Fighting Pheasants

[goon]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

Not saying that I know of everything that was ever discussed, but I never heard anything about changing away from Jackrabbits. That would have been a monumental mistake.

I couldnt agree more, from what i remember it was just certain Alumni I think who was pushing but nothing that the school was real seriously considering.

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

I think one thing is for sure. This has people talking about Sioux Falls baseball in February. Pretty brilliant marketing by the new owners if you ask me...

Edit: Not to mention all the free radio, tv, and print coverage it has received the last few days...

[RabbitNation]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

I did not know that there was a pro baseball team in Sioux Falls, and I live there!

I like the Pheasants name. Remember 15 years ago the Aberdeen Pheasants, I played aganist them.

[goon]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

I think one thing is for sure. This has people talking about Sioux Falls baseball in February. Pretty brilliant marketing by the new owners if you ask me...

Edit: Not to mention all the free radio, tv, and print coverage it has received the last few days...

We will have to see if it adds to ticket sales or hurts the core former canaries supporters atleast for awhile.

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

We will have to see if it adds to ticket sales or hurts the core former canaries supporters atleast for awhile.

Ah yes, the old "core fans" vs "new fans" argument. Hockey and MLB seem to struggle with these in particular. I heard one of the new owners on the radio this morning, and he said season ticket sales were down 65% from the mid 90's. Apparently there aren't enough "core fans" to really matter. Kind of a piss of one fan to get 3 more type of gamble.

Also, with the success of the Stampede franchise in Sioux Falls, I would think twice about questioning decisions by this group. They seem to know what they are doing.

[Coyote_Fan]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

I have been thinking for as long as I can remember that a name change was needed and finally it has happened. It was long overdue. When it comes to tradition and Canaries who wants to keep the tradition if the tradition is losing. I kind of laughed at what Stu Whitney said on the radio the other day. If the team was called the Rat Turds would people be saying lets keep that name because of the tradition. Tradition for the sake or tradition means nothing. Tradition to be proud of is another thing all together. Either way Canaries is a soft name and the play on the field was soft the majority of the time.

I think the Pheasant is an OK name, not terrible but not the best I could think of either. I do like the new logos as I think they look sharp. I like the new colors as well. It appears that they are an off orange. It's kind of like if you mixed orange with tan. I guess Burnt Orange like the Longhorns would be the closest comparison. Black is as much the color as orange and I think the the two look very nice together. There will be a white jersey with orange trim and shoulders. There will also be grey and orange, orange and black and black and orange. They all look nice to me and the feather underlining the word Sioux Falls looks nice. The hats are black and look good. The main logo also looks nice with a fairly mean looking pheasant. Overall considering name, colors and logo I think they did a good job with the change overall. Not many teams have the orange color that they have and since it isn't overly bright I think it's a refreshing change from the ordinary colors most teams use. Since the orange will go with white, grey and especially black it looks good. If it was with yellow or green or something like that it wouldn't look as good. I got very tired of the off white look they have at home. The recent uniforms of the canaries were horrible and completely boring. It looked like the home whites were actually uniforms that hadn't been washed more than once or twice all season.

Good job Canaries to lose the "Canaries" name.

[goon]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

Ah yes, the old "core fans" vs "new fans" argument. Hockey and MLB seem to struggle with these in particular. I heard one of the new owners on the radio this morning, and he said season ticket sales were down 65% from the mid 90's. Apparently there aren't enough "core fans" to really matter. Kind of a piss of one fan to get 3 more type of gamble.

Also, with the success of the Stampede franchise in Sioux Falls, I would think twice about questioning decisions by this group. They seem to know what they are doing.

what makes a new team name and such automatically increase the fan base? The canaries won the championship 2 years ago and were ok last year, sure before that they were the doormats of minor league baseball. Maybe there is only so much for a fan base to begin with no matter the team name so alienating the base even as small as it is, probably not a good idea. Not against the change but with just how they made changes with out community input. I know its not what most places or towns do for a changing sports team but why not try to drum up some interest with the community before coming up with a new logo ect... Why not include the season ticket holders and get them on board. They fired John K, and from I can tell he wasnt much of the problem, its gonna be hard for the replacement to love and do a good job as well as John did.

[goon]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

I have been thinking for as long as I can remember that a name change was needed and finally it has happened. It was long overdue. When it comes to tradition and Canaries who wants to keep the tradition if the tradition is losing. I kind of laughed at what Stu Whitney said on the radio the other day. If the team was called the Rat Turds would people be saying lets keep that name because of the tradition. Tradition for the sake or tradition means nothing. Tradition to be proud of is another thing all together. Either way Canaries is a soft name and the play on the field was soft the majority of the time.

I think the Pheasant is an OK name, not terrible but not the best I could think of either. I do like the new logos as I think they look sharp. I like the new colors as well. It appears that they are an off orange. It's kind of like if you mixed orange with tan. I guess Burnt Orange like the Longhorns would be the closest comparison. Black is as much the color as orange and I think the the two look very nice together. There will be a white jersey with orange trim and shoulders. There will also be grey and orange, orange and black and black and orange. They all look nice to me and the feather underlining the word Sioux Falls looks nice. The hats are black and look good. The main logo also looks nice with a fairly mean looking pheasant. Overall considering name, colors and logo I think they did a good job with the change overall. Not many teams have the orange color that they have and since it isn't overly bright I think it's a refreshing change from the ordinary colors most teams use. Since the orange will go with white, grey and especially black it looks good. If it was with yellow or green or something like that it wouldn't look as good. I got very tired of the off white look they have at home. The recent uniforms of the canaries were horrible and completely boring. It looked like the home whites were actually uniforms that hadn't been washed more than once or twice all season.

Good job Canaries to lose the "Canaries" name.

Your first mistake is listening to STU. Just to change from a tradition even if you consider it a losing one does not mean its going to start a new tradition. Changing because of the want to change is more of a fad then developing tradition. Oh yeah, a dark hat with orange SF on it, thats original, The San fransisco giants they dont have anything that looks like that do they? I agree the canaries were not the most fasionable. I liked there colored match up but not the cream yellow one. years ago they had a nice pin stripe but had not been around for awhile.

I do think they could have done a much worse picking something else. It seems many minor league team names go for something fun or different or both. The peashants are different for a name but not so much fun. i can only imagine how hidieous the mascot will be, hope that evil turkey head thing doesnt scare to many children.

[NoVaJack]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

Three arguments for the change:
1. Pheasants are far more identifiable as South Dakota from outside of South Dakota than canaries will ever be.
2. There is a deep baseball tradition related to pheasants in South Dakota. Earl Weaver and Cal Ripken, Sr., both managed there, and Jim Palmer, Mark Belanger, Lou Pinella and Don Larsen, among others, played for the Pheasants.
3. This: http://bit.ly/bqKacT

[SturgisJeff]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

I dont know how to feel about Fighting Pheasants, I live in a town where our sports knicknames change about every year. So far the Beacons?, Flags (town traditional name for the hockey teams) and now IceHawks. Never new what the canaries had to do with Sioux Falls. What was the old semi pro name of the team in Sioux Falls back in the old days. Wasnt it the Sioux Falls Packers.

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

Either way Canaries is a soft name and the play on the field was soft the majority of the time.

Not calling CF out on this because I have heard lots and lots of people say this, but do really think the players effort was based on what the jersey said on the front? My 10-yr old daughter heard them talking about this on the radio and burst out laughing. I looked at her and she said, "Yeah, like I stopped and thought my soccer jersey says Applebees this year so I'm going to play harder than when it said Lewis last year."

[Prairiehaas]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

And then if you go with a black uniform ....

[SturgisJeff]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

Seeings how we're talking baseball here I found this list of players from the old Northern League that went on to pro careers. Quite a few went on to the Hall of Fame. Also found out that back in the 1940's to about 1953 the Sioux Falls Packers were the Sioux Falls Canaries.

http://www.usfamily.net/web/trombley...rs%20Table.htm

http://www.usfamily.net/web/trombleyd/

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

what makes a new team name and such automatically increase the fan base? The canaries won the championship 2 years ago and were ok last year, sure before that they were the doormats of minor league baseball. Maybe there is only so much for a fan base to begin with no matter the team name so alienating the base even as small as it is, probably not a good idea. Not against the change but with just how they made changes with out community input. I know its not what most places or towns do for a changing sports team but why not try to drum up some interest with the community before coming up with a new logo ect... Why not include the season ticket holders and get them on board. They fired John K, and from I can tell he wasnt much of the problem, its gonna be hard for the replacement to love and do a good job as well as John did.

I think the point the guy on the radio was trying to make was that there isn't much of a season ticket fan base to cater to, I would guess a couple hundred.

According to the new owner on the radio, season tickets are down 65% from the mid 90's. Say there were 1000 season ticket holders back then. Would that mean there are 350 season ticket holders now? Not a lot of people to piss off. And not that hard to find 350 new fans in a town the size of Sioux Falls.

I don't really have an opinion of the new name, other than I think it was a brilliant marketing move that got people talking about the team in the offseason. I've been to about 5 Canaries games in the 10 years we've lived here, so I admit I'm probably not the best person to talk for the hardcore fans though.

[Nidaros]

Re: Fighting Pheasants

Seeings how we're talking baseball here I found this list of players from the old Northern League that went on to pro careers. Quite a few went on to the Hall of Fame. Also found out that back in the 1940's to about 1953 the Sioux Falls Packers were the Sioux Falls Canaries.

http://www.usfamily.net/web/trombley...rs%20Table.htm

http://www.usfamily.net/web/trombleyd/

Great find for old folks like me. Two guys my age made the majors. Jerry Crider from Sioux Falls who is no longer living. A bit of surprise. Also Dick Green from Mitchell played several years for the Kansas City and later Oakland A's. Apparently Dick was not born in South Dakota. Oh yes I grew up listening to the Sioux Falls Carnies on KSOO, and I know that would be from 1947 to 1952. I believe the Canaries disppeared when the franchise moved to Winnepeg and that would have been about 1953.

Also a flash for Cinncinati Reds, Don Gullet played for Sioux Falls for a spell. The Reds had big hopes for him after one 20 win season, but he started having arm problems and never got back to where he was before the arm surgery.

Lots of good stuff including the Basin League. I once knew a guy from Ainsworth Nebraska who said he played for the Bassett Hounds, Bassett Nebraska and they played in the Basin League. The source here does not list Bassett as ever being in the leagues, so maybe they played some of the Basin teams from time to time and was never in the league itself. Bassett is no bigger than Arlington so he might have been buffing a little on that point.