Swing of the Quad Cities

According to the Swing of the Quad Cities website, "A new era in the Quad Cities baseball history began officially on October 20, 2003, when the team was officially renamed the Swing of the Quad Cities."

What is an era, you ask? Four whole seasons. That's all the era of the Swing of the Quad Cities will last.

The team announced last week that they will be changing their nickname again after this season and launched a name-the-team contest that will last the rest of the season.

The Swing abandoned the Quad City River Bandits nickname after a name-the-team contest following the 2003 season. Eleven years before that, Quad City Angels became the River Bandits after a name-the-team contest. Before that first name-the-team contest in 1992, Quad City teams bore the Angels nickname for 27 seasons in 33 years.

The Quad City franchise is in the middle of an identity crisis. Teams not in turmoil don't typically change their name this often. But because they tried to take a big, bold step in 2003 to rebrand their team with the unconventional Swing nickname, unconventional "of the Quad Cities" city name, and unconventional, funky color scheme, they now are paying the price. The Swing nickname was born out of a name-the-team contest but the team cranked it up a notch and it went over the heads of all of their fans.

I'm sure that we'll see something much more conservative this time around, for better or for worse. But personally I think they should keep this nickname but tweak the color scheme (get rid of that tan and burnt orange) and change the official team name to the Quad City Swing. The Quad City Swing is a great sounding name and it befuddles me why they didn't use it in the first place.

Team: Swing of the Quad Cities
League: Midwest League
Location: Davenport, Iowa
Stadium: John O'Donnell Field
Mascot: Clyde
Merchandise: Baseball nerds collectors items at this point