A rip-roaring controversy over a baseball team name with a double-entendre reference to Jack the Ripper has become a cloud with a silver lining for the team.
When the new Frontier League baseball team in London, Ont. unveiled the London Rippers as its team name this week, it triggered a huge reaction and publicity across North America.
The obvious reference to the serial killer Jack the Ripper raised the ire of the London Abused Women's Centre.
"We don't love it," Megan Walker, the centre's executive director, told CTV News. "In fact, we hate it -- and he better change it."
The target of that comment, team president and general manager David Martin, shrugged off the criticism of the name and disputed it being a reference to the notorious killer who stalked women in London, England in the late 1880s.
"Jack and ripper are terms that are used in baseball all the time," he said, basking in the publicity and adding: "In sports logos and sports branding, pushing the envelope a little bit and getting a little edgy is good."
According to the team's website, the logo, which shows a nefarious-looking man in a black top hat and cloak holding a baseball in one hand and a bat in the other, shows "Diamond Jack," a slugger who hit baseballs hard enough to "rip" open their covers.
Even city hall got involved with Mayor Joe Fontana admitting he had "serious concerns" about the name and logo and promised to talk to the owner about changing it.
"They have to make that decision," he said. "I can't force them to do anything."
The controversy quickly went viral and even drew attention from American radio commentator Rush Limbaugh who said people are too easily offended.
He told his listeners he found the story funny.
"When you tell people they can't use Indian names, what do you expect them to do?" Limbaugh said.
After meeting with the team president, the abused women's centre executive director said she had gained no assurance that he would back down although she vowed to fight to the finish.
"I will be doing everything I can with the support of this community to make sure they don't succeed," Walker said.
Still, with his brand new team about five months from taking their first "rips" at a baseball, team president Martin said he could never have hoped for better name recognition.
"Building a brand is important," he said. "This is great publicity for the team when you really think about it."
With files from The Canadian Press
