About the prairie dogs …
29 August 2020
OK, so we have prairie dogs on our lot. Debbie thinks they’re cute and our grandkids find them interesting but they just have to go. I’ve dealt with moles in my yards in the past and being “yard people” (reference previous post) we take a lot of pride in our lawn. So having a big ass mound in my front yard is just not going to work.
Granted, and I’m sure all the nature lovers out there are going to hate me, but as we have one of the inner lots in the development I’m guessing all of the human activity will drive them out anyway. Regardless of how cute you think they might be they are pests. Local farmers and ranchers hunt them as the burrows pose a risk to farmers and livestock — ever step in a hole unexpectedly? I bet you enjoyed it … Anyway, having to put down a horse or steer due to a broken leg is not fun and represents a pretty significant financial loss. So, despite their cuteness, prairie dogs are not a welcome neighbor around here.
Now, that being said, Amarillo has a Minor League Baseball team that plays at Hodgetown Stadium. It opened in April 2019, and can seat 6,631 people. This gets me particularly pumped up as it’s right in in my wheelhouse having a career working in pro sports. The team is the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres in the Texas League and they have a strong following in Amarillo.
So how does this relate to prairie dogs I’m sure you’re asking yourself? Well, I’d imagine you got the clue that there’s a lot of them around here. So someone had a great idea to name the MiLB team after them. But they’re not the Amarillo Prairie Dogs. Now I am pretty sure it was some clever marketing genius that came up with the eventual team name in order to endear the ladies and children and make their games more of a family fan experience event (not to mention sell a LOT of colorful merchandise), but why Sod Poodles? I’d never heard that term referred to regarding prairie dogs (or ever before). Maybe it’s a local thing, who knows. Now having grown up playing sports and then working in sports, I’ve proudly worn the colors for the likes of the Bobcats, Jets, Bulldogs, Rams, Spurs, Hornets and Vikings. I’ve even been a Texan and a President (a regional thing) and I’m still not sure what a Red Wing is. But Sod Poodles?
My first reaction was “how does a sports team from Texas adopt a name like that?” I mean, this is Texas, John Wayne died in the Alamo here. And then the old athlete in me asked “could I run out onto a field with Sod Poodles written across the front of my uniform?” My family had a poodle when I was a kid, definitely not intimidating or the smartest animal on the planet. But then as I recalled other minor league baseball team names like Biscuits, Yard Goats, Nuts, Isotopes, Jumbo Shrimp, Wingnuts, Lugnuts, Rubber Ducks, Baby Cakes and Trash Pandas. And that’s just minor league baseball.
So Sod Poodles doesn’t turn out to be so bad after all and I imagine it’ll grow on me over time as they’re my local team now. Plus their logo and mascot are kind of cool. I definitely like their colors as the red and blue come right from the Texas flag and the gold comes from the their namesake. Chances are you’ll see me wearing a Sod Poodles hat or t-shirt down the road. So I guess the clever marketing genius was right all along. And at least I can take solace that I don’t have to cheer for a team called the Yard Goats or Trash Pandas …
