May 26, 2002
Isotopes - Name Like No Other
By Dennis Latta
Journal Staff Writer
Like it or not, it appears the name of Albuquerque's baseball team next year will be the Isotopes.
Mayor Martin Chavez doesn't like it. He thinks Albuquerque would be the brunt of a bad joke.
The New Mexico Hispanic Culture Preservation League doesn't like it. It wants Albuquerque's new Triple-A team to be the Dukes again for historic reasons.
Albuquerque Baseball Inc., likes it, and it has the naming rights without the city having a say.
"This isn't a second-rate city that should be taking our name from a cartoon show," Chavez says. "We're talking about people naming things who aren't from here. These names are important."
The name is primarily from an episode of the Simpsons aired in March 2001.
In it, Homer stages a hunger strike to keep the Duff Beer Corp. and the mayor of Albuquerque from stealing his hometown Double-A team, the Springfield Isotopes. In the end, Homer saves the Isotopes.
"Isotopes is big on the cute scale, but remember when Hot Springs changed its name to Truth or Consequences for a TV show?" Chavez says. "It's been on the receiving end of a whole lot of humor.''
Ken Young, managing general partner of Albuquerque Baseball Inc., says the team will be named in the next three to five weeks. He repeated a statement from three weeks ago when he said "Dukes" was running third, with "Isotopes" leading. The "66ers" are in second place.
"At one time, I did talk to the mayor. I was aware he favored Dukes," says Young, who indicates cryptically a name change could be in the offing in future years.
An advantage in favor of Isotopes is its prospects for being a big merchandising moneymaker.
"That name would be huge," says Patrick McKernan, former assistant general manager of the Dukes and now general manager of the Elmira (N.Y.) Pioneers in the independent Northern League. "Nationally, Isotopes would be the number-one seller in minor league baseball the first year."
And money might be what it's all about.
"If merchandising went well, I'd say we probably made a good choice," Young says.
Dukes is a name etched in Albuquerque history. Albuquerque is known as the Duke City because it was named for Enrique de La Cueva, the Duke of Alburquerque, Badajoz, Spain. The city, minus an "r," was founded in 1706.
The baseball team carried the Dukes name for 29 seasons as the top farm club of the Los Angeles Dodgers before the franchise was sold to a group from Portland, Ore., and moved at the end of the 2000 season.
"That's so awful. New Mexico doesn't need to be represented by a cartoon," says Millie Santillanes, a Preservation League board member. "That doesn't reflect who we are.
"The Dukes, that's who we are," she says. "The Simpsons will be here today and gone tomorrow, and we'll be stuck with this foolish name."
(The Simpsons has been on Fox for 13 years.)
City councilors Greg Payne and Mike Cadigan like Isotopes.
"Personally, I'm an Isotopes fan," Cadigan says. "Primarily, the experience of teams with whimsical names, they do well selling merchandise. And the city gets part of that money."
Councilor Eric Griego favors Dukes.
"It's kind of a historic thing; it's enduring," he says. "In 10, 15 years from now, I don't think Isotopes will have anything to do with anything. People will look at it and ask how in hell we got a name like Isotopes."
Chavez acknowledges, "(The name is) a nice tie-in with the labs and new technology. But I'd say 99.9 percent of the people in the U.S. couldn't tell you what an isotope is."
The rights to the Dukes name went to Portland when the franchise was sold, though the team there is called Beavers. Negotiations have set a price tag at $15,000, but Young believes it would go higher if Albuquerque really wants it.
"Having to pay for it weighs a little bit in the consideration," Young says. "I'm not convinced our negotiations ever came to a close."
So, would the city pay the costs for purchasing the name?
"I wouldn't favor it," Cadigan says. "That wouldn't be money well spent."
Adds Chavez, "Right now, we're cutting budgets and laying people off. Buying names isn't high on the priority list."
In a few years, when the novelty of Isotopes has worn off and the name Dukes has been forgotten in Portland, could Albuquerque's team change its name back to Dukes?
"Nothing is permanent," Young says. "Anything is possible."
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