A Pitch to Toss Out Team Name

Even in a professional baseball league that has a team called the Bandits and another called the Posse, a squad called the Vigilantes is a bit outside the base lines. It calls to mind a mob of people taking the law into their own hands, inflicting brutal punishment on sometimes innocent people.

Yet that is the moniker for the minor league team that has taken up residence in Mission Viejo and will open its season this spring. Vigilantes? Let’s have another name-the-team contest.

The Vigilantes played for two years in Long Beach. They began life with the name Barracuda. After a squabble among the owners, with the partner forced out retaining rights to that name, the team played briefly without a name. Fans jokingly labeled it “the Franchise.” The owners regrouped and renamed the team the Riptide. Makes sense. Long Beach is on the ocean. Might as well take advantage of the aquatic theme.

The owners moved the team after getting what they felt was a better deal from Mission Viejo and Saddleback College, where they will play.

With the change in scenery came a needed change in name. The owners were right to have a contest. It let folks know that professional baseball has arrived in Mission Viejo. Team officials reported receiving more than 700 entries, with about 30 picking Vigilantes.

The 30 names were put in a hat and the person whose name was picked won two season tickets. Next year the team should seek another name. It’s not that difficult to remove one moniker from a uniform back and sew a new one on. It happens all the time when players are traded.

Despite the name, we wish the team well. Fans will be fortunate if they see baseball as entertaining as that played by the Barracuda and Riptide at Blair Field in Long Beach. In the only two years of the existence of the Western League, the team known as the Vigilantes won the championship.

The team formerly known as the Riptide offered seats close to the field, a $7 top for very good seats, free parking nearby and the usual hot dogs, beer, fish tacos and $5 back massages and $5 haircuts in the stands.

But about that new name . . .