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MLB: The Defunct Saga - Bibliography Added


SFGiants58

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Louisville looks amazing! That primary logo is perfect. I love the new elephant, and the Fleurs-de-lis.

I agree with @Carolingian Steamroller, you should put the elephant on the red alt.

I like that you changed the colors, though I'm a bit surprised you didn't do it for the other cities, especially Dallas.

 

My thoughts on unique colors for the A's' (!) relocations in this series:

Philly -- blue & yellow, like you have

KC -- blue & white (even though this is where the green originated)

LA -- mostly yellow, with a little bit of kelly or teal

DAL -- forest & blue-silver

LOU -- forest & red, like you have, or forest & royal (for bluegrass)

DEN -- kelly & brown or kelly & maroon

POR -- forest & old gold

 

If you do the Seattle White Sox, you should base it on the powder blue White Sox uniforms, with green in the place of red!

 

Keep up the good work! I'm excited to see what you do next.

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On 8/9/2018 at 12:07 PM, coco1997 said:

That "Louisville" script is a work of art!

 

I agree with @Carolingian Steamroller, it might be cool to see the elephant on one of the alts. 

 

Thanks! It took a while to get it "just right." I think I'm getting the hang of the "script construction" thing. The elephant doesn't look too bad on a green jersey:

 

Uf1VwEK.png

 

On 8/9/2018 at 12:30 PM, BellaSpurs said:

Im adoring that Louisville concept, its such a shame we haven’t got any professional teams. I love the colors, the script, it all. Although I hate UofL with every cell in my body, the red is great!

On 8/9/2018 at 12:07 PM, coco1997 said:

That "Louisville" script is a work of art!

 

I agree with @Carolingian Steamroller, it might be cool to see the elephant on one of the alts. 

 

Thanks, guys!

 

On 8/9/2018 at 1:39 PM, Dalcowboyfan92 said:

Were you considering doing a what-if look if the Seattle Pilots stuck around instead of being one and done?

 

Indeed I am! They'll be the finale, because their "one and done" status means I can have a bit more fun with them. In their chronological place, I'll mock up the three Brewers prototypes from 1970. 

 

On 8/11/2018 at 12:53 PM, NicDB said:

Baseball in Louisville?

hqdefault.jpg

(Awesome concept though. ?)

On 8/11/2018 at 2:19 PM, neo_prankster said:

 

Yeah it's such a travesty that Louisville has never gotten a taste of major pro sports for so long!

On 8/11/2018 at 2:47 PM, NicDB said:

Well I certainly wouldn't mind my Brewers having another team from an original American Association city to play.  

 

Thanks! I'm surprised Louisville didn't come up in expansion/relocation talks more often. I guess that part of is that having a team in Louisville would impact the radio/TV territory rights of the Reds, Cardinals, and both Chicago teams. I think that it might have been a success, but we can never really know.

 

On 8/11/2018 at 11:05 PM, vtgco said:

Louisville looks amazing! That primary logo is perfect. I love the new elephant, and the Fleurs-de-lis.

I agree with @Carolingian Steamroller, you should put the elephant on the red alt.

I like that you changed the colors, though I'm a bit surprised you didn't do it for the other cities, especially Dallas.

 

My thoughts on unique colors for the A's' (!) relocations in this series:

Philly -- blue & yellow, like you have

KC -- blue & white (even though this is where the green originated)

LA -- mostly yellow, with a little bit of kelly or teal

DAL -- forest & blue-silver

LOU -- forest & red, like you have, or forest & royal (for bluegrass)

DEN -- kelly & brown or kelly & maroon

POR -- forest & old gold

 

If you do the Seattle White Sox, you should base it on the powder blue White Sox uniforms, with green in the place of red!

 

Keep up the good work! I'm excited to see what you do next.

 

Thanks! While I put the elephant on the green (due to the red body cover on the elephant), it still makes for a fun jersey. I'm not really planning on doing any significant color changes for any A's relocations, especially since they will have all come after the "Swingin' A's" dynasty of the 1970s. The only real shift in colors I'll do is for Kansas City, if only because my scenario has Ewing Kauffman buying the team from Charlie O. Finley in the late-1960s and dropping Finley's trademark green/yellow.

 

Anyway, it's time to join the Brave and the Bold!

 

MILWAUKEE BRAVES, PT. I - Braving the Storm

 

One of the more frustrating relocations in baseball history has to be the Braves vacating Milwaukee in favor of Atlanta. If one wonders why they left, here's the basic plot:

 

1. Lou Perini sells the team to a Chicago-based conglomerate, led by Bill Bartholomay, that pretty much intended to move the team to a bigger TV/population market. This was pretty much their intention from the start of buying the team.

2. Perini did some small things that were a bit off-putting, such as denying fans the ability to bring their own beer (mostly a BS reason, but a slight contributing factor) and raising ticket prices.

3. Perini and the Bartholomay group overreacted to attendance/profitability declines, which were in part due to trends throughout baseball and in part due to the team's perceived competitive decline (despite having a winning record in all of their Milwaukee seasons).

 

In other words,

 

giphy.gif

 

...except the Braves didn't really get that in Atlanta. Even with TBS giving them a big sphere of influence, Atlanta's f'ed up urban planning and other factors contributed to poor attendance, leading to their white flight to Cobb County.

 

This information all comes from this excellent article by J. Gordon Hylton of the Marquette University Law School (the newer building on campus, right next to the interchange and behind Sensenbrenner Hall).1 The article and comments point out several way the relocation could have been averted, which include:

 

1. Perini sold the team to a Milwaukee group, with Bud Selig maybe being a member of an ownership consortium.

2. Perini keeps the now-unprofitable team, but manages to turn things around until the late-60s/early-70s run of contention.

3. Fred Miller doesn't die, and winds up buying the team.

4. The consortium stays in Milwaukee, bolstered by a piece of legislature. In his article, Hylton describes, "In 1965, as a last ditch effort, Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire introduced a bill in the Senate that would have required major league teams to pool all of their radio and television income in a way similar to the then current practice in the National Football League. The bill never got out of committee in the United States Senate, but such a requirement might have reduced the lure of relocating to new territory and perhaps kept the Braves in Milwaukee."2 

 

If any one of these things happened, what would the modern Braves look like?

 

This is pretty much a standard Braves concept (a slight tweak of their 1987 update), but with a few notable alterations. The primary logo is now the roundel, featuring the Wisconsin state outline, the "Block M," and a star pointing to Milwaukee's location. I figured that the team, like the Brewers, would use the Miller Valley location/I-43 proximity to lure people in throughout the state. People from places like Madison, Door County, Green Bay, and Shawano County would all be part of the team's net.

 

A new "Block M' is the secondary, derived from the American Association Brewers' old monogram  and given angled serifs akin to the Astros' slab-serif font. I figured that unlike the Atlanta Braves' 1987 update (which merged their last Boston/first Milwaukee uniforms with the cursive "A" cap), the Milwaukee Braves would have gone all-in on a logo similar to the 1957-style  "Block M," (thanks @Gothamite, for championing the "correct Block M" cause) with a few adjustments to make it a bit more "modern." They did win a World Series in it, after all. The "Braves" script with a contrast-colored tomahawk is the tertiary.

 

I did try to make a "Cursive M" for the team, but it really didn't look all that good from a distance. Unlike the "B" or the "A," it didn't read like an "M." Besides, I didn't want to throw out a link to the American Association Brewers/the '57 Braves that readily.

 

EDIT: I added a gold star on the primary, per @NicDB's suggestion. It gives it a bit of a punch. Original Image is in the link, while the second image is here.

 

Wh7waIU.png

 

The home and road uniforms feature all of my standard Braves trademarks, such as contrast-colored tomahawks and Northwestern Stripes on the socks. The road uniform bears a "Milwaukee" script with an extended tomahawk, inspired by @Ted Cunningham's work. It was a bit of a pain to get it to work, but I think it looks good. At the very least, it's a nice way to eliminate the team from the relocation roundelay. The Wilson Varsity font also receives a Packers-style "5," for that extra Wisconsin touch.

 

EDIT: With the fantastic help of @Carolingian Steamroller, I've tweaked the "Milwaukee" script to feature better kerning and letter definition, while also adjusting the "M" to have a longer left stroke and bending the middle vertical on the "w" for better intra-letter spacing. Thanks, @Carolingian SteamrollerThe original image is here. EDIT 2: With the additional help of @Gothamite, I've revised the "Milwaukee" script further to use the "M" from the American Association Brewers' road script. Here is a comparison between all three versions, as well as the second edition of the script.

 

SMIf6ph.png

 

The alternates feature a red and a navy softball top, intended for limited use. Both use color swaps to preserve the contrast-colored tomahawk setup, and feature the primary on the sleeves.

 

EDIT: Image tweaked to match the primary/road script improvements. The original image is in the link, along with the second rendering.

 

wAJYtX1.png

 

The heritage alternates feature a "Cream City" uniform, with the "Block M" on its own. It's my little way of paying homage to the American Association Brewers' 1911-37 identity. The second one is a Milwaukee-ified version of the Braves' "715" set. I wanted to use a lowercase cursive "M" at first (which really didn't work), so I replaced it with (per @NicDB's inspired suggestion, thanks) the Ball-in-Glove. I double-outlined it and matched it to the coloration of the Braves' "lowercase a" insignia.

 

EDIT: I fixed an outlining error on the creme uniform and updated the Milwaukee star to gold. The linked image is the first edition.

 

M5UoYxU.png

 

The dugout jackets feature some notable tweaks from previous Braves concepts, such as the use of the primary as the back logo (a la a motorcycle jacket, and Milwaukee is the home of Harley-Davidson, a brand that is somehow both "the establishment" and "rebellious," an RCR observation). There is also a "715" jacket, which builds upon the period jacket (worn by Phil Niekro).

 

EDIT: Both dugout jackets incorporate the graphics tweaks of the previous images. Here are the originals: Primary Jacket and 715 (715 Second Edition).

 

N9dUZMh.png fPA9xVB.png 

 

The Braves wouldn't look all that different from their current counterparts, but there'd be a certain "Milwaukee-ifying" of their identity. Heck, had they stayed, they'd probably have more of an impact on the city's sporting culture than the Brewers. C+C is appreciated, as always!

 

For the alternate take, lets brew up two distinct flavors of rebranding.

 

1J. Gordon Hylton, “Why Milwaukee Lost the Braves: Perspectives on Law and Culture From a Half-Century Later – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog,” Academic Blog, Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog (blog), January 1, 2012, https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2012/01/01/why-milwaukee-lost-the-braves-perspectives-on-law-and-culture-from-a-half-century-later/comment-page-1/#comments.

2Ibid.

Edited by SFGiants58
I updated the images and the Shawano/I-43 corrections were made.
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Good call on the way you executed the BiG!  In proper context, it looks like it was meant to be that way the whole time.  Better call yet on your AA Brewers homage.  I would even take what you said a step further and say the Braves influence in Wisconsin would rival the Packers had they stuck around.  (BTW, its Shawano County, and it's I-43, not I-94 that runs along the lakeshore... but the Menominee heritage in me appreciates the shoutout to Keshena.) ?

I can't think of a single thing I don't like about this concept.  Maybe make the star in the logo gold for the sake of color balance, although it's more in line with the actual uniform the way it is.  Otherwise just sit back and be admired for your awesome work.  

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Surpraised we didn’t get a 1957 throwback since that was the first team to win a World Series in Milwaukee(and personally my favorite look for the team). Everything else looks great especially the Braves version BiG logo. To me, the Milwaukee away script looks a little wonky.

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Milwaukee looks good, especially that primary logo (though I never understand the team's strange colorations of the axe?)

I think that the cream color could be used on the home jersey, given its subtlety.

I also feel like a Milwaukee team would emphasize the gold a bit more and the red a bit less (felt that about your Milwaukee Cardinals concept, too.)

The feather throwback alt looks great! The ball-in-glove fits in really well; I just suggest that you swap the BiG's red & blue so that it matches the outlining of the jersey's wordmark and so the baseball's seams are red.

 

14 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

Thanks! While I put the elephant on the green (due to the red body cover on the elephant), it still makes for a fun jersey. I'm not really planning on doing any significant color changes for any A's relocations, especially since they will have all come after the "Swingin' A's" dynasty of the 1970s. The only real shift in colors I'll do is for Kansas City, if only because my scenario has Ewing Kauffman buying the team from Charlie O. Finley in the late-1960s and dropping Finley's trademark green/yellow.

Fair enough, I was mostly just spitballing for conversation's sake. I assume you mean the Denver and Portland relocations will be from Oakland rather than from KC. Given that the real-life A's switched to forest green (and flirted with black) after the 70's dynasty, I imagine it would be feasible to change the one of the colors slightly for the relocations, but it's no big deal.

 

Looking forward to Part 2!

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I like this a lot, especially the 715 royal alternates.  My only complaint (not really, just didn't like it quite as much) is that I don't think the BiG looks as good as in its original colors.  I know that these boards don't like the BiG in general, so I have to note that I am part of the minority that does, so I do still like the recolored one, just a little bit less.

On a side note, is that gif from the movie October Sky?

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xglLy43.png38ekInb.png3T2CQrI.png

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The Milwaukee Braves look great! I’m glad that Milwaukee doesn’t have a navy/red team currently (it doesn’t really fit them in my opinion), but they would definitely be a more classic team than the Brewers. I love the transfer of the BiG logo to the Braves, that’s a genius replacement for the lowercase “a.” Well done!

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On 8/13/2018 at 1:28 AM, NicDB said:

Good call on the way you executed the BiG!  In proper context, it looks like it was meant to be that way the whole time.  Better call yet on your AA Brewers homage.  I would even take what you said a step further and say the Braves influence in Wisconsin would rival the Packers had they stuck around.  (BTW, its Shawano County, and it's I-43, not I-94 that runs along the lakeshore... but the Menominee heritage in me appreciates the shoutout to Keshena.) ?

I can't think of a single thing I don't like about this concept.  Maybe make the star in the logo gold for the sake of color balance, although it's more in line with the actual uniform the way it is.  Otherwise just sit back and be admired for your awesome work.  

 

Thanks! I'm sure it'd be a much closer gap between the Braves and Packers than it is between the Brewers and Packers. Also, thank you for the corrections with the counties/freeways. Being a relatively recent transplant who rarely leaves Milwaukee proper, I'm still learning a lot of the local names. 

 

The star suggestion (included in the edited post) really improved the logo's look, as the all-white was a bit distracting. Thanks!

 

On 8/13/2018 at 9:22 AM, coco1997 said:

Excellent work! I love the BiG logo in the '70s Braves colors. 

On 8/13/2018 at 5:56 PM, CaptainKirkMN said:

I like this a lot, especially the 715 royal alternates.  My only complaint (not really, just didn't like it quite as much) is that I don't think the BiG looks as good as in its original colors.  I know that these boards don't like the BiG in general, so I have to note that I am part of the minority that does, so I do still like the recolored one, just a little bit less.

On a side note, is that gif from the movie October Sky?

On 8/13/2018 at 7:58 PM, MJD7 said:

The Milwaukee Braves look great! I’m glad that Milwaukee doesn’t have a navy/red team currently (it doesn’t really fit them in my opinion), but they would definitely be a more classic team than the Brewers. I love the transfer of the BiG logo to the Braves, that’s a genius replacement for the lowercase “a.” Well done!

 

Thanks, guys! Also, @CaptainKirkMN, that .gif was from October Sky (which I didn't realize at the time). I've never seen it, but the trailer made it look decent.

 

On 8/13/2018 at 10:14 AM, Raptorman415 said:

Surpraised we didn’t get a 1957 throwback since that was the first team to win a World Series in Milwaukee(and personally my favorite look for the team). Everything else looks great especially the Braves version BiG logo. To me, the Milwaukee away script looks a little wonky.

 

Thanks! The reason I didn't include a 1957 throwback is that the primary set is just a modernized version of that look. Any throwback would be "too similar" for my tastes.

 

On 8/13/2018 at 11:56 AM, neo_prankster said:

@SFGiants58

 

Great job with the Braves.

 

In your opinion, if the Braves stayed in Milwaukee and Hank Aaron was able to hit home run #715 at Milwaukee County Stadium, or on the road, would that moment have had the same impact as it did in Atlanta in real life?

 

Thanks. Aaron hitting #715 at County Stadium or playing for the Milwaukee team probably would have had even more of an impact than it did in Atlanta. He would have spent his whole career in one city (up to that point), so there may have been more fan connection. It would also mean that he'd have a block M on his Hall of Fame plaque, which he quite frankly should have on his real life plaque (that or the lowercase a). There are many cap redos I'd like to do for the Hall of Fame, such as Nolan Ryan with an Angels insignia, Early Wynn with a plain Wishbone C, and Jimmie Foxx with an A's logo.

 

On 8/13/2018 at 1:37 PM, vtgco said:

Milwaukee looks good, especially that primary logo (though I never understand the team's strange colorations of the axe?)

I think that the cream color could be used on the home jersey, given its subtlety.

I also feel like a Milwaukee team would emphasize the gold a bit more and the red a bit less (felt that about your Milwaukee Cardinals concept, too.)

The feather throwback alt looks great! The ball-in-glove fits in really well; I just suggest that you swap the BiG's red & blue so that it matches the outlining of the jersey's wordmark and so the baseball's seams are red.

 

Thanks! I opted against creme home jerseys, if only because I prefer them as alternates/a Giants-only thing. I did try the BiG with a blue base color, but it didn't pop as much as did with a red base. The red base also has some historical basis, as the "715" cap logo was red with white and royal outlines.

 

On 8/13/2018 at 9:51 AM, Carolingian Steamroller said:

The Braves look great except for the Milwaukee script. It's not quite working for me and seems jumbled. 

 

Thanks! I've redone the script to make it less jumbled by improving the kerning, further defining the letterforms, and adjusting the left vertical of the "M" and the middle vertical of the "w." Thanks again, @Carolingian Steamroller for work-shopping the update with me! Here is a comparison:

 

xD9Tg0Q.png

 

I've updated the original post with the new images. Both parts of Part 2 will be up soon!

Edited by SFGiants58
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On 8/15/2018 at 4:50 AM, coco1997 said:

That's definitely better, especially with the larger gap between the "l" and "w."

 

Thanks! I'd like to think that it compares well with the other Braves' road scripts and caps:

 

jGq9xYb.pngHOgnMHJ.png

 

Anyway, it's time to do the first flavor of the brewfest!

 

MILWAUKEE BREWERS, PT. II - Easy Teasy

 

This is one of the more obvious renaming concepts I've done. Let's assume that the renaming happened due to one of these reasons:

 

1. Fred Miller buys the team, wants to "local-ize" the identity by blending it with the American Association Brewers.

2. Assume the same as above, but sub in a later owner who wanted to remold the team in the image of the AA Brewers.

2. The team gets proactive with the "anti-Native American imagery without tribal consent" push in sports (during the 1980s/'90s - around the time the Atlanta Braves axed the Screaming Savage), and embraces the name of a historic club from the area. This is much the same thing that Marquette University did.1

 

So, the team would take their classic look and simply Brewer-ize it. Heck, the AA Brewers did just that in their final years in Milwaukee:

 

Logan-Detmer_400px.jpg 1951_Crowe_comparison.jpg

 

So, my goal was to modernize this look while adding a few AA touches of my own.

 

The roundel is off of my previous Brewers concept in this thread, as is the "Block M" and the Owgust logo. The most notable change comes from the color scheme, which is navy/red co-dominant with a few Athletic Gold accents. 

 

EDIT (1/25/2019): I've replaced the "M" in the "Milwaukee" script to match the latest update to the Braves concept, while also shortening the tail, per @Carolingian Steamroller's suggestion. The original is here.

 

EDIT (11/8/2019): I've updated Owgust, per @Gothamite's suggestions. Here are the previous updates: Logo SheetHome and Road, and the dugout jacket.

 

Zvqq2IN.png

 

The home and road set doesn't have too much deviation from the Braves. The scripts gain tails that mimic the AA Brewers' classic script, while Owgust ousts the Screaming Savage (or would have back in the day). I used a powder blue-ish hue on the road uniform, if only to differentiate it a bit from the main set. The original image is here.

 

F2cA4Zh.png

 

The alternates feature both a regular navy jersey and a fauxback set. This guy merges the 1938-style cap (not exact), the 1936 home jersey's striping, and the "block M." It also features the 1914 Braves' sock stripes, for a small homage to the team's Boston heritage.

 

4vz0NXz.png

 

The jacket is a bit of a logo swap of Braves jackets. The original image is here.

 

fzcztx5.png

 

While it's not all that different from what the Braves wear now, it's a demonstration of how the team could have changed things up with minimal effort. Next up, let's try a different flavor, one with a more local bent.

 

1Author's note: Marquette totally could have done what the Dubs did and just dump all of the Native American-themed logos. It's not like they were trotting out Willie F***ing Wampum at halftime (he'd since been succeeded by a blue muppet). Had they just shifted to an arrow/spear logo (not the Dubs' Thunder), it would've been fine. I still like Golden Eagles, while Gold is silly and Golden Avalanche doesn't pass the "will a 12 year-old laugh at it" test.  

Edited by SFGiants58
New images, reflecting the new "Milwaukee" script. I then updated Owgust
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I really dig what's going on with the Brewers. The shade of grey/blue on the roads is perfect! The Owgust is terrific and the little hint of gold is a great callback to the Braves. 

 

One minor tweak is to shrink the tail on the script a touch. 

 

Aside from that it looks great!

 

Side note: I was a Junior at Marquette when the whole Marquette Gold fiasco went down. I voted for Hilltoppers in the poll they ran for a new name. 

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