Now All They Need Is a Team That Can Live Up to the Name

Washington still has its Redskins and Atlanta its Braves--along with their tomahawk-chopping fans--but the Columbus, Ga., franchise in the Class A South Atlantic League has responded to American Indian objections by changing its nickname from Indians to RedStixx.

The name was taken from the Redstick Warriors, a former faction of the Muscogee Indian nation that, according to historians, fought fiercely to preserve its heritage and homeland in the Chattahoochee Valley during the early 1800s.

“The name epitomizes Indian heritage in this area,” Columbus General Manager John Dittrich said. “Translated into sports, it fits in well with the competitiveness of the Indians and the fierceness with which they guarded this territory.”

As for the competitiveness of the team now known as RedStixx, it finished an overall 19 games out of first place last season.

Trivia time: The Redskins outscored opponents, 485-224, this season. The 261-point differential and 16.3-point average are the largest since the NFL adopted a 16-game schedule in 1978. Which team holds the all-time record?

Sour grapes? Dave Newhouse, writing in the Contra Costa Times, blistered football coach Bruce Snyder for leaving California for Arizona State--”a university of low distinction with a rundown football program”--and listed some of Tempe’s delights.

“In Tempe,” Newhouse wrote, “there is nothing to do but eat chimichangas, drink margaritas, try to breathe in heat that would make even a camel pass out from dehydration and hire ASU coaches from the fat pockets of millionaire senior citizens who come to the desert to escape New York and Chicago--the crime and the climate.”

A colleague, Gary Peterson, joined in, writing: “You could even understand Snyder taking an NFL head coaching position. If a guy wants to step up to the next level, more power to him. Sorry, Arizona State isn’t the next level. It’s Cal with more walking-around money.”

Changing menu, venue: Kansas City baseball reporters will hold their awards dinner Saturday. Harold Reynolds of the Seattle Mariners was to have been the only non-Royal player honored.

Now?

The Royals’ player-of-the-year award will go to Danny Tartabull, recently signed by the New York Yankees as a free agent; the pitcher-of-the-year award will go to Bret Saberhagen, recently traded to the New York Mets, and the special achiever award will go to infielder Bill Pecota, also traded to the Mets.

Still Peppy: From Phil Jackman, in the Baltimore Evening Sun: “Joe Pepitone, the once-upon-a-time Yankees first baseman, didn’t mind it when a guy in a bar reminded him he’s a ‘washed-up nobody’ a couple of times. When he kept at it, 50-year-old Joe, out on a promotional gig for the Yanks, began duking it out and reportedly held his own, taking on three brothers, all in their 20s. The subsequent arrest isn’t going to look good on his resume, though.”

On the stump: Speaking at Bowdoin College, recently fired Yankee manager Stump Merrill said he holds no animosity and thinks baseball should lift the banishment of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner.

“The game needs him back,” Merrill said. “I’m the last guy who’ll say anything bad about George. He wants to win as badly as any owner in baseball.”

Trivia answer: The 1962 Green Bay Packers outscored opponents by 267 points in a 14-game schedule.

Quotebook: Philadelphia 76er Coach Jim Lynam, after his team made only 29 of 86 shots in a 103-80 loss to the Chicago Bulls: “We were missing only one key element--shooting.”