Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Something Weird and Basically Useless


This is going to be a note about sports...


The Detroit Pistons, an NBA franchise, began life as the Fort Wayne Pistons, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Savvy basketball fans might know this, and even savvier ones might know that among the NBA minor-league system, the D-League (for Developmental), there is a Ft Wayne franchise, the Mad Ants. I laughed when I saw that name for the first time...apparently the people of Fort Wayne picked that name through a contest, as I guess the ants are pretty crazy there.


But, by looking into the ridiculous name of the Ft Wayne minor-league team, I learned that Ft Wayne has been named the Best City for Minor Leagues in America. I was stunned to see that counting the Mad Ants, there were eight pro or semi-pro minor league teams playing in Ft Wayne. 


Eight? It simply boggles the mind that a city with just over 250k people, and a metro area just over 410k people could sustain eight minor-league teams.


There's the Ft Wayne Fever, a minor league soccer team, and the Ft Wayne Fever again, this time a minor league ladies soccer team. There's the Flash (women's football), the Freedom (indoor football), the Komets (hockey), the TinCaps (baseball), the Mad Ants (basketball), and the Indiana Cardinals, a men's football team in a small midwestern semi-pro football league.

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