RichO

And keep in mind within this concept that MLB a lot of these "leftover" teams will end up in the "Dream League" pool where undrafted players would play. Which is also, itself would be a pretty firm attack on Indy ball as it exists now.

I don't know that Deadspin readers are all that loyal to any particular writers but I would expect they're loyal to the tone/voice/ethos/whatever you want to call it of Deadspin.

The thing that always kills me about Rays attendance is that their local TV numbers are fine, so it's not like they're completely unsupported. 

Seems like they're setting up a race between the two cities- first one to budge and actually build a ballpark gets the team. Ever innovative, the Rays have moved to squeezing 2 cities at once.

2 hours ago, Derek said:

The tail on the Y is a bit heavy-handed on the jersey.

Reference to the NDY statues the tourism folks put up around town a few years ago, but it doesn't quite look right in this application.

https://www.visitindy.com/indianapolis-ndy

On 3/13/2019 at 4:14 PM, Earl said:

 

This is the logo of an evil company in an action movie

 I hate everything

Now imagine if the name wasn't galactically stupid.

Prairie Dogs? Nah, gotta put a twist on it for no actual reason. 

Fatbacks does flow better. The downside is lack of staying power- they'll just change the name in a few years when the food name trend is over and merch isn't moving as well.

14 hours ago, the admiral said:

Mets really doesn't work at any level between the majors and Rookie/Instructional/Short-Season A. Good old metropolitan Binghamton.

Hey! There's a metropolitan Binghamton. Just ask the Census Bureau.

Binghamton Metropolitan Area

On 1/3/2018 at 12:24 PM, charger77 said:

But what is the right uniform for Kurt Russell?

27 minutes ago, bartodell said:

Is this real?

Looks it's just a good old fashioned Indy League play for attention.

But a damn good one. Cards Against Humanity Saves Baseball

18 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

 

 

It's just a matter of presenting a product honestly.  Something should "do what it says on the tin", as the English say.  An affilliated minor league team is there for one purpose: to identify prospects and to prepare them for the use of the Major League club, either as players or as assets in trades.  While I get that there is some potential money to be made by obscuring this fact, that is hardly a thing to be embraced or celebrated.  Luring customers on false pretenses is not a legitimate business model.  

 

If "the money's not there if you're not unique", then perhaps Major League clubs should end the practice of offloading the responsibilities of running minor league teams to local "owners", and should begin owning and subsidising these teams themselves.

And, from the standpoint of aesthetics, it is clear that tying a minor league team's identity to its Major League parent club in no way limits the creativity that can go into the team's logo and uniforms.  One cannot look at the pictures above and seriously assert that a landscape with uniforms and caps such as those is "sterile".

 

While it's true that the trend in baseball is going away from the idea described here, I am pleased to see that the trend in basketball is towards this direction.

Ok, I see the perspective now. Don't really agree with it because the entire relationship is open and no one is actually being dishonest about or obscuring the relationships between the ML and Minor team. And the relationship between the customer and the team is independent of the affiliation. People buying tickets don't care who's stocking the roster. They're supporting the local baseball business, and like knowing there's going to be a couple guys on the field who'll actually make it to the Majors.

Given the periodic churn of affiliation,there's an argument that local ownership/naming is actually more honest by projecting more accurate level of permanence to the local team.than naming based on the ML organization. The existence of the team isn't predicated on the affiliation. Just because the Pirates aren't going to be affiliated with the Small City Donut Bunnies anymore, the operation will continue to exist, but with Brewers players.

In the end, I'll take the less sterile path.

21 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

You are correct; I was mistaken in asserting that most D-League teams share the parent club's nickname.

However, I mentioned in my previous message that the desireable thing is that the minor league team's identity be based on that of the parent club.  So those teams D-League with the same nicknames, combined with those teams with derivative nicknames, do indeed constitute a majority of the league (17 out of 26, or 17 out of 27 when the Go-Go begin).

 

If the Tampa Yankees had become the Tampa Pinstripes or the Tampa Bambinos (Bambini?), that would've been fine, as that would not break the link in the team's identification with its parent club.

(This is why I liked when the Yankees' top farm club was the Columbus Clippers.  This team was not founded with the Yankee Clipper in mind, as it was affilliated with the Pirates at its founding.  But its name took on a strong association with the Yankees, and probably should have been dropped when the team's affilliation changed.)

Why is that desirable at all? I guess from a top-down perspective it makes it easy to identify, but you only really need to pay attention to where your favorite team has affiliates. It's not like being able to glance at minor league standings and know whose team is what tells you anything remotely useful about other teams' player development. Meanwhile for minor league owners it has to help to have a little local identification for the team, and sell a little merch along the way while affiliation agreements are on 2 year cycles (though everyone involved prefers stability there).

 I can't figure out how there is any actual benefit for anyone to this thing you think is optimal and just results in a very sterile baseball world.

Ready to play opening day. And pretty much any other game, tbh

3 hours ago, tron1013 said:

Over/under on how long it will take for a local news reporter to inadvertently call the team the Gwinnett Strippers on air? A cross-promotion with the Clermont Lounge would be hilarious as well. 

At the start of every season they're going to have to explain this to the team because I'd guess half the roster would call them the Strippers otherwise.

He had more of his peak in the Black Jays, but other than the #52, I'm not totally sold on the wrongness of those for Halladay. He had his breakthrough and first Cy Young in those uniforms before the change.

1 hour ago, charger77 said:

Haaave you met Ted?

On 1/14/2017 at 7:22 AM, Seadragon76 said:

I had an old game that was based on March Madness... it was a simulation style game where you rolled multiple dies to score the game.

 

I wonder if I can find it on Google...

Was this the one? March Madness by Avalon Hill

I had this.

A good chunk of paper route money went to various Avalon Hill sports games. Statis Pro Baseball, Superstar Baseball, Statis Pro Basketball, and Bowl Bound.

The Trappers and HorseHeads have affiliated minor league quality logos in a summer college league universe where I basically expect clip art.

10 minutes ago, WSU151 said:

 

Those two Wallaces look nothing alike.

 

Rasheed played on the Bullets in 95-96

 

Ben played on the Bullets in 96-97.

Yep. I got hung up on the 30 and ignored the obvious.

21 minutes ago, kimball said:

I spot this in another thread, but what caught my eye was Chris Webber's jersey compared to Ben Wallace (I believe it's him since JR Rider is on Portland). I believe this was a pre-season game since the Bullets did this with their numbers and NOB during that time frame during the 90s. 

 

My brain went to early career Sheed. But WSU set me straight below.

Cast my vote for Buttons on the off chance they care about the votes. Even plugged in a local zip in case they bother to check that.

Anything but red or white is wrong on MJ.

Also, that the shorts didn't have the diamond was an egregious error.

42 minutes ago, BrianLion said:

^ Don't forget..

 

 

 

 

the least likable guy in the world on the most beloved team of all time...

 

 

The wrongest Laettner jersey of them all.