ATHLETICS, Bees, Browns, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Indians, 1< Phillies, Pirates, Reds, Red Sox, Senators, Tigers, White Sox, YankeesI These nicknames of the sixteen major league baseball teams have become household words throughout the nation and are as typically American as the national pastime itself. They flash across the sports pages of thousands of newspapers almost the year round and are in the minds and on the tongues of millions of men, women and children in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. There are good reasons for the popularity of these sobriquets. They are a boon to newspaper headline writers, for they serve as helpful synonyms to fit space requirements. They are colorful, 'technical,' and authoritative terms in baseball conversation and baseball writing. They avoid confusion and save words when referring to a team in a city that has representatives in both leagues-Giants in any baseball fan's language means the New Y4rk National League club, and Yankees, or Yanks, means the New York American League club. How did these nicknames originate? Several were coined by newspapermen; some sprang from the enthusiastic comment of fans. Princeton University was indirectly responsible for one, and an 'act of piracy' for another. A few go back to another century, and one is as modern as 1936.