The AP reported that Albuquerque's new minor league baseball team, the former Calgary Cannons, will be known as the Isotopes. Despite NM being "known for its role in the creation of the atomic bomb and its nuclear research labs," the name comes from an episode of Fox' "The Simpsons." In the episode, which aired last year, Homer Simpson staged a hunger strike that prevented the Springfield Isotopes from moving to Albuquerque. The Albuquerque Isotopes will play in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, the same league the Albuquerque Dukes played in for 29 seasons before relocating to Portland, OR, in '99 (AP, 9/5).
DUKING IT OUT: The ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE's Jeff Carlton reported that the Albuquerque owners picked Isotopes over Dukes because the new name "offers a better opportunity to cash in on the recent boom in Minor League Baseball merchandising." In their last four seasons in Albuquerque, the Dukes never made the top 25 in minor league merchandising sales. Additionally, the new owners would have had to purchase the name Dukes from the previous ownership group. Isotopes President Ken Young said that the price to return the name Dukes "was about $500,000, an offer … immediately rejected." Young speculated that the final price "would have been between $15,000 and $30,000, a sum the ownership group was reluctant to pay considering the merchandising potential" of a new moniker. Meanwhile, Young said that "he plans to push for a deal with Fox that would allow the Isotopes to use Homer Simpson in their marketing" (ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE, 9/5).
