Let Go, [team]!

In the U.S., fans in a stadium will often take up a chant follows a standard form. For my hapless favorite baseball team, it would go:

Let’s go, Pa- dres! – clap, clap, clap-clap-clap

Where the typesetting above indicates higher and lower pitch. In the case of the Padres, it works pretty well. The team name has the right number of syllables and a good hard consonant in the middle to kick the last syllable.

Last night I was watching a hockey game played in Minnesota. The name of the team is the Wild. Inevitably came the chant:

Let’s go, Wi- ld!

ld? The cheer finishes weakly. It’s still fun, and there are plenty of other teams with a similar problem, so at first I didn’t think much of it. But then I thought of the actual content of the cheer. “Let’s go, Bruins!” is a nice way to motivate your team, but in Minnesota they have a unique opportunity. The cheer says, “Let’s go wild!” That actually adds a new dimension. When they cheer, there should be a little wildness.

My humble proposals:

Let’s go WILD!

or, even better (or at least wilder):

Let’s go WIIIIIIIILD!,

warbling so the arena’s rafters shake with the sound of an attack by a horde of cartoon saracens.

Let’s go, Wild fans! Get wild!

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