Power to the People
January 9th, 2006
Well, it was bound to happen.
If you remember, Greg Cordell wrote about the lousy new name of our Sally League Baseball team, the Greenville Drive. At the time, there was a lot of talk going around the public about naming the team the Greenville Joes after Shoeless Joe Jackson, a Greenville, South Carolina native who was “banned for life from baseball for his part in the infamous “Black Sox Scandal” for helping seven Chicago White Sox teammates to throw the 1919 World Series.” (His active participation is a point of debate, by the way.)
The MLB Commission shot that name down and when they did, something remarkable happened: The people took the fight into their own hands. Hall Yes has been created by a local businessman – not only to help get Shoeless Joe in the Hall of Fame, but to help spur people on to change the name of the local baseball team to the Greenville Joes in his honor. They are even selling Joes t-shirts and are encouraging people to wear them to the Greenville Drive games in defiance.
I love it.
There’s a petition on the site if you’re a Shoeless Joe fan, so be sure to check it out as well.
Issues like this are too important to be decided by companies, boards and commissions. Now, more than ever, the public has power. And I suggest the bureaucrats - and the agencies who blindly come up with lousy names - start listening to them.
Hey, the people will hijack it anyway. After all, it belongs to them.
Other posts by Spike.
Joe Dannelly says:
I might be a little biased, but I LOVE it!
February 21st, 2006 at 8:40 amOlivier Blanchard says:
Sweet logo. Anything would be better than The Drive. Bleh. Any ideas for the mascot? That’s the next thing on the list.
February 21st, 2006 at 8:41 amEvan Tishuk says:
Mascot for the Joe’s? I’d vote for a crotchety old man with a garden hose and beer buzz. For the Drive? I’d vote for the same thing. (thanks for writing about and linking to the site btw)
February 21st, 2006 at 8:41 am