Why "Cynics"?

For most of our existence, the Club simply went by the moniker "University". However a change was involuntarily enforced by the powers that be, soon after UNSW's entry to the competition.

According to '100 Years of Sydney University Baseball Club', by our historian Huw McKay:

Regular problems with playing numbers, and occasional administrative laxity, continually drew the ire of the SWBL in the late 1980s… One League meeting saw the University's lack of mascot or totem as a point of debate. With UNSW on board, "University" was not felt to be distinctive enough... the Club needed to come up with a mascot to appease the League, if only temporarily.

The brains trust - Richard de Carvalho, Phil Garrett, David Goonesena and others - took the challenge on board. Repairing to the bar at the Petersham RSL, they bent their combined intellect to the problem and came away with a masterful solution. Henceforward, University would be the "Cynics".

Armed with a lengthy oratory (similar to the Wikipedia extract below):

...the Club's delegates arrived at the next SWBL meeting to not only table this choice, but to defend it to the death. Thankfully things never got this far. The Club announced its intention, and the room went silent. The delegation began their fastidiously prepared defence, with passion in their voices and the cold light of fanaticism in their eyes. And then a voice was heard from the back - "Just let 'em have it". The motion was duly massed into the minutes and the Cynics were official.

Recall that the Petersham "Petes", Waverley "Waves", Lane Cove "Coves" and the Marrickville "Marricks" were the contemporary benchmark.