New Name Catching On With Tacoma Fans

Jan Plein, who now answers the phone with, "Tacoma Rainiers," says reaction to the new name for the PCL ballclub was "100 percent positive" after the change was made official.

"We had a few people call to complain last week, along with a lot of support," said Plein, the club receptionist. "But today, now that it's official, there have been no complaints."

Plein said negative feelings ran along two lines; that Rainiers was a name Seattle usurped for its baseball team years ago, or that the connection to the brewing company of the same name would lead to more beer at Cheney Stadium.

"I can't say much to them about their `Seattle' problem with our name," she said. "But I assure them that our ballpark is not going to turn into a beer hall. Cheney Stadium is still going to be a great place to bring the family to a ballgame."

Dave Bean engineered the change from "Tigers" as the club changed both its logo and colors, and affiliation, as Class AAA farm team of the Seattle Mariners.

"The actual logo is the same as that of the 1955 Seattle Rainiers, their last PCL champions," Bean said. "It has Mount Rainier in navy blue with the name in teal below it, Mariner colors."

Bean said his club will deal with the advertising situation that prevented the Mariners from changing to "Rainiers" several years ago - other malt beverage companies will not advertise with them.

Instead, the Rainiers are in negotiaitions with G. Heileman Co. of Chicago, owners of Rainier Brewing, on an advertising setup.

"We will still serve several other beers at the park," Bean said. "But if this deal goes through the only malt beverage products we will advertise are those made by Rainier. People who are concerned about an increase in beer ads at the park should be relieved we will probably cut back."