|
The issue with using the team nickname as part of the abbreviation, at least for real-world teams, is that team nicknames can and do change. Which in turn means the abbreviation should change when the nickname changes. NYY is fine for the New York Yankees, except that the Yankees haven't always been called the Yankees. The Boston Red Sox haven't always been called the Red Sox; the Boston Braves weren't always called the Braves; the Philadelphia Phillies weren't always the Phillies (at least, not officially). And so on.
The Retrosheet system, for what it's worth, sidesteps this issue by using abbreviations which are based on the location part of a team's name, and ignoring the nickname part.
|