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MLB: The Defunct Saga - Bibliography Added


SFGiants58

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27 minutes ago, BellaSpurs said:

So the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels/Anaheim Angels/California Angels might add Long Beach Angels to their list of names? Or would it still be Los Angeles,or maybe they go back to California Angels. Also they could go to Orange County Angels


Long Beach is still Los Angeles County.  So it's feasible that they either kept the LA Angels name or became the California Angels as they did in our universe.

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Sorry for my lack of updates, guys. Writer's/designer's block hit me hard for this one. You'll soon see why. I'd like to thank @MJD7 for helping me out of it.

 

On 2/18/2019 at 10:53 AM, BellaSpurs said:

Would love to see a realistic bird update for the O’s in my opinion it’s their best look. The cartoon bird is largely overrated 

 

Thanks, and while I get where you're coming from, I really don't like the ornithologically-correct bird. I get the appeal of it, but I've never been fond of it. I might do something with it down the line, but that's for another day. 

 

On 2/19/2019 at 12:05 PM, MJD7 said:

The Pirates x Nationals combination isn’t my favorite personally, but you definitely did all you could while maintaining the color balance you desired, which I understand. 

 

The Orioles x Nationals does better at balancing out the colors without being muddy, mostly because you have more to work with and can afford to bring in more blue. I especially love the home uniforms, the sock design, as well as the George Washington logo and updated King Louie. 

 

Great job as always!

 

Thanks!

 

On 2/24/2019 at 2:28 PM, teeray01 said:

The Boston Braves were renamed the Boston Bees from 1936 to 1941 and The Philadelphia Phillies were briefly known as the Philadelphia Blue Jays in the 1940's.  And before the Cleveland Indians were the Cleveland Spiders.  Would love to see your version of these.

On 2/24/2019 at 5:50 PM, Raptorman415 said:

I was reading up on old Lexington Park in St. Paul, Minnesota and found out that the Chicago White Sox almost played in St. Paul as the Saints in 1901. Just thought it would be interesting to see your take on another team.

 

http://www.projectballpark.org/tc/lexington.html

 

Thanks! While those are good ideas to explore, they don't really fit the purview of this series. I kind of have a hard "only post-1950" rule, one that I probably won't break anytime soon. The Philadelphia Blue Jays was only a logo, while the name didn't really change. If you want a Bees concept (albeit for Salt Lake), @MJD7 made an excellent one in this link. The Spiders might be a good idea if I do a Cleveland rebranding thread, while the St. Paul Saints might be a decent design for another thread (like this one, by @seasaltvanilla). 

 

On 2/26/2019 at 9:27 AM, coco1997 said:
On 3/1/2019 at 2:01 AM, BellaSpurs said:

So the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels/Anaheim Angels/California Angels might add Long Beach Angels to their list of names? Or would it still be Los Angeles,or maybe they go back to California Angels. Also they could go to Orange County Angels

On 3/1/2019 at 2:30 AM, NicDB said:


Long Beach is still Los Angeles County.  So it's feasible that they either kept the LA Angels name or became the California Angels as they did in our universe.

 

That's funny that you guys should mention this. According to @Brian in Boston, Gene Autry was going to get a stadium built in Long Beach for the 1966 season. However, city officials wanted the team to be the "Long Beach Angels," to which Autry didn't agree.  I might do a "Long Beach Angels" concept within the next few, since I'm filling in a bunch of ones I skipped over to get to Tampa Bay. 

 

If the Angels do move to Long Beach (very unlikely), I doubt the adopt the "Long Beach Angels" name. Long Beach officials are wiser to the situation now than they were in 1966, as Long Beach doesn't have the "Orange Curtain" excuse of Anaheim.

 

On 3/1/2019 at 1:15 AM, Bmac said:

This is perhaps the most creative concept series I've seen during my 10+ years on this message board. Everything is so incredibly thought out and intentional, right down to the last detail. Amazing work.

 

Thank you so much! You're old template has been fantastic to me, as I've been using it since I started. It's flexibility and customizability has led me down many creative and experimental paths.  

 

Anyway, time for the main feature!

 

VIRGINIA FURY - The flames of frustration

 

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I didn’t think I’d run into a name that’d be worse than Minnesota Wild, Rocky Mountain Xtreme, or any number of 1996 MLS names. I was wrong.

 

This wonderful idea for a team sobriquet came from an attempt by Virginia telecom executive William “Bill” Collins III, who came up with a plan to build a stadium in Northern Virginia (near Dulles Airport, “three in Fairfax County, two in Loudoun” - this is a Stadium Page link to a Loudoun County concept from the 2000s, during the discussion to bring the Expos over to the DC Metro Area) to act as a de-facto team for the District of Columbia. The team would start play at RFK before moving to their new digs, much like the current Nationals.1

 

However, problems emerged for the team that would have been known as the “Virginia Fury.” While they were one of the four finalists for the 1998 expansion at the time of the 1995 proceedings (with Tampa Bay, Phoenix, and Orlando), they lost out to the Tampa Bay-Phoenix duo (I get why, as the Diamondbacks group had a plan for a modern stadium and Naimoli had the threat of litigation).2 

 

Collins then turned his attention to buying the Astros from Drayton McLane. The Astros had lost $65 million over the past three seasons, while also playing in the outdated Astrodome. McLane expressed great interest in moving his team, orchestrating a $150 million deal to sell the team, whereupon Collins would move them to DC/Northern Virginia. Unfortunately for Collins, the owners (not just Peter Angelos trying to claim the market) and Bud Selig opposed leaving the Houston market. McClane would ultimately use this experience to blackmail the city of Houston into helping him build Minute Maid Park. The then-recent loss of the Oilers was also a key motivating factor for the efforts to build the new park.3

 

There’s also some doubt about whether or not he was serious about this name. To quote this article:

 

Quote

"That was never a real suggestion," he said. "Major League Baseball was pressing us for a name and a logo so they could start marketing immediately if we got the franchise, and we came up with Fury. The logo had a horse jumping through a big 'V' as I recall."

 

He then goes on to mention how “Washington Nationals” was one of the top-ten names considered.4

 

So, what if MLB picked Washington for the 1998 expansion? Or, what if McClane sold the Astros to Collins, becoming one of the most hated men in Houston since Bud Adams and the Candyman?5 What if the Fury had gotten past MLB Properties, thereby gaining the worst name in Big Four sports?

 

While I learned about the horse proposal after I designed the concept, I figured that it wouldn’t really change my approach. Horse imagery would be too similar to the various concepts created for the 1997 Broncos’ redesign. Besides, wouldn’t an equine name better suit a team with a horse in their logo? So, I opted for the “fury” of flames. I figured it’d be the best representation of that emotion while keeping with mid-1990s aesthetics. 

 

The central font of the whole design is Risk Everything by Nike, with some modifications for width. It bears a decent resemblance to the Jazz’s contemporaneous font, which made it perfect for the concept. The color scheme is a ‘90s take on black/red, with both metallic gold accents and two shades of orange for the flame designs. These flames appear on the wordmarks and cap insignia in a manner similar to the 1996-2004 Jazz’s designs. 

 

The primary mark is a roundel with the insignia and the fire pattern in front of baseball stitching. The secondary is the cap logo on its own, while the tertiary is a roundel with the home wordmark and a flame pattern (borrowed from the Calgary Flames) on top.

 

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The uniforms make use of 1980s/90s thick striping to show off the color scheme, while also employing red-billed caps to get a co-balance of black and red. The number font is MLB Block, with three layers (Risk Everything’s numerals did not respond well to multiple outlines), while I opted for condensed NOB lettering. 

 

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The alternates include a red shirt with red caps, undersleeves, belts, and socks. The black road jersey has the insignia on the chest and the tertiary on the sleeve.

 

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These alternates would only exist if they were an Astros offshoot and not an expansion squad. They adapt both the full and sleeve-type tequila sunrise for the Fury. Unlike my attempt to emulate these uniforms for the Railmen, I made sure to include white cleats.

 

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The main jacket feature plenty of details, such as gold shoulder inserts and flames on the lower part of the red sleeves. There’s also an Astros-type jacket, which reuses my Project 32 Astros’ template.

 

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I’m very glad that this didn’t go through. The Navy Yard is a far better site for a stadium than the outskirts of Dulles Airport, while both the name and the idea of the Astros relocating are both terrible. Still, I’d like to think I made the most of a poor pitch. C+C is appreciated, as always!

 

Up next, we head to NorCal for a twofer.
 

1 Mark Maske, “PHOENIX, TAMPA-ST. PETE LOOK LIKE LOCKS,” Washington Post, January 2, 1995, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1995/01/22/phoenix-tampa-st-pete-look-like-locks/271474e9-ae7b-4384-8645-6a6ec50283d8/.

2 Ronald Blum (Associated Press), “COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS PHOENIX AND TAMPA BAY,” Greensboro News and Record, March 7, 1995, https://www.greensboro.com/committee-recommends-phoenix-and-tampa-bay/article_fc17c048-4b69-5289-82b1-ea4742c0674c.html.

3 Scott S. Allen, “The Washington Astros? Relocating to D.C. Was on the Table in 1995,” The Washington Post - D.C. Sports Blog, November 2, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2017/11/02/the-washington-astros-relocating-to-d-c-was-on-the-table-in-1995/.

4 The Washington Times, “Forget about the Fury Here Come the Nats (Maybe)!,” The Washington Times, March 31, 2003, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/mar/31/20030331-090316-3265r/.

5 Author’s Note: If you didn’t get that reference, you haven’t heard about one of the most horrifying serial killers in American history, Houston’s Dean Corll. The Last Podcast on the Left produced an excellent four-part series on the Candyman. It’s rage-inducing how much the Houston PD screwed up in handling the missing persons’ reports and the excavation of bodies from the dump sites. Dan Cummins also did a good episode on Dean Corll for Timesuck.

 

Edited by SFGiants58
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I think you should keep the Fury wordmark the same as on the homes, regardless of what color jersey you apply it to.  

But that's my lone nitpick.  I love everything about this... particularly the way you created a gradient that isn't really a gradient.  Everything about this is so perfectly 90s that I can imagine this team coming up on the select screen for Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball.  Great job!

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Eugh, this name stinks. This is a 90s team name, through and through. Had it survived through the first decade of the new millennium, I'm sure without a shadow of a doubt, this team would be rebranded; maybe as something like the Destroyers (ironically, equally as cringey 90s as Fury) or something else.

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32 minutes ago, Dalcowboyfan92 said:

Eugh, this name stinks. This is a 90s team name, through and through. Had it survived through the first decade of the new millennium, I'm sure without a shadow of a doubt, this team would be rebranded; maybe as something like the Destroyers (ironically, equally as cringey 90s as Fury) or something else.

I'm okay with the name but the alternative logo screams 90's (which i like but i understand why most don't). Personally would like the name to change to something like the Neptunes?

 

Though as it is. I want the teams jersey so bad. XD

My Alternative History Sports Stories:

CFL-USA - A Different Telling/StL Americans TL

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On 3/1/2019 at 6:38 PM, coco1997 said:

I freaking love this concept! The warm colors make for a nice gradient-type effect on the scripts and logos, and the Astros-inspired faxbacks are both excellent. 

 

Thanks! I figured that the semi-gradient was a good way to approach it.

 

On 3/1/2019 at 7:08 PM, NicDB said:

I think you should keep the Fury wordmark the same as on the homes, regardless of what color jersey you apply it to.  

But that's my lone nitpick.  I love everything about this... particularly the way you created a gradient that isn't really a gradient.  Everything about this is so perfectly 90s that I can imagine this team coming up on the select screen for Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball.  Great job!

 

Thank you! The color flip does look pretty good.

 

wrn8z7Q.png

 

On 3/2/2019 at 10:26 AM, appleclock said:

Awesome concept as always. I’m just not feeling the logos. The flames look too much like hair to me.  Redheads are known for their fury though, so this might work!

 

Thanks, and I do get that. I was struggling to figure out how exactly to represent the team name. The horse tip came a little late in the process, and I didn't like that approach enough to justify it.

 

On 3/2/2019 at 4:47 PM, PowderedWater said:

I’m in eager anticipation to see the “team of short lifespan whose look is up to speculation” and I have some ideas of what it might be that I really want to say but I don’t want to accidentally spoil it.

 

You'll see (hopefully) soon enough!

 

On 3/2/2019 at 8:24 PM, Dalcowboyfan92 said:

Eugh, this name stinks. This is a 90s team name, through and through. Had it survived through the first decade of the new millennium, I'm sure without a shadow of a doubt, this team would be rebranded; maybe as something like the Destroyers (ironically, equally as cringey 90s as Fury) or something else.

On 3/2/2019 at 9:00 PM, Matthew24 said:

I'm okay with the name but the alternative logo screams 90's (which i like but i understand why most don't). Personally would like the name to change to something like the Neptunes?

 

Though as it is. I want the teams jersey so bad. XD

 

Thanks. Everything about this team name stunk had of '90s "xtreme" marketing, leaving me in the same position that the Minnesota NHL team was in during the late-90s/early-00s. Unlike the Wild, I'm sure the team would have rebranded as the Washington Nationals once they realized that they're not getting many people from Richmond, Hampton Roads, and Blackspur at their games. Besides, a Dulles-adjacent site would lend itself to the Washington identifier (but probably not DC).

 

On 3/2/2019 at 8:58 PM, JG36 said:

I feel like the “Fury” on the tequila sunrise alternate looks a bit too smushed. What would it look like without it? Otherwise, fantastic set for an abstract idea!

 

Thanks! I agree with the "smushed" assessment. I've updated the design to include a wordmark-free version and one with a fixed wordmark.

 

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On 3/2/2019 at 11:03 PM, MJD7 said:

I would flip the white & black on the red alternate. Otherwise, this looks good! Definitely has a similar feel to the 00’s Astros. The throwback-inspired alts were a nice surprise! Great job!

 

Thank you! The white makes for a decent design, but I don't like it as much as the black or red.

 

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On 3/3/2019 at 12:06 AM, erb6g6 said:

The Fury are great! I love when the concepts are tied back to the history, so I would love to see your take on the horse/V logo!

 

Thanks! I'll do a horse variant later, with some heavy influences from the Broncos' 1997 redesign.

 

On 3/4/2019 at 2:03 PM, teeray01 said:

Would love to see a full set concept for the New Orleans Pelicans.  All of them are pretty good!

 

Thank you. That might happen soon enough.

 

Now, onto the main feature!

 

The Story of ARCO Park - Central Valley Considered

 

AS2arco-atrb.jpg

 

Next to ARCO/Sleep Train Arena in the Natomas area of Sacramento, there exists a foundation for a multi-purpose venue. There is a basic outline, rebar, and some stairs. This site would have been ARCO Park, a multi-purpose stadium for both baseball and football use. But what would have prompted the city to abandon the venue in the early phases of construction?

 

ARCO Park was the brainchild of Gregg Lukenbill, the same man who lured the Kansas City Kings to Sacramento with the Sacramento Sports Association. While Lukenbill’s primary goal was to build ARCO Arena (for $40 million), a secondary objective of his was to construct a baseball/football venue in the adjacent lot.1  Several articles (linked in the citations) and a video detail this project:

 

 

We also have extensive renderings from one of the architects, Rann Haight. HOK would have been involved in the design process, which fell into several models (baseball/football in an Angel Stadium/Jack Murphy Stadium-like aesthetic, baseball-only in a New Sox Park style, and football in the Shibe Park layout).2 Here are several of them: 

 

Rendering-ARCO-Park-Baseball-Phase-2.jpgRendering-ARCO-Park-Concept-Color.jpgRendering-ARCO-Park-Football-Phase-1.jpg

 

However, there was a big problem. You see, Lukenbill and the Sports Association didn’t have nearly enough money to complete the project as a speculation build (after dumping $16 million of their money into it), which didn’t help when their attempts to court a team fell through. They tried to get the Raiders, applied to be part of the 1993 expansion (didn’t make the first cut), and maybe tried to secure the Giants. Construction stopped in the early-1990s, with the foundation left derelict.3 

 

Part of me is glad that it never happened. Multi-purpose venues were on their way out by the time the architects started sketching it, while the construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards would have made the modern-ish stylings of ARCO Park look sterile and outdated right after opening. I’m sure renovations would have improved the condition of the site (like they did at New Sox Park), but there’s only so much you can do with it.4 

 

Still, what if Lukenbill and his creditors had the cash to get it done? What if a team had said yes and moved to the Central Valley?

 

Since we won’t be focusing on the 1990/91 expansion applications in full on this thread (an idea for later), let’s talk about one heavily-rumored relocation and one that’s popped up every now and again.

 

1  Marine Layer, “The Coliseum That Never Was,” Newballpark.Org (blog), March 27, 2012, https://newballpark.org/2012/03/27/the-coliseum-that-never-was/; Tony Lopez, “Field Of Dashed Dreams: How Sacramento Tried To Lure The Raiders And Athletics To Town,” CBS Sacramento (blog), November 6, 2015, https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2015/11/06/field-of-dashed-dreams-how-sacramento-tried-to-lure-the-raiders-and-athletics-to-town/; Paul Munsey and Cory Suppes, “Sleep Train Arena,” BALLPARKS.com, accessed March 8, 2019, http://basketball.ballparks.com/NBA/SacramentoKings/.

 

2 Haight, “Renderings – Commercial – Rann Haight,” accessed March 8, 2019, http://rannhaight.com/portfolio_category/renderings-commercial/.

 

3 Bob Andelman and Lori Parsells, Stadium For Rent: Tampa Bay’s Quest for Major League Baseball, 2nd edition (St. Petersburg, FL: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015), 188; Mike McCarthy, “Arco Stadium Plans Still Stuck in Mud,” Sacramento Business Journal, January 20, 2002, https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2002/01/21/story5.html; Mark Paul, “Remembering the SF Ballpark Five,” The California Fix, August 9, 2013, http://www.thecaliforniafix.com/thecaliforniafix/2013/8/8/remembering-the-sf-ballpark-five; UPI, “LA Developers Buy Sacramento Kings,” UPI, April 6, 1992, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/04/06/LA-developers-buy-Sacramento-Kings/8473702532800/.

 

4 Author's Note: The Raley Field site would have probably been better for a stadium than North Natomas. 

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SACRAMENTO GIANTS - Bear-rier to enry

 

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This one involves a bit of legal chicanery during the Proposition P proposal for a new Giants stadium in 1989 (which I covered in my San José Giants concept). Leading up the the election, Gregg Lukenbill and a group of Sacramento-area investors donated $12,500 to the anti-stadium campaign. San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos cried foul, claiming that it was an attempt at “looting” the team (as part of a last-minute push for the soon-to-be rejected proposition). In a later statement Lukenbill admitted, 

 

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I made a few phone calls to protect Sacramento's interest in potentially getting a baseball team here, I'm not ashamed of that. I'm proud of it. I want baseball in Sacramento and I'm proud of it and I'm not going to back off of it." Whether this was moving the Giants to Sacramento or securing an expansion team, we can’t be entirely sure.  

 

What did happen was that Mayor Agnos got San Francisco DA Arlo Smith to idict Lukenbill and four of his associates for not reporting their donation, a case that the judge dismissed for lack of evidence.1

 

While it may have been a “dick move” at the time, Lukenbill should be commended for standing up against teams getting taxpayers to foot the bill on stadiums. Ultimately, the Giants got their privately-funded stadium, while Lukenbill/the Sacramento Sports Association’s ARCO Park fell into dereliction. However, what if Lukenbill had lured Lurie to Sacramento and gotten him to contribute to finishing the stadium (unlikely, given how pro-taxpayer funding Lurie was)? What if the Sacramento Giants became a reality?

 

Much like the San José Giants, I assumed that the same people behind the Giants’ 2000 redesign would have created the current logos & uniforms for the team. The primary reflects what’s so “Giant” about the team, namely that they play in the capital of the “giant” state of California. I used a silhouette of the bear from the old Sacramento Republic FC badge (itself derivative of the bear from the California flag). The flag tributes continue with the city text and the stripe dividing the bear from the “Giants-ball.” The secondary is the cap insignia, based off of the 1960 Sacramento Solons’ Giants/Pirates-style logo. The tertiary is a roundel with the tri-stripe and the insignia. 

 

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The uniforms use the same template as the San José Giants, with a white home uniform featuring an NoB. Since “Sacramento” is a long name, I opted for a 1958-76/2000-present block wordmark (which has which has some precedent from the Solons). The primary is on the sleeves.

 

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Alternates follow my standard Giants formula, with an orange-billed cap and an insignia on the road jersey.

 

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The orange-billed cap/home uniform pairing is a Sunday alternate, while I’ve adopted a combination of the 1960s jersey style with a 1940's-style Solons cap (more Solons images here) and the classic cursive script. It’s a non-specific retro look that honors both the city and franchise’s baseball heritage.

 

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The jacket features many of the common traits of my other Giants jackets, with a semi-arched Herchey Script design.

 

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While moving the Giants to Sacramento would have kept the Giants-Dodgers rivalry relatively intact, I probably wouldn’t have grown up to enjoy the team nearly as much as I have. Besides, ARCO Park doesn’t seem like it’d be all that fantastic a venue. C+C is appreciated, as always!

 

Up next, a team that hasn’t tried to move to Sacramento yet, but has received the suggestion before (@Bucfan56 knows what I’m talking about).
 

1 Robert F. Garratt, Home Team: The Turbulent History of the San Francisco Giants (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017), 145–47; Mark Paul, “Remembering the SF Ballpark Five,” The California Fix, August 9, 2013, http://www.thecaliforniafix.com/thecaliforniafix/2013/8/8/remembering-the-sf-ballpark-five

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Seeing my favorite baseball team wearing gear reptesenting the city I proudly call home makes me feel some kinda way. 

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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This is pretty much exactly what I'd expect had the Giants moved to Sacramento, which I mean in the best way possible. They've always been one of MLB's "glamour" franchises, so I wouldn't expect them to change much.

With that in mind, your primary logo feels very unnecessary.  I think your tertiary is much closer to what they'd actually go with if they needed a logo to mark the Sacramento era of the franchise.  Just make the ball white, and the S black with an orange outline.  And make the roundel plain black (without the triple stripe) with orange lettering for color balance.  Plain and simple is how the Giants have always done it.  If you need a tertiary, just use the actual Giants logo.

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