Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 2, 1995                   TAG: 9503020053
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT'S JUST A GAME, BUT TEAM NEEDS A NAME

Rival investor groups hoping to score a major league baseball team for Northern Virginia submitted their choices for a team name to baseball officials on Wednesday.

One group wants to call its team the Virginia Generals. The other wants to keep their idea a secret, but says the team name would start with ``Virginia.''

``We're the Generals because we're take-charge guys,'' said Bart S. Fisher, the head of Capital Baseball Inc.

Virginia produced lots of famous generals, starting with George Washington, Fisher points out. ``It has history ... and it shows leadership.''

Virginia Baseball Club Inc. set up a toll-free number that asked callers to vote for their favorites among the Virginia Fury, the Diamonds, the Gray Sox, the Bats or the Monuments. Callers could also make their own suggestions.

``The name we submitted is not necessarily one of those,'' listed, said Virginia Baseball spokesman Mike Scanlon. ``We got some pretty good suggestions from the fill-in-the-blank section.''

Scanlon said his group might spill the beans next week, when baseball owners meet in Florida. In addition to the continuing strike, the owners will take up expansion plans.

One sure thing: The team won't be the Washington Senators. The oft-maligned American League team decamped the region for Texas 24 years ago, leaving greater Washington without major league baseball ever since.

``They lost a lot. We want to win,'' Fisher said.

The Generals name already is trademarked by a North Carolina minor league team, which Fisher said doesn't bother him. ``We expect to be challenged, but we expect to prevail.''

Scanlon said his group's mystery selection is not trademarked by anyone else.

It will be years, if ever, before fans wave pennants for the Generals or any other Virginia team.

Northern Virginia is one of four regions competing for a franchise.

Owners could announce as early as next week two sites chosen for teams that will begin play in 1998. Phoenix and the Tampa/St. Petersburg area of Florida are heavy favorites for those franchises.