Boston's Bumbling & Buzzing Baseball History

Are you ready for some baseball history that you might not have known about? Well, sit back and get ready to learn about the Boston Bees! That’s right, you heard me correctly: the Boston Bees. Before they became the Atlanta Braves, the team we know and love went through a bit of an identity crisis.

Let's travel back to the 1930s. The Boston Braves, as they were known then, were not having a good time of it. Their glory days of 1914 were long gone, and they were struggling on the field and at the box office. They were in dire need of something to help turn things around.

Enter Emil Fuchs, the new owner of the team. Fuchs had a wild idea that he believed would save the Braves. He wanted to turn Braves Field into a greyhound dog racing track. Unfortunately, ballparks weren't allowed to be gambling facilities, so Fuchs had to abandon that plan. But he had another idea: change the name of the team.

Yes, you read that right. Fuchs believed that a new name would attract more fans and help the team turn its fortunes around. And so, in 1935, the Boston Braves became the Boston Bees.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "That's not such a crazy idea. Teams change their names all the time!" But hold on a second. This wasn't just a simple rebranding. The Bees had a new logo, new uniforms, and a new mascot. And they weren't just any bees; they were "Busy Bees," complete with a cartoon bee buzzing around on the team's logo.

Did it work? Well, let's just say that the Boston Bees didn't exactly set the world on fire. They finished the 1935 season with a record of 38-115, the second-worst winning percentage in modern baseball history. And they drew just 232,754 fans to their games that year, which was about 70,000 fewer than the previous season.

So, what went wrong? Well, for starters, changing the name of the team didn't magically make the players better. The Bees were still a bad team, and no amount of rebranding could change that. And let's be honest, "Busy Bees" isn't exactly the most intimidating name for a sports team. It's more suited to a children's cartoon.

But here's the thing: the Boston Bees had heart. They may not have been good, but they had a sense of humor about their situation. They embraced their new identity and had fun with it. And that's something that we can all appreciate.

In the end, the Bees didn't last very long. After just five seasons, they changed their name back to the Braves. But for a brief moment in baseball history, we had the Busy Bees. And that's a pretty cool thing to remember. So the next time you're watching a baseball game, take a moment to appreciate the history of the game. You never know what kind of wacky team names and logos you might have missed out on.