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What's in a name? Sometimes a lotBy Richard C. Snell Barton County Extension Agent Kansas You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, or you can call me Johnny or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me RayJay or you can call me RJ, but ya doesn't hafta call me Johnson. That's the routine that comedian Bill Saluga made famous, if you watched television in the late 1970s. If you called him "Johnson or Mr. Johnson," he would go into the long tirade about names that I just gave you. As much as I sometimes forget names, they can be important and, apparently, changing your name (which most married women go through) can bring significant changes. Such is the case with those Tampa Bay Rays of major league baseball. I have been wanting to write about them all season and, now that we are deep into the playoffs, it seems fitting. For those of you who do not follow baseball, let me enlighten you about the Rays. For years the Tampa Bay "Devil Rays," that was their official name, were terrible. They were so bad since they started as a franchise in 1998, that every year they competed with my Kansas City Royals to see who would be the worst team in the American League and usually all of baseball. The Devil Rays had the worst record in all of baseball, nine of their first 10 years, including 2007. Then, at the end of last year, the owner decided to get rid of the devil. That is, he took the name "devil" out and they became the Tampa Bay Rays. The owner said he wanted the name to reflect that the team was a shining beacon to the entire area. Thus, a "ray" of light. By the way, they were originally named for the manta ray which is a devilish mean-looking sea creature. Not only did he change the name, they changed their team colors and got new uniforms. Now for the rest of the story. They have become one of those few miracle stories of worst to first. They went in one year from the worst team in the American League to winning their division against the powerful Red Sox and Yankees. There have been a few other teams that have accomplished this feat in one year, but not many. One of those was the 1969 New York Mets, who didn't change their name (they did shorten it from Metropolitans), but went from the worst team in baseball to winning the World Series and thus were tabbed as the "Amazing Mets." The Rays have been the buzz of the baseball world. Although, I haven't talked to them lately, I'm sure those who follow baseball, like Mitch Webster and Mike Warren, have found this an interesting phenomena and could give far better insight than I can. There are other teams with devil in their name. Maybe they will change after this. I'm not necessarily saying they should or shouldn't. There are the New Jersey Devils in pro hockey and the Arizona State Sun Devils of college sports. Then there is even a Baptist university, Wake Forest, that has the name Demon Deacons. Many teams have changed locations over the years and should have changed their name to fit their new location. Some didn't and now the nickname just doesn't "go along." Take for example the Utah Jazz of pro basketball, who moved from New Orleans and kept the name. Utah is not known as a haven for jazz music. Then there is the Los Angeles Lakers, who moved from Minneapolis. There aren't many lakes around LA, or at least not 10,000 of them like there are in Minnesota. Where am I going with this and how does it fit with agriculture? The name or word that has apparently almost become an embarrassment for some people is the name "farmer." This is true so much that, where as farmers used to be held in high esteem, now it's like one of the seven words you can't use on television. I saw this coming years ago when, one day, a lady I used to work with many, many years ago in my home town referred to a family being "farm people" like they were "scum." I wanted to just "smack" her but just let it go. People, listen! Without farmers, none of us would eat. They produce the food--the meat, potatoes, other vegetables and fruit. Not only that, they grow some of the fiber you wear and other products you use. In Extension, they have subtly hinted that we should refer to farmers as beef cattle producers, food producers or crop growers. The thing that really got me, though, being a traditionalist, was several years ago when the Future Farmers of America, a national high school youth organization dedicated to agriculture and leadership, decided to change their name officially to the FFA. Now realize, the name had often been abbreviated or shortened to FFA. You know everybody has to have an acronym. The FFA decided that having the word farm did not really convey what their mission was. Being a former FFA member in high school, an FFA advisor from my days of teaching vocational agriculture, and now a lifetime member from paying the supporting dues, this just doesn't set with me although I understand why they did it. I might write about that in another column. Ultimately, it made me believe they were ashamed to be called farmers. To those of us who grew up on the farm and are farming now either full or part-time, I salute you. To me and many who are unable to farm on a full-time basis due to circumstances, but wish we could, there is no other title, whether it be Dr. as in academic doctor, physician, attorney at law, MBA, CPA, that I would rather be called than "farmer." Neither my Dad, myself nor hopefully you are ashamed of this title, if it fits. Feeding the world is no small matter. 10/27/08 Date: 10/23/08 Advertisement
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