the nickname. It's not good. Let's call it bad. You'd think people who are paid to make advertising decisions could come up with something better than Rippers. There are a lot of terms in baseball, and "rip" or "ripped" is far down the list of marketable ones.

When I think of Rippers and baseball, the first thing that runs through my mind is a line-drive double being ripped into the right-centerfield gap. The second thing is flatulence, which speaks volumes about my childish sense of humor and is a good reason not to use the nickname.

On down -- way down to be more accurate -- the list of things I associate with the London team's nickname is Jack the Ripper. But the more you think about the infamous serial killer who was noted for murdering prostitutes in London (England) during the late 1800s, maybe the criticism of the nickname has at least some merit.

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if you asked people under the age of 35 who Jack the Ripper was and the majority would answer he was a professional wrestler.

Here is one comment from a newspaper article about the nickname:

"There are three reasons why this is a bad choice for a team name. 1) Regardless of whether or not this is offensive to women, the fact that the name references a serial killer is in poor taste. Even if the reference wasn't intentional, people are clearly interpreting the team name in this way. 2)The idea of Diamond Jack (this is the team's mascot) is confusing, and kind of creepy. So the mascot "lurks" around the grandstand? Phantom of the Opera? It just doesn't really make sense. 3)Lots of people call strip clubs the "rippers" these days. So, not only has the team made reference to a serial killer, it's tale of Diamond Jack is strange, and people will confuse the team with a bunch of strippers. Perhaps a meeting is in order?

On a website of another newspaper, this comment was left:

"I was really looking forward to taking in some games with my wife. Now we'll look forward to doing other things instead. This has got to be one of the stupider moments in sports history."

Really? I can think of thousands of moments dumber than the naming of a team's nickname.

Another person wrote:

"The Rippers? What is this - an episode of Family Guy? We have the London Majors so why do we have to expose ourselves to this character and his goofy ideas? He's determined to make a fool out of Londoners. It was a mistake from the get go to let this character come to London with his non-existent team and this is playing out as a failure already."

The London Majors are an amateur baseball team that plays about 20 home games at Labbat Park, where the Rippers also will play.

Lastly, we have one more comment:

"HAHA REALLY.......as if anyone is making a big deal of this??? its a sports teams name!!! I can hardly believe people are wasting their time making this an issue. Open your eyes people!!! This city has bigger issues to put your time and effort into! Not only that, no matter what the team name is none of you will go out and support them anyway."

Any comments from this blog's readers?