Morning Bytes | Phils' affiliate scavenges for a name

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, November, 2006 | by Frank Fitzpatrick

As if the Phillies haven't inspired enough bad jokes in 125 years, their new triple-A team in Allentown will be called the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. That's right, the IronPigs. Yep, if there's one thing athletes enjoy being called, it's "Pigs." Soooey! Apparently, the franchise owners' original choice, Beelzebub's AxMurderers, was taken.

For all those who find the name clever, here's how the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, describes a pig: "Pigs like to scavenge and will eat any kind of food, including dead insects, worms, rotting carcasses, excreta (including their own), garbage, and other pigs." That is just the kind of image you want to attach to athletes who might one day be the faces of a multibillion-dollar pastime. If this is the level of creative thinking coming out of...