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MLB: The Defunct Saga - Bibliography Added


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I absolutely love this concept. I wonder if the primary logos for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Canaries would look better if the seams of the baseball in the background weren’t uninterrupted by the white outlining of the logo, so it would look as if the logo was placed on top of the baseball and the seams could be seen in the negative space.

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Thanks for the C+C, guys!

 

On 7/8/2018 at 11:06 AM, coco1997 said:

I love every single thing about this concept. 

On 7/8/2018 at 12:30 PM, Carolingian Steamroller said:

The futurist Dodgers look great. 

 

Instead of Trolley Dodgers, they’re clearly Monorail Dodgers

 

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On 7/8/2018 at 3:03 PM, Cardsblues02 said:

LA looks great! 

On 7/8/2018 at 3:34 PM, NicDB said:

The Canaries look good... very So Cal!

Can't wait to see where you go with the Senators.  Quite a few alt history scenarios to explore with them.

 

Thanks, guys! I really liked creating them, especially the "Monorail" (It'll ride as softly as a cloud) Dodgers. Maybe using Final Frontier (the Star Trek TOS font) was a cop-out, but it looked good enough to excuse. 

 

On 7/8/2018 at 11:25 AM, Topherlee2 said:

On the light blue uniform, you accidently put the Brooklyn 'B' instead of the interlocking 'LA'. Just want to point it out to you.

 

Thanks for pointing it out, it's been fixed!

 

On 7/9/2018 at 4:01 PM, scottyeagle said:

I've been quietly following the series, and your work (as always) is so detailed and impressive.  That Brewers concept is one of (if not the) best real-team concepts I've seen on this forum, and I'd like to see how that Giants-style TC would look for the Twins.  I do have a quibble with how the Minnesota state outline works in the Giants logo, though.  If you look at a map of Minnesota, you will see the border in the southwest part of the state makes a right angle.  The reason it looks squiggly in the Paul and Minnie logo is to accommodate the shape of Minnie (which has always been a pet peeve of mine).  With the absence of Minnie, that squiggle can be straightened out, a minuscule detail that can make your already great series even better.

 

Thanks, I'm glad you like it! The Giants-style "TC" does look pretty good in Twins colors:

 

PWC6YV0.png

 

Also, thank you for pointing out the state outline issue with the Minnesota Giants. I've fixed it, and I'll edit the original post to reflect the update.

 

3FX41g3.png

 

On 7/8/2018 at 12:53 PM, MJD7 said:

That alternate Dodgers concept looks great! I could honestly see it lasting until the present day as opposed to lasting only one year.

 

The Canaries look nice! My only overall criticism would be that they look very similar to your Philadelphia A’s. I’d like to maybe see a set that is more plain like the Dodgers, that uses more of a lighter yellow like your Phillies alternate take.

 

Looking forward to Washington!

 

Thank you! You're right about the Canaries looking a bit too much like the Philadelphia A's. I've prepared two revisions, the first of which is more yellow-centric (a lighter yellow, like real canaries) and the other is blue-heavy. The sock stripes go for a mini-Northwestern pattern and the piping goes away (as it did for the Dodgers).

 

0drppFJ.png

 

Here's the full yellow-centric album.

 

OgmaUe3.png

 

This is the full blue-heavy album.

 

On 7/9/2018 at 5:31 PM, grahamkp said:

I absolutely love this concept. I wonder if the primary logos for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Canaries would look better if the seams of the baseball in the background weren’t uninterrupted by the white outlining of the logo, so it would look as if the logo was placed on top of the baseball and the seams could be seen in the negative space.

 

Thanks! I tried to have uninterrupted seams, but they clashed with the yellow in the logo and made it too busy. The white outlines make for a good buffer.

 

The Senat(ionals)ors should be up tonight!

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WASHINGTON SENATORS/NATIONALS, PT. I - A Capitol Idea!

 

This is one of the less-romanticized defunct teams, in large part because of how crappy the team was for most of their existence. Aside from a short golden age in the 1920s-'30s (with Walter Johnson pitching, a World Series title in 1924, and a pennant in 1933), the team spent its time in the pits. There were other factors that led to their lack of attendance, outside of terrible play.

 

1. The Orioles arrived in 1954 and diverted attention away from the team.1

2. The neighborhood, like what happened to the Polo Grounds, underwent demographic shifts that displeased the racist ownership of the team (segregated crowds as well).2

3. Ownership was RACIST AF. The team was notoriously slow to integrate under Clark and Calvin Griffith, with such gems as these:

 

Quote

Clark Griffith: “Nobody is going to stampede me into signing Negro players merely for the sake of satisfying certain pressure groups.”

Quote

Shirley Povich, Washington Post writer: (Clark Griffith would accept) “dark players from other lands, but never an American Negro.”

Quote

Calvin Griffith: "I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota," Griffith said. "It was when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don't go to ball games, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. It's unbelievable. We came here because you've got good, hardworking, white people here."3

 

Yeah, the racism of the Griffiths helped to derail the team and force their move to Minnesota (after SF/LA flirtations). 

 

TL; DR:

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However, what if the Griffiths sold the team to slightly less racist people? What if they moved to RFK Stadium and stuck around, perhaps residing in the Navy Yard stadium? Well, let's find out!

 

PHASE ONE - We are the Senate.

 

The team never really codified their nickname until the end of their run in DC. They went by both Nationals and Senators in the media, with rare mention of either nickname on their uniforms (Nationals on the home uniform from 1905-06 - where the NL Nats' old "Est. 1905" crap came from, and Senators on both home and road uniforms from 1959-60). I opted to use the 1959-60 uniforms as a starting point for them, with a focus on scripts and a navy-heavy color balance.

 

The primary logo employs the Capitol Building from the Nationals Park logo alongside the Albertus font from the NL Nationals' initial branding. The secondary logo is a block W that combines the Senat(ionals)ors cap logos with the rejected "bevel W" from the NL Nats. The alternate combines the DC flag/George Washington's Coat of Arms with the cap logo, citing the 1901 founding date and not using the team nickname (for those who prefer the Nationals name). 

 

yDLldYA.png

 

The uniforms use a similar template to my Twins concept from Project 32, with a pinstriped home set, script wordmarks, and striping on the sleeves, pants, and socks of the road uniform. The font is MLB Block with Serifs.

 

PUci07F.png

 

The alternates are pretty normal. The navy jersey uses the "W" logo and the tertiary logo (for the purposes of playing down the nickname, as they did throughout most of their history). Non-pinstriped white pants appear, as solid top + pinstripes is a terrible look. The fauxback is an homage to the 1973-86 Twins, with a navy-red co-balance, Wilson Varsity numbers, an older style script (based off of the Senators' 1959-60 wordmark) and a white front-panel cap (akin to the Twins' old batting helmets - albeit with a more modern helmet design). These uniforms also feature a different cap logo, based off of the Capitals' Winter Classic sweaters. I figured that the Senators/Nationals would have done something like this in the 1970s to "modernize" their look a little bit.

 

fE3utsk.png

 

The dugout jackets are a bit adventurous, with the cap insignia on the chest, the name on the back, and the DC flag pattern on the sleeves. The fauxback has its own jacket, including an appropriate "Washington" script.

 

YXCn22g.png OQ4YGez.png

 

It's the perfect blend of Twins and NL Nationals, in keeping with the club's visual history. Up next, the second phase, in which we go "National."

 

1Peter Schmuck, “A Matter of Territory,” Baltimore Sun, February 18, 2004, http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bal-sp.os5018feb18-story.html.

2Beschloss, Michael. “The Washington Senators: A Monument to Bad Management.” The New York Times, December 21, 2017, sec. The Upshot. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/upshot/the-washington-senators-a-monument-to-bad-management.html.

3Nick Coleman, “Griffith Spares Few Targets in Waseca Remarks,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, October 1, 1978.

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That is a beautiful set. Like you said, a perfect blend of Twins & Nationals. My one suggestion would be to maybe try a modernized version of the white front-panel cap for the navy alternate, I feel like that could be a great look. Wonderful job!

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PHASE TWO - National Recognition

 

Let's go back in time for this one, say circa 1950. The Senat(ionals)ors are looking to change up their identity in some way, with one guy having the bright idea to finally codify one of their nicknames by putting it on a uniform (as many teams had done by that point). He suggest that the team should pick "Nationals," even mocking up a uniform with that script (it's authentic, BTW). However, the team scraps it and has experiments a bit with their identity before codifying the "Senators" name in their last two years. However, what if said executive got his way and the team became the Nationals full-time?

 

Also, what if DC's city fathers made a stink about the "Senators" name, due to the fact that the District has no senatorial representation (which is what stopped Bud from renaming the Expos as the Senators)? That would also force the "Nationals" name to return. Anyway, it's time to break out AL Nats!

 

The identity is pretty similar to that of the Senators, albeit with a primary logo that uses a flat version of the Nationals Park skyline, baseball seams, and the cap insignia.

 

tEATV7u.png

 

The uniforms are identical to their Senators counterparts, albeit with the "Nationals" script and new primary subbed into it. I based the "Curly N" design off of this concept by @Ted Cunningham, with Twins-style lettering. The curly style was more in keeping with both the "Senators" and "Washington" scripts. 

 

zUsCVHb.png

 

While the navy alternate is the same as the Senators' version. the fauxback features a "Nationals" script and a red-crowned cap (again, a 1970s-'80s Twins homage).

 

I2kYRZB.png

 

The dugout jackets use the same template as their senatorial counterparts.

 

JRJPGvl.png kAaMvuw.png

 

This was a fun way to mock up how both team names would suit the identity in the modern period. Also, I'd like to thank @MJD7 for his consult on the "Nationals" script. C+C is appreciated, as always!

 

For the alternate take, let's '80s it up a little.

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I like the Senators roundel much more than the Nationals one. Washington, by design, doesn't have a real skyline. It just looks like a big blob with the Capitol and Washington Monument poking out. But I love the overall aesthetic of the uniforms and how they would have evolved from the 1901 Senationators. The lowercase uppercase N is a nice touch because that's sorta how I write my Ns in cursive.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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I actually see your alt W being closer to what they would really use.  I also agree with the sentiment that your DC "skyline" looks like a blob.  You could get away with a straight line.  Or maybe try a logo of the George Washington statue atop the Capitol.  It still features something people associate with Washington DC, but would resonate more with locals.

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I think the other roundel logo (the tertiary) would work better as the primary. I really like it. Love the throwback uniform, I think it looks great. The hat you use with it is incredible. Really love it. 

 

This uniform set doesn’t really do it for me because of the navy centric design. Not that it’s bad, because it still looks good. But I would love to see more red. Red base, some kind of red alt cap (non throwback), ect. The Nats do a good job balancing this. You often hear around here about how boring the Indians away uniforms are with little red in them. Thats the vibe this set puts off. Would love to see some more red. But in the end it still looks good and it’s your concept. You’re the expert here! 

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