Screen Shot 2012-11-06 at 12.02.25 PMThis picture I found on Google Images was just too perfect

Tip of the ol’ (1950s-style Phillies throwback) cap to Chris Creamer of SportsLogos.net for this find.

Yesterday, I spoke with Reading Phillies GM Scott Hunsicker, who, on Sunday, announced that the team will unveil a new name, logo and uniforms on November 17. He was mum on the name, saying only that the rebranding effort will pay homage to Reading’s 46-year affiliation with the Phillies, the longest in baseball.

But perhaps waiting two weeks to make the announcement was a mistake.

Today, Creamer, on SportsLogos.net, discovered three domain names that were recently registered by the Reading Phillies: FightinsBaseball.com, ReadingFightins.com, ReadingFightinBaseball.com.

The Fightins.

I spot-checked the first two on who.is, a domain registration search tool. They were both blocked by a domain proxy (a third-party that hides ownership information of domain names). So, I emailed Creamer to see how he reached his conclusion. Here’s what he told me:

Looks like they may have updated two of their domain registrations to
make it private. Regardless, Google still has the old ownership records
cached and you can see it by performing the following search in Google: "reading phillies" site:whois.domaintools.com. This will give you a list of every domain that contains "Reading
Phillies" in its registration information.

A quick look through the
list and you'll see the "Fightins" domains are registered by the team.

Also, as of this email, the "ReadingFightinPhillies.com" domain is
still showing their ownership information: http://www.whois.com/whois/readingfightinphillies.com.

 

Creamer also sent along this handy screenshot to demonstrate:

Screen Shot 2012-11-06 at 11.48.10 AM

I reached out to Reading Phillies Director of Public Relations Eric Scarcella for comment. He offered the following response: The Reading Phillies refuse to comment on any speculation on what the franchise’s new name will be. We encourage fans in Baseballtown to come out on November 17th to find out the details on our new name, logo, and uniforms.

Now, it’s very cheap to register a domain name (like $10), and you’ll notice that these were created in August. Hunsicker told me that the team has been working on the rebranding effort for quite some time. So, it’s entirely possible they bought domain names for many team name candidates. 

Possible, but not likely.

Fightins would make sense. It pays homage to the Phillies (and their history), while distinguishing the team in Reading from the big club. I don’t hate the name, though I was expecting something a bit more modern. But I’ll withhold judgement until the official announcement.

Your thoughts?

Check out Creamer's post on SportsLogos.net.