The internet loves certain things: rooting for an underdog, poking at humorless institutions, and coming up with .
A flap over the name of Grand Junction鈥檚 minor league baseball team has all those elements in spades, which probably explains how it took over the internet this week.
It all started earlier this year when Ian Lummis decided he was underwhelmed with his hometown team鈥檚 name and logo. The Grand Junction Rockies, he said, lacked creativity and local flair. He took to Twitter to let the team know how he felt. The name suits the team鈥檚 big brother on the Front Range, Lummis said, but didn鈥檛 speak to Grand Junction鈥檚 unique character.
Inspired by regionally-specific minor league baseball teams like the , the , the and the , Lummis and friends brainstormed a new name, landing on one of the four endangered fish species that call the Colorado River home: the humpback chub, a grumpy-looking fish fond of swift water canyons.
鈥淗umpback chub for me definitely fit,鈥� Lummis said. 鈥淲hat I was looking for was just a kind of crazy name for Grand Junction to have on its minor league team.鈥�
At first, the team鈥檚 Twitter account demurred, joking with Lummis about the name change. But when he kept tweeting about it, the team blocked him.
鈥淭hey initially thought I was just trying to troll them, which I鈥檓 really not,鈥� Lummis said. 鈥淚 definitely think it鈥檚 a funny name and I laugh at it. But I genuinely would love to see them change the name and be a little more unique.鈥�
Having received an influx of tweets asking for a change to the Humpback Chubs, the Rockies鈥� twitter account Thursday sent out two sternly-worded messages.
鈥淪uggesting we would be called the GJ 鈥楥hubs鈥� is offensive and a slang sexual term for erection,鈥� read one now deleted tweet from the Rockies鈥� account. A follow up tweet stated the team is committed to 鈥渇amily fun entertainment鈥� and that any accounts that encouraged the name change would be blocked.
Those tweets just added more fuel to the internet fire. Articles started popping up almost immediately. By the end of the day 鈥淐hubs鈥� was trending on Twitter.
Lummis says he鈥檚 happy his effort has garnered so much publicity. A friend has already whipped up a makeshift logo for the nonexistent team, and Lummis said he鈥檚 planning to put it on T-shirts. has more than 2,600 signatures as of publication.
For their part, the Grand Junction Rockies鈥� seem like they鈥檇 just like the whole ordeal to go away. After deleting their tweets about supposed sexual innuendo, it went back to merch giveaways announcements.
In an email, Rockies鈥� president Joe Kubly dismissed the name change effort.
鈥淲e are not changing our team name and will not consider changing it, that is the only comment we have to make for this matter,鈥� Kubly wrote.
Another Colorado minor league team rebranding late last year and drew cheers and jeers from internet commenters. Colorado Springs鈥� team rebranded as the Rocky Mountain Vibes, with Toasty, an anthropomorphized s鈥檓ore as its mascot.
This story is part of a project covering the Colorado River, produced by KUNC and supported through a Walton Family Foundation grant. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial content.
