Padres to Change Name
Hope to gain increased recognition with Los Angeles title

SAN DIEGO, CA - The Padres baseball franchise has announced that they will change their name from the San Diego Padres to the Los Angeles Padres of San Diego, in an attempt to garner increased public recognition and a larger fan base.

The move follows a name change by the Anahiem Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Padres owner, John Moores, has stated that the Angels name change gave him the idea. "Let face it, there are only 2 million people in San Diego, but there are more than 10 million in LA county. If we can get just half of those people as fans, thats still more than twice the number of fans we could have in just San Diego," said Moores.

Moores said he also hopes that the name change will bring greater public recognition of the team from the rest of the country. "In this geographically-challenged nation, hardly anyone farther away than Imperial County knows where San Diego is anymore. It's best if we can be identified with the largest nearby major city." Added Moores, "everyone knows where LA is."

Unlike the city of Anaheim, which is suing the Angels franchise over their name change, the City of San Diego is apparently happy to see the Padres change their name. Said San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy, "for years, we here in San Diego have been trying to build a reputation as a major international tourist city. Now that people will no longer associate that third-rate baseball team with us, we'll have a chance. We just need to do something about the Chargers."

F.U. News has learned that name changes under consideration by other baseball franchises include the Los Angeles Rockies of Denver, New York Diamondbacks of Arizona, and the Hollywood Braves of Atlanta.