No Cigars in Cigar City

Jacob Sullum | June 24, 2011

The Tampa Bay Rays, a Major League Baseball team established in 1998, have not been around long enough to accumulate old-timey uniform designs for "throwback days," so they raid the closets of defunct teams such as the Tampa Tarpons and the St. Petersburg Pelicans. This year, for a throwback game against the St. Louis Cardinals on July 2, they picked the 1951 jersey of the Tampa Smokers, a Florida International League team whose name honored a major local industry. The jersey did too, until the Rays redesigned it to eliminate a black cigar stitched into the red swoosh under the team name. "We have chosen to wear the Smokers jersey to celebrate the rich heritage and traditions surrounding baseball in Tampa Bay," the team explained, "and this version of the logo is intended only to be a slightly more contemporary version of that wonderful history."

As someone who last sat through a baseball game circa 1975 (and who had to check to make sure the Rays were in fact an MLB team), I am certainly no expert on such matters. But doesn't bringing an old design up to date miss the whole point of throwback days? In any case, the contemporary sensibility that the Rays are accommodating—a tobaccophobia so extreme that it cannot abide a stylized, historically authentic image of a cigar, even in a town known as Cigar City—is worth resisting. It is the same unreasoning intolerance that counts every image of a tobacco product in a movie as a crime against children and airbrushes cigarettes from historical pictures of musicians and artists. If the Rays are willing to be Smokers for a day, despite the risk that children watching them play will emulate their example by embarking on deadly cigarette habits (just as kids who watch the Pirates play frequently become marauding buccaneers), why not go all the way?

[Thanks to ClubMedSux for the tip.]

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creech|6.24.11 @ 4:41PM|#

I guess a throwback jersey to the Havana Sugar Kings would be politically incorrect too.

|6.24.11 @ 4:47PM|#

A couple of years ago, I ran across some stoopid 80's Disney flik on the Hallmark Channel: there was a segment where a large truck crashed into the scene and the entire truck was blurred out as the whole side was painted with the red 'bowtie' Marlboro logo.

It only drew your attention to the truck even more, as the red & white pattern was still legible with the blurring.

MJ|6.25.11 @ 10:18AM|#

Whoever did the blurring was probably only trying to minimally comply with the current laws against tobacco product adverts.

Comment Tater|6.25.11 @ 12:51PM|#

A movie isn't an advert. But it brings up an interesting scenario: if R. J. Reynolds placed a cigarette "ad" within the context of a legitimate movie, would it be illegal? Since cigarette advertising bans are clearly an unconstitutional abridgement of free speech but are law nevertheless, could the federal government take the next logical step and effectively censor or ban movies that have cigarette "ads" in them?

|6.26.11 @ 3:07PM|#

...could the federal government...

Yes. Next question.

Jesus fucking christ, what part of unlimited, unrestrained, power do you uneducated troglodytes not understand?

Comment Tater|6.24.11 @ 4:49PM|#

The Tampa Bay Rays...have not been around long enough to accumulate old-timey uniform designs

They should have used one of their old Devil Rays uniforms.

Brian C|6.24.11 @ 5:34PM|#

Yeah that was my first thought as well. Not that I care much about the Rays but why did they drop the "Devil" from their name? Devil Rays definitely had a better ring to it.

Comment Tater|6.24.11 @ 6:02PM|#

"Devil" connotes evil, anti-Christian ideas, which are bad for the kiddies. Never mind that a devil ray is just a friggin' fish.

Steve Irwin|6.24.11 @ 6:16PM|#

Crikey! It is not "just" a friggin' fish.

Sting Ray|6.24.11 @ 6:19PM|#

Sorry about that, mate.

Zombie Steve Irwin|6.24.11 @ 7:24PM|#

I call in my hole in oneself

rather|6.25.11 @ 1:43PM|#

Speaking of holes in oneself, I lost another john last night. He got a little too close to the event horizon of my gaping gash and got sucked in.

I need to start asking for the money upfront!

blather|6.25.11 @ 3:10PM|#

Forget the cigar. Put a big fat cock on there instead and I'd buy one of those uniforms.

Fist of Etiquette|6.24.11 @ 4:50PM|#

Kids who watch the current Pirates play seldom leave PNC Park wanting to be Pirates themselves.

|6.24.11 @ 5:44PM|#

Is Cincy the outlier here, because that city's government acts pretty communist and their nickname is the Reds?

They need to go back to their roots and use the Redlegs moniker.

Sudden|6.24.11 @ 6:26PM|#

As a Dodgers fan and having friends and relatives that are Giants fans, I had an interesting conversation last night.

The dodgers take their name from the brooklyn trolley dodgers. It would seem like a more fitting team for SF since San Francisco's icons are the Golden Gate and the trolley cars. Meanwhile, considering that Los Angeles dwarfs the bay area in size and scope, it would seem like the Giants would be a more fitting moniker for Los Angeles.

Brian C|6.24.11 @ 7:16PM|#

Interesting. Kind of like how someone suggested LA and Utah could more appropriately swap NBA nicknames as well.

|6.24.11 @ 11:57PM|#

How does the Utah Clippers make sense?

Otto|6.26.11 @ 8:57AM|#

They were originally the Red Stockings, as was the current Boston team. Since they play in different leagues, they could get away with going back to their original names.

Then Again|6.24.11 @ 6:18PM|#

True story: after watching a Detroit Tigers game, I mauled a zebra.

mr lizard|6.24.11 @ 4:50PM|#

Yes the rays are a MLB team. The same one that took the AL east over super rich Boston and New York last year.

|6.24.11 @ 6:15PM|#

And will this year, too, bitches.

Sting Ray|6.24.11 @ 6:21PM|#

How's that new stadium coming along? Good?

|6.24.11 @ 6:23PM|#

Don't give a shit so long as I don't have to pay for it with my tax dollars.

|6.24.11 @ 9:28PM|#

never! BOSTON NATION!!!

|6.24.11 @ 9:48PM|#

Boston. Pfff. Bunch of damn mercenaries. Rays all the way.

MLB Players|6.25.11 @ 12:53PM|#

Pssst! We're all mercenaries, aka free agents.

Pinkerton Acc. Softball Team|6.24.11 @ 4:51PM|#

I cant wait to take to the field again!

|6.24.11 @ 5:00PM|#

It reminds me of the Kettle One "Men Being Men" commercials, where all the boys are sitting around telling dirty stories, playing poker, drinking manly drinks neat (Kettle One no doubt) and amounting to no good in general, but not a single one is smoking a cigar or dirtying himself with any tobacco product.

You might as well had lipstick lesbians do the commercial at that point.

spencer|6.24.11 @ 5:04PM|#

Are you implying that hot lesbians don't exist?

|6.24.11 @ 5:08PM|#

Well, they do on the Internets.

Winocologist|6.24.11 @ 5:04PM|#

I think all commercials should be done by lipstick lesbians.

Popped Cork Sound|6.24.11 @ 6:52PM|#

I can get behind that.

SIV|6.24.11 @ 6:15PM|#

a lot of lipstick lesbians smoke

|6.24.11 @ 5:03PM|#

Threadjack. RIP Columbo. Faulk could really act. He was great as the former angel in Wings of Desire.

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.a.....&GT1=28101

|6.24.11 @ 5:07PM|#

That sucks. Faulk was a class act.

|6.24.11 @ 5:24PM|#

He always seemed like a regular kind of guy. He was that rare bird; a hollywood actor you could stand to be in a room for more than five minutes with.

|6.24.11 @ 6:50PM|#

RIP.

|6.24.11 @ 7:17PM|#

'Joy Boy', in 'Pocketful of Miracles', circa 1961. His first, I believe. Terrific.

Not Carl Sagan|6.24.11 @ 5:09PM|#

Senator Finistirre: No I think we're improving history.

Winston Smith|6.24.11 @ 5:26PM|#

That's my job.

Jay Carney|6.24.11 @ 5:46PM|#

No, it's MY job.

MSNBC|6.24.11 @ 5:46PM|#

It's ALL our jobs.

Mr. FIFY|6.24.11 @ 5:23PM|#

The Brits airbrushed Churchill's cigars out of historic photos.

Same mindset.

Fuck the left.

Gerholdt|6.24.11 @ 5:27PM|#

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.....zi_Germany

|6.25.11 @ 6:51PM|#

NAZI link (wikipedia) ...Gerholdt
"..Marshall Plan, the US sent free tobacco to Germany; the amount of tobacco shipped into Germany in 1948 was 24,000 tons and was as high as 69,000 tons in 1949. The Federal government of the US spent $70 million on this scheme, to the delight of cigarette manufacturing companies in the United States, who profited hugely."

I wonder if NATO fully appreciates the sacrifices made by the US.

Russ 2000|6.24.11 @ 5:41PM|#

Their next uniform should be the Tampa Tampons.

|6.24.11 @ 6:16PM|#

There was a minor league team--I think it was in the Reds system--called the Tampa Tarpons.

|6.24.11 @ 5:48PM|#

Can you imagine the butthurt on display at MADD if the Milwaukee team tried to name themselves the Brewers today?

Daughters of the Confederacy|6.24.11 @ 6:05PM|#

We feel the same way about the Yankees.

Brian C|6.24.11 @ 6:36PM|#

At least with the latest reincarnation of baseball in DC they resisted the urge to go back to perhaps the most offensive of all sports nicknames: Senators.

Brian C|6.24.11 @ 6:44PM|#

Oh and speaking of DC teams and political correctness, now that Abe Polin is dead, is it too much to ask Ted Leonsis to have some balls and ditch the horrible colors and name of his NBA team and go back to red white and blue Bullets? Thankfully he already ditched the same awful colors for the Caps, but the Wizards need some work. Seriously who ever came up with Wizards as an improvement on Bullets?

|6.24.11 @ 6:45PM|#

Why do you wish to fan the flames of violence?

I still think a team should be called Saxon Violence.

Um|6.24.11 @ 6:52PM|#

Bullets...DC crime rate...large negroes...not a hard one to figure out.

|6.24.11 @ 6:18PM|#

When they asked fans to submit names for the Tampa baseball team, I submitted (among other names), the Stoagies and the Rough Riders (Roosevelt et al. stayed in Tampa before going to Cuba). I like the latter because I thought it would be cool for everyone to say "Bully!" after a good play.

I thought Rays, even Devil Rays, was an insipid name. Considering that Tampa teams generally have good names, this was annoying.

Um|6.24.11 @ 6:45PM|#

Isn't a Rough Rider a brand of condom?

|6.24.11 @ 6:47PM|#

So is Trojan. What's your point?

It is, incidentally, the name of a Canadian football team (Saskatchewan).

Um|6.24.11 @ 6:49PM|#

Fine, if you want your team to be something somebody cums inside then throws away.

|6.24.11 @ 6:52PM|#

Well, that's a disgusting way to look at it.

Frankly, I like names that have something to do with, well, anything. The Buccaneers is a good name for a Tampa team, as is Lightning. Many, many teams have lame names. The Rays included.

Um|6.24.11 @ 6:53PM|#

Could have been worse. Could have been Unicorns.

Um|6.24.11 @ 6:56PM|#

Incidentally, I lived in Tampa for a while. "Deluge" would have been appropriate for a team name. "Storm" is lame, but "Deluge"...maybe a bit too biblical, though.

|6.24.11 @ 7:02PM|#

Biblically speaking, Apocalypse would be a good name (not necessarily for Tampa, just a good name).

The most apropos name is Lightning, as Tampa is Calusa for "sticks of fire" (generally assumed to mean lightning). Come to think of it, perhaps the name is redundant.

Rock Action |6.24.11 @ 7:12PM|#

I'm laughing at the punnery of it all, but somehow Saxon Violence vs. The Apocalypse has more of a competition Wizardry ring to it than a baseball one. On the plus side, the owners of those teams wouldn't demand publicly-funded stadiums in order to have a go of it, just some late-night soft drinks and a coffee cake or two.

Um|6.24.11 @ 7:20PM|#

perhaps the name is redundant

Cheer up. It could be much, much worse. "The The Angels Angels of Anaheim" comes to mind.

Brian C|6.24.11 @ 7:40PM|#

The Lightning reminds me of a bar bet / trivia question for sports fans I heard at the local brewpub while watching the Bruins-Lightning series a few weeks back:

You have three minutes to name all the sports teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB whose nicknames do not end in "s" (hint: there are nine of them). Of course no googling was allowed, and obviously one was a gimme.

Um|6.24.11 @ 7:53PM|#

White Sox, Red Sox, Lightning, Jazz, Borg, Winsome Packer...

MJ|6.25.11 @ 10:27AM|#

It's not as bad as the Los Angeles Angels. Or the traditional fallback name for Buffalo NY baseball teams, i.e. Bisons.

|6.24.11 @ 9:11PM|#

I think you're onto something ProL.

Saxons, Normans, Huns, Visgoths, Vandals, Danes, Celts, etc.

Epic games, at least by name.

|6.24.11 @ 9:16PM|#

What, no Mongols?

Um|6.24.11 @ 9:38PM|#

Nobody expects The Spanish Inquisition.

|6.25.11 @ 2:35PM|#

The Spanish Inquisition would be an awesome team name.

|6.25.11 @ 11:51AM|#

They're the Ming Dynasty farm team.

|6.24.11 @ 8:13PM|#

Actually two CFL teams. There was also the now defunct Ottawa Rough Riders.

Note that the Ottawa team was two words. And comes from Teddy Roosevelt's regiment in the Spanish-American War. apparently the owners were fans.

The Saskatchewan team is the Roughriders (one word). Cowboys are only found in the SW corner of the province, but the Mountie school is in Regina. I'm not sure which one it got its name from. The Mounties have not had riding instruction as part of their training for over forty years now.

The sister of a friend of mine was Miss Saskatchewan Roughrider one year. Yes, some jokes were made.

sevo|6.24.11 @ 11:41PM|#

Hate to break in, but when the EU outlawed tobacco advertising, the F1 team sponsored by Bensen and Hedges (sp?) stuck "Bees and Hornets" (same type-face) on the back wing.
So how about "Somkers"?

|6.25.11 @ 12:24PM|#

IIRC, Ferrari put Warldoro on their cars for the first race of the advertising ban. Bernie Ecclestone was not happy.

|6.25.11 @ 12:01AM|#

The Smokers wore uniforms without the cigar too. This is an overblown non-story.

555-|6.25.11 @ 6:52AM|#

You don't enjoy propaganda? What's wrong with you?

dunkel|6.25.11 @ 8:07AM|#

meh...as long as Cigar City Brewing is still around, all is well.

Buzz|6.25.11 @ 12:53PM|#

Actually, I think the Rays deserve props for selling anything with the word "Smokers" across it. Even with the removed cigar, there's still that big "Smokers" word emblazoned across the front. No one will mistake it as the old timey ballclub featuring the boys of Meat Smokers Local 303.

What's more, anyone with an ear to the ground will know that who this *really* appeals to is not tobacco smokers but unrepentant pot smokers. The Rays are bucking more than they're giving in to here -- unlike, as previously discussed, the way they rolled over to the Christians and removed "Devil" from their name.

Comment Tater|6.25.11 @ 1:00PM|#

I don't believe they've ever acknowledged caving to the religious zealots. The official line is, "Our team sucked for like, ten years, and it was all because of the sucky uniforms and shit, and we wanted to move in a different direction, and 'Devil Rays' was bad luck, and besides, 'Rays' means sunshine and happiness and winning!" A sure sign of desperation in a sports team is a uniform/name change.

|6.25.11 @ 4:07PM|#

Sure as hell seems to have worked, though.

Pittsburgh Pirates|6.25.11 @ 6:15PM|#

We're on our 17th logo, 35th uniform, and a marvelous 18-season losing streak! Pittsburgh...Rays? Hmmm...

|6.26.11 @ 6:09PM|#

Do it, and we'll sue!

|6.26.11 @ 8:14PM|#

I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, BuzzSave.(c)om

Pittsburgh Pirates|6.26.11 @ 8:39PM|#

I know!

GroundTruth|6.27.11 @ 6:27AM|#

Reminds me of watching "Blazing Saddles" with the sounds dropping out every time the N-word is used to refer to the sheriff.

Too much is being lost to political correctness.

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