Publisher's Notebook

Tonight, two teams no one thought would be in the World Series square off — the San Francisco Giants, who haven’t won the big prize since 1954, when the team was in New York, and the Texas Rangers, who never have been to a World Series, despite playing in the American League since 1972. Actually they were the second-coming Washington Senators from 1961 to 1971, and they never made it to the Series either, making that a drought lasting 50 seasons.

Needless to say, Texas fans are deliriously happy. Maybe over-the-top happy.

There’s a Dallas lawyer named Darrell Cook, who months ago believed his beloved Rangers were tanking another season when he set a preliminary hearing for…Oct. 27, this morning. He bought tickets for Game 1 in San Francisco and he filed a motion for a continuance that Scribd calls the “Greatest Filing Ever from a Texas Rangers Fan.” You’ll have to read the motion, which makes reference to Darrell’s longstanding love for the team, the fact that the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez (ARod a/k/a AFraud, according to the motion), a former Ranger, took a called third strike to give Texas the pennant and numerous other events this season. Don’t overlook the footnotes.

Good news for Cook. About an hour ago, he tweeted (#dwcook), “The judge just granted my motion to continue Whew. .Good thing- I am on a plane in Houston. Go #Rangers. That’s how lawyering go.”

Indeed.

Then there’s Boris Briskin. A native of Plano, Texas, Briskin, a 2009 graduate of Loyola law school, was a law clerk at a Los Angeles firm, according to LinkedIn.

Briskin quit his job at the firm to attend the World Series, reports KDFW, a Dallas-Fort Worth television station.

Briskin’s explanation: “It’s the Rangers. I’ve loved the Rangers for so long. They haven’t been to the playoffs since ‘99. They’ve gone through so much since then. I really couldn’t miss this,” he said, admitting that he will blow a wad of cash for tickets.

He added that he is confident he’ll get a new job once he returns to California. Wonder how he’ll answer that “Reason for leaving prior employment” section on any job applications.

The new Double A baseball team in Richmond has a name: The Richmond Flying Squirrels.

It was a busy week on the baseball-team-name desk. First, one of the possible names, “Hambones,” was determined to be potentially offensive to African-Americans. Then another finalist, “Flatheads,” ostensibly selected for its association with a fish, was deemed offensive to Native Americans.

Then the team management announced “Flying Squirrels” was the winner. As in the Richmond Treerats. The Richmond Killers of Tomatoes and Other Vegetables You Might Try to Grow on the Deck. The Richmond Bird Feeder Destroyers. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has details.  

“Let’s go nuts!” exclaimed the team’s general manager at the announcement. Sorry, when I heard that, I couldn’t help but recall the really lame “theme song” foisted by the Washington Nationals management last year, “Nuts about the Nats.” The tune, which sound like a bad glee-club song from the 1950s, was widely hated by DC-area fans. When my son and I went to a Nats game this past summer, mercifully the song had ben retired. I think.

So heave a big sigh over “Flying Squirrels” and hope for the best. At least baseball is back in River City.

It hasn’t been easy being a baseball fan in the Holy City on the James during the past year or so.

First the Triple-A Richmond Braves left town, after about 40 years here. Then there was the back and forth of whether we’d get a Double-A team. (With the demotion, I couldn’t shake from my head that line from Alabama’s tune, “The Cheap Seats”: “Our ball club may be minor-league, but at least it’s Triple-A….”).

Then we got a team – the Double-A Connecticut Defenders, a San Francisco Giants affiliate, were moving to Richmond. Okay, at least it’s baseball.

For the last few weeks, the club’s owners have tried to build excitement, seeking fan entries for the new as-yet-unnamed Richmond Fill-in-the-Blanks. Team names in minor league baseball often are “fun” or whimsical, such as the Montgomery (Ala.) Biscuits, or the Lansing (Mich.) Lugnuts, or the Las Vegas 51s.

In this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, we learned the potential names of the Fill-in-the-Blanks. All five finalists are, well, to use a football term, this is a “fumble.” The choices:

* Flatheads. “A kind of catfish commonly found in the James River.” A bottom-feeder, in other words. Not to mention that a team called the Carolina Mudcats already plays in suburban Raleigh.

* Flying Squirrels. “Soar in Virginia.” Forget it, unless Rocky leaves Bullwinkle to become team mascot.

* Hambones. “Paying homage to Virginia ham.” Would make sense if the team was in Smithfield…sounds like a riff on the Montgomery Biscuits.

* Rock Hoppers. “People or animals on river rocks.” Not to be confused with grasshoppers or clodhoppers.

* Rhinos. Alliterative, “featuring a powerful image.” Does anyone else remember the failed attempt to get an NHL franchise in Norfolk, to be called the “Hampton Roads Rhinos”?

Fans can vote online for the winner, which will be announced Oct. 16. Too bad the date is set. The team’s owners need, to use a golf term, a “mulligan.”