Albuquerque Isotopes: From Springfield, With Love

When the beloved Albuquerque Dukes pulled up stakes and moved to Oregon in 2000, a bereft baseball-loving populace had to wait until 2003 for a new team to take the (new) field. After a name-the-team contest, the new moniker of Albuquerque Isotopes was decided upon. The name came from from an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer leads an effort to stop his beloved Springfield Isotopes from relocating to – of all places – Albuquerque. (The irony is suffocating.) […]

Cliff’s Rocks Our World

Confession: I still sometimes call it “Uncle Cliff’s,” which is what Albuquerque’s premiere amusement park was known as when I used to nag my parents to take me there. It made for a nice, rhythmic, nag-chant – “Un-cle-CLIFF’S!, Un-cle-CLIFF’S!, Un-cle-CLIFF’S!…” (Repeat until parent relents or explodes. Either way, guaranteed entertainment.) So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star Soon after the “Uncle” was dropped from its name, Cliff’s Amusement Park commissioned a new logo from the talented Michael Doret. […]