Professional hockey is returning to San Diego (woo hoo!), and the team just announced that they’re going to call themselves the Gulls, again. The Gulls, incidentally, was the name of the last minor league hockey team in San Diego.

Is anyone as baffled as I am by a local team choosing the seagull as its mascot? I mean, okay, seagulls are pretty much ubiquitous throughout San Diego, but they’re also universally despised. They’re smelly, mean, and really kind of a nuisance, especially when you’re just trying to eat your lunch outside.

If we’re going to use this logic, I’d like to offer up some other potential minor league names for Southern California:

• The San Diego Sunburn
• The San Diego Drought
• The San Diego Tourists
• The Los Angeles Smog
• The Los Angeles Traffic
• The Orange County Silicone

Okay, maybe that last one isn’t universally despised….