FinsUp1214

Yeah it's not required, but it also makes sense considering the target market. Every team seems to include during identity reveals how they wanted to "market to kids and families" or something similarly delivered (while it may not always be those words, it's the same idea). And the most effective way to market to kids is with cartoons and/or whimsy. I'm not saying it should be the rule, but it's not something I'm shocked or appalled by either. It comes with the territory you're marketing to, and has for years.

Fond Du Lac Dock Spiders. What a freakin' mouthful. Spiders would've sufficed just fine. At least the logos are fairly good.

And this one looks even more so like Rizzo, if you ask me:

As I said earlier in the thread: the closer you get to New Orleans, the better the cake The great ones have tons of flavor, between the cinnamon and the sugar/frosting. I always thought of them as more festive cinnamon rolls on steroids.

Haha! ? Even my sock color of choice is grey, too!

Looking at all those King Cake pictures makes me really miss them. Utah definitely doesn't have them. I remember a friend of mine who lived near Gulfport used to get really good ones at a place in Picayune, MS (right by the MS/LA border on the way to New Orleans). I wish I could remember what the name of it was, but dang. The nearer you got to New Orleans, the better the cake it seemed. The ones I had in Slidell were pretty good, but we just got them at Rouse's Market. There were, in retrospect, probably better places I could've gone Anyways, letting the identity sit another day...and I'll be honest, I still love the logos and colors (and I did buy a cap last night; the one with just the baby head and crown). I do still hate the name and think the uniforms could use a fair bit of work (that road wordmark could do without the beads hanging from it, for starters). But all in all, the logos and colors do more to salvage what it can out of the identity than the Jumbo Shrimp or Firefrogs do. Of Brandiose's projects this summer - when you take names out of the equation completely - I think New Orleans' is one of the more favorable. No, it doesn't make up for the name; only a different name can do that. But it is something positive to me out of a negative.

So one of my close friends from New Orleans just posted an article about the name change on Facebook with the caption "I can't even say anything about this". And that's not even close to what I've read on the team's Facebook page already! Social media is NOT being kind to Baby Cakes at all.

Correct. The babies themselves are referred to as "King Cake Babies".

Alright....I'm really "ack!" with the name, but there's actually a lot of good in this package aside from the name, in my mind. The colors are spot on. I hope was hoping if they did go "Baby Cakes", that the colorway would be Mardi Gras influenced, or else it'd flat out not work. So that's a plus. The other color plus? Using all three Mardi Gras colors as accents rather than one a primary and the other two secondary. They look great against navy, and I think that sort of color delegation was brilliant. The logos (again, we're talking strictly logos here without regard to name) all convey some sort of New Orleans/SE Louisiana imagery and look more to be a complete, cohesive package in the same class as Brandiose's past winners. Between the beads, baby, crown, colors, King Cake, pelican, etc., this really looks like New Orleans. This is certainly a much, much better effort by Brandiose than Jacksonville and the like. Yes, the name stinks. Absolutely stinks. I'll probably want to think of them as "New Orleans Baseball Club" or even still the "Zephyrs" anyway. But in my mind and having lived in the area before, everything else in the package wins. I'll be buying a cap soon.

I've been all excited for New Orleans' reveal in the last few minutes, only to realize I have my time zones mixed up and that Louisiana is one hour difference from Utah, not two. Still excited for 4:30 here, then! Having formerly lived in the outer New Orleans area (in Slidell), I'm paying special attention to this one. I've always loved the area, have a sort of "home team" anticipation towards this reveal, and hope the hopefully-still-Zephyrs nail it. Unless they go with Red Eyes, which I think is the worst name in the list, I think there's some good that could be made out of the remaining names. Zephyrs is ideal of course, and I'm crossing fingers and toes for it, but I could genuinely see something decent made out of Tailgators or Night Owls. Even Baby Cakes could at least produce a fun little bat-wielding baby! (I stretched that last one a bit...trying to think positive here! )

I think the thing that ended up downing the 90's Brewers sets was that it needed some sort of nod to brewing in their imagery in order to be "enough" after departing from the ball-in-glove. As it was, though the "MB" and script had Germanic influence to fit Milwaukee, that was really all it had going for it and it just wasn't enough to make a successful identity out of. It's a shame too, because I actually really liked the colors and text. I even kinda liked the "MB". It just seriously needed the barrelman on the sleeves or even a hint of barley somewhere. If it had either-or-both, I really think it would've propelled it from a decent identity to an awesome one. That's not to say every team has to have something in their identity that literally ties to their nickname - the Giants, among others, do just fine - but in the Brewers case having departed from an iconic logo, that's exactly what was needed to, I guess, "make up for it". Thats why I think (admittedly, unpopularly haha) this current set succeeds in my opinion; that little bit of barley in the identity nods to the industry just enough to make the identity seem complete. It fills the void the 90's identity always had.

I don't know, that's honestly the uniform I see first when I think of Carlos Delgado.

I always thought it was kind of neat when a team would share a name with their affiliate, but make their own identity out of it. The old Provo Angels were a great example of that: Not saying it was a perfect uniform - I wouldn't have had both "Provo" and "Angels" on the jersey, for starters - but I do like that they did their own thing with the name rather than wearing a letter-modified copy of (then) Anaheim's uniform. Infact, they've looked more like the Angels since becoming the Orem Owlz* than they ever did as the Provo Angels. *Yes, ridiculous name, I know. Not every Utahan is keen on the state's "Z" obsession.

It's okay, but I think Mets colors would have been better. RWB seems like an odd choice.

I think you're right on the Reading point. That was, actually, the first time a Brandiose project came out where I thought "okay, this is a bit much, guys." It really does seem to be the start of the descent when you look at their timeline.

I'd always been a huge Brandiose fan from the start, having loved the Lakeland Flying Tigers, Frisco Roughriders, and Spokane Indians identities among others. But I do feel they've come to a point where their, I guess, "shtick" is running out. It was all great and fresh at the start, but now that it's been a solid few years and many, many teams later, their products seem more spawned out of desperate brainstorming than brilliant creativity. The Lakeland Flying Tigers are a polished, sharp, cohesive, and professionally fun identity with purpose; the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are merely an overwhimsical cry for attention.

Beautiful matchup. And I think it got even better after Minnesota changed.

Couldn't have said it better, Gothamite. I too love a little goofiness and whimsy in the minor leagues, but ditching "Suns" for "Jumbo Shrimp" is Ballmer-crazy. Back to Lynchburg...I can't help but look at that whole identity - especially the primary and the wordmark - and think "football". It all looks better suited for a football identity than it does a baseball one. Not saying you need a neon hillcat swinging a bat, but these just for some reason don't look like they "fit". Cool colors and not bad marks, but as a whole for what it is, I don't think this to be one of Brandiose's better jobs. There's much better directions they could've taken with that wordmark especially.

On today's episode of "Things I Unpopularly Love But Don't Know What to Say To Defend It": I love this uniform, and think it's by far the best the Brewers have ever looked. My reasoning really does amount to, simply, "I just love how it all looks and prefer it". Though the ball-in-glove is a good logo and clever, I do also think it's really overrated and I don't really want to see it replace this set. I won't go so far as to say it'd be a bad idea because if it's what the fans overwhelmingly want, then that's that. But should this eventually go by the wayside, I'll definitely be one of the handful to really miss it.

This one's still my all-time favorite. Just seeing these make me feel like a kid again.

Luis Aparicio with the Red Sox is weird: To me, he's one of those guys that has two "right" uniforms (White Sox first, Orioles second). The Red Sox, not so much.

This cap: Is wayyyyyy better than this cap: And while I'm still thinking of the A's - although these are indeed the wrong colors for them - thier first Kansas City uniforms were absolutely beautiful:

A Greg Maddux Padres double-whammy: This set: AND the '84 throwbacks:

I knew this thread was here somewhere! I hope this stat line is worthy of a nearly-year bump, but I found it really interesting. It's been easy for me as a history junkie to compare Clayton Kershaw to Sandy Koufax; two insanely dominant left-handed Dodger aces that are the premier pitchers of their time. What surprised me in comparing the two is how close a few of their stats are. I focused mostly on avg per 162 game season stats because Koufax still has the longer career by 3 seasons at this point (though some overall career stats are fairly close, though). Where they're identical Average W-L per 162 games: 16-8 Cy Youngs: 3 MVPs: 1 Where they're close Avg. Hits allowed per 162 games: Kershaw 167, Koufax 168 Career Win Pct.: Kershaw .677, Koufax .655 Avg Strikeouts per 162 games: Kershaw 247, Koufax 229 Avg. IP per 162 games: Kershaw 227, Koufax 222 Avg. GS per 162 games: Kershaw 34, Koufax 30 Career ERA titles: Kershaw 4, Koufax 5 Aside of course from the obvious difference in World Series titles, it's fascinating to see how close their careers have turned out to be. Yes, he needs a ring at the very least (but more likely two or three) to get on Koufax's overall level, but hey, there's still time.

I'm on your side also. Orange-white-orange was okay, but orange-brown-orange was/is overboard. One of those "just because you can doesn't mean you should" sort of deals in my book.