I Get It

I caught a few minutes of yesterday's Spring Training game between the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox from Lakeland, Florida. The Detroits have spring training in Lakeland. The Lakeland Flying Tigers are a minor league affiliate of their parent club. Their mascot is a tiger named Southpaws.

That tickles me on a couple levels. One, the actual Detroit Tigers mascot is a tiger called Paws. So it makes sense for a team affiliate from Florida, well south of Detroit, to be called Southpaws. Plus, it's a reference to baseball lore. Southpaws are left handed pitchers, because the original tendencies were to have ballparks set up so that batters faced east. Pitchers thus faced west when on the mound, placing their left arms on the south side of their bodies. Southpaws.

So we have Paws and Southpaws. I like it.