Funny Business: February

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A Team To Go Nuts Over

For 30 years, Modesto had been a California League “farm club” for the Oakland A’s, which last year dropped its working agreement with the local club to hook up with the Stockton Ports.
    The Ports, also a California League team, launches its 2005 season in brand new Banner Island Ballpark, on the city’s channel riverfront.
    That left Modesto, which has had a minor league team since the 1940s, to shift and search for another major league alliance, finally working out a two-year deal with the Colorado Rockies. 
    The Modesto Rockies didn’t have the right ring, so more than 3,000 locals (52 percent) in a “name the team” contest picked another handle for the home team. This year, fans will be rooting for: the Modesto Nuts. Second place favorite name: Dusters, with 34 percent of the vote. Other finalists: “Steel,” “Derailers” and “Strike.” Overall top vote-getter: “None of the above” (53 percent).
    Will the old but remodeled John Thurman Field berenamed The Nut House? Fortunately, fans did not weigh in on that matter so the class act remains unscathed.
    Modesto is the seat of Stanislaus County, which produces almond and walnut crops worth about $300 million annually.
    “Crack ’em!” “Smash ’em!” “Go, Nuts!” — A.G.

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