Nickname Is Out of This World

The triple-A baseball team in Las Vegas was formerly the Stars and a farm team of the San Diego Padres. It’s now affiliated with the Dodgers, and this week changed its name to the Las Vegas 51s.

The San Francisco 49ers took their name from the Gold Rush of 1849, but why 51s?

Dave Tuley, in a story that appeared in the Daily Racing Form, writes, “It’s a reference to nearby Area 51, the top-secret military base just north of Las Vegas that has spawned rumors that UFOs and aliens are studied there.”

The team’s logo is an alien’s head.

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Adds Tuley: “I wouldn’t be surprised if headline writers and the general public commonly refer to the team as the Aliens, in much the same way as the Dolphins are also called the Fish, the Chargers the Bolts, and the Canadiens the Habs.”

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More on nicknames: Tuley points out that New Orleans Jazz was a good one, then adds, “Though I’m not sure why they kept the name when the franchise moved to Utah, which is hardly a jazzy place.”

Of the Minneapolis Lakers, he says, “That was fitting too, until they moved to Los Angeles. The same goes for the Brooklyn Dodgers, named after people who had to dodge trolley cars.”

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Change in order: Joe Hawk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal suggested this week that Nevada Las Vegas change its nickname, saying the Rebel moniker spells trouble. He points out that the definition of a rebel is someone “who resists any authority or control.”

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Trivia time: How much did a 30-second commercial cost for the first Super Bowl in 1967?

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Descriptive: Before the Washington Redskins were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, former Buffalo Bill Coach Marv Levy said, “I think their prospects of making the playoffs are about as good as those of a pickpocket in a nudist colony.”

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More from Levy: All the bad weather last weekend reminded the former coach of the 1990 AFC championship game in which the Bills defeated the Los Angeles Raiders, 51-3.

“The temperature was freezing,” Levy said. “The wind was awful. Now, one of my consistent messages to my players was, ‘Where else would you rather be?’

“So in the locker room just before the game, [linebacker] Shane Conlan says to me, ‘Where else would I rather be? Don’t make me answer that.’ ”

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Trivia answer: $42,500. Thirty-second spots now go for $2.3 million.

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And finally: In a column about the Chicago Bears’ coach by Skip Bayless in the Chicago Tribune this week, the lead is: “Fire Dick Jauron.”

Adds Bayless: “In nearly two seasons this guy has provided little evidence he will ever be able to do much more than write a coaching memoir titled, ‘Without a Clue.’ ”