MLB 2021

[Frylock]

4 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

 

Well, Squires could fall victim to that, depending on which "Squire" is picked.

 

 

Or they could partner with Fender Musical Instrument Corporation... 

[FiddySicks]

Sounds like the best solution is probably to just fold/move/contract the Cleveland area baseball team.

[SFGiants58]

1 minute ago, FiddySicks said:

Sounds like the best solution is probably to just fold/move/contract the Cleveland area baseball team.

 

My solution: let them move to Seattle in the '60s, where they change their name a bit faster. Cleveland gets an expansion team not named "Indians" in 1977 and they don't switch to "Indians" when the former Cleveland club abandon it. We would've had 40+ years of Cleveland AL without the name, while Seattle would've gotten to do their own local spin on their team eventually (think Oilers-to-Titans).

[Sec19Row53]

1 hour ago, SFGiants58 said:

 

My solution: let them move to Seattle in the '60s, where they change their name a bit faster. Cleveland gets an expansion team not named "Indians" in 1977 and they don't switch to "Indians" when the former Cleveland club abandon it. We would've had 40+ years of Cleveland AL without the name, while Seattle would've gotten to do their own local spin on their team eventually (think Oilers-to-Titans).

There's a separate thread for that

[SFGiants58]

9 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

There's a separate thread for that

I know, I made it and I’m getting back to it very soon.  The San José Athletics post is just so damn daunting to me. Not the concept, but trying to tell that story coherently and without spreading misinformation.

[tBBP]

1 hour ago, SFGiants58 said:

I know, I made it and I’m getting back to it very soon.  The San José Athletics post is just so damn daunting to me. Not the concept, but trying to tell that story coherently and without spreading misinformation.

 

The San JosA's??? 

 

And, in what's likely a break from stat quo and thus likely to be an unpopular opinion (not that that matters)...maybe Cleveland--and by extension future expansion/relocated teams--would have an easier time if they would just drop the focus on going hyper-localized? I mean, I get it: local name = civic connection (city connect?), but sometimes it may pay to go outside the sandbox every now and again. Not that it directly applies, but how do you think we got the name "Jacksonville Jaguars"? Ain't no jaguars nowhere in Florida--or the States at large, unless at a zoo--but they chose it for the alliteration, and it works.

 

I know all the marketing experts are about ready to pull the pitchforks out on me, but seriously...I spent enough time in the game to have seen marketing execs and project managers bust the backs of their own brains out--along with their budgets--just because the good-idea gurus couldn't get out of the way of their own closed-mindedness.

[-Akronite-]

15 minutes ago, tBBP said:

 

And, in what's likely a break from stat quo and thus likely to be an unpopular opinion (not that that matters)...maybe Cleveland--and by extension future expansion/relocated teams--would have an easier time if they would just drop the focus on going hyper-localized? I mean, I get it: local name = civic connection (city connect?), but sometimes it may pay to go outside the sandbox every now and again. Not that it directly applies, but how do you think we got the name "Jacksonville Jaguars"? Ain't no jaguars nowhere in Florida--or the States at large, unless at a zoo--but they chose it for the alliteration, and it works.

 

I know all the marketing experts are about ready to pull the pitchforks out on me, but seriously...I spent enough time in the game to have seen marketing execs and project managers bust the backs of their own brains out--along with their budgets--just because the good-idea gurus couldn't get out of the way of their own closed-mindedness.

 

I think the hurdle here is that we aren't talking about an expansion team. This Cleveland club has a century-plus of history, which means they really need the local populace to buy into the rebrand. I'd be open to non-hyper-local suggestions, but I think it just makes the change tougher.

 

14 hours ago, Frylock said:

But, by that logic, they shouldn’t use “Blues”, due to the existence of the St. Louis Blues.

 

Warriors? Natives? How much more tonedeaf can this franchise get? Call them the Guardians or Spiders and call it a day.

 

This is true, however, Cleveland doesn't have an NHL team while everyone in town hates the only pro team known as the Warriors.

[Silent Wind of Doom]

On 5/30/2021 at 11:55 PM, selgy said:

I liked the idea of the green. But as another poster said, the execution failed. 

It was too dark and dreary and the to give it any kind of life recognizable from anything more than 20 feet away or on camera you would have needed a color to pop to counter the forest green. 

To do this you would need a yellow/gold/neon green and ended up with an A's clone. 

I dont think a light blue would have worked enough to stand out to make it work and would have just washed out from a distance. 

The Daytona Tortugas have been referenced many times to justify this look. But the Tortugas use a lighter shade of green, and use a neon green as a third color to make this happen. 

 

On 5/31/2021 at 10:09 AM, Marlins93 said:

The Rays uniforms from 2001 until 2007 are probably on my top ten list of worst MLB brand identities of all time. I really loathed that set. The dark green was just so drab and boring; not at all what a team who plays in a domed stadium should have been wearing. It's almost like after year three of the franchise's existence, there was such an impassioned rejection of the dreaded "90s colors" or "90s aesthetic" that they overcompensated far too much in the other direction. There was surely away for them to abandon a gradient, stay true to the spirit of their original color scheme, and avoid something so dull as dark green not really complemented with anything else. Then again, the 00s were a horrific decade for MLB brandings, so they probably weren't even considering adopting bold colors like a lime green.

 

The Rays definitely had the worst inaugural brand identity of all four 90s expansion teams, but it's still the best look they've ever had in their existence. Navy blue is far too played out as a dominant color, but they wear it in a manner that feels less depressing than the dark green did. I was also never a fan of the wordmarks from 01 to 07; the white key lines on most of their jerseys made them total eye sores. Way too noisy.

 

On 5/31/2021 at 2:31 PM, MNtwins3 said:

I'm actually in the camp with the Rays that they should wear their fauxback uniforms full time

 

 

A few tweaks such as adding a normal white and grey set, and making them a normal button-down jersey, this could be a really fun Florida-inspired set

 

Green feels wrong to me.   Green (unless it's super light/lime) reads freshwater.   Lakes and swamps.   They're on the bay.   The colors in the fauxback reads more ocean to me and the fact that people want to build on that show it has potential beyond what people feel is cosplay of more established teams.   I think the modern font and the flashes of Columbia blue and yellow separates it quite a bit, but I'd rather build off of this color set than go back.   No black.   Please.   And even that lighter Daytona green looks more drab than the current navy does under the Trop's lights.   I don't know if Milwaukee's lights are darker or the difference between Columbia and Old Gold is that stark.   I went to look at the flags of Tampa and St. Pete to see if there could be any Phoenix-type inspiration there, but... dear lord no!

 

Someone posted last year a fashion cap that used the old gradient logo but in the current colors.   It looked like the ray was riding a wave and having the gradient in those colors and basing an identity on that would be great.

 

As for Ray vs. Ray, the culture of the team and fandom identifies with the aquatic creature.   They still have the touch tank.   Focus on that.   Buuuuuuut, I don't want to lose that splash of yellow from the wordmark.   Perhaps rather than just a ray of light they could focus on a bright light more in keeping with their seaside location.   Perhaps the Egmont Key Light that's been the beacon of Tampa Bay for nearly two centuries?

 

On 6/4/2021 at 5:10 PM, Gothamite said:

Leaked Cubs city connect?

 

 

Not bad at all.  Love the sleeve patch.

 

Huh...   I really would have expected some brick or ivy somewhere.   The light blue is in the city flag, but light blue and navy?   Doesn't really scream Cubs or Chicago or Wrigley to me.   The Boston one was a reference to the marathon.   Is there a local reference I'm missing here?

 

On 6/6/2021 at 4:38 PM, Ridleylash said:

A black uniform with pinstripes is "tryhard" and "clownish" now? Or is it just the font and the "Southside" on the front that makes it "clownish"? 

 

Frankly, the Red Sox' yellow and powder abomination is way clownier and tryhardy than the White Sox' black uniform. At least black is a team color.

 

I don't know if I'm insane here, but to me it doesn't look like it's trying to emulate the Sox print.   It looks like it's trying to do what the Clippers are doing by touching into the same specific culture of a different region and appeal to those who want to be a part of that culture 

 

On 6/7/2021 at 10:27 AM, DNAsports said:

To be a full time alt, they should use the regular “Sox” hat

 

For me the heather texture really messes with it.   Black with white pinstripes would probably look a thousand times better and be more at home as a full-time alt if it was just black and white.

 

On 6/7/2021 at 2:58 PM, Ridleylash said:

 "Bronchos" is too close to "Broncos" for me to think they go with it considering the Denver Broncos exist. 

 

 Wow...   I missed that one completely.   My brain autocorrected it to "Broncos".   What the crap does "Bronchos" mean?   It sounds like a sports bar's nickname for a large nachos appetizer you can share with your bros.

 

Blues is still my favorite.   I'm warming around to my half-joking suggestion of "Jakes" as a nickname akin to Knicks, Pacers, Mets, Blazers, etc where it had a meaning but now most people don't know what it is and the identity is just based around the city/sport.   Saves them a lot of headache, although I imagine the Blues identity similarly just being based around the city and baseball.

[Ridleylash]

2 hours ago, tBBP said:

Not that it directly applies, but how do you think we got the name "Jacksonville Jaguars"? Ain't no jaguars nowhere in Florida--or the States at large, unless at a zoo--but they chose it for the alliteration, and it works.

You say that, but there are wild jaguars that get found in Arizona.

[SFGiants58]

Well, I know where to find a Jaguar in Jacksonville.

 

 

Gotta get that warranty and mind the stiff depreciation!

[tBBP]

Y'all funny. 

[uuh70]

On 6/7/2021 at 11:58 AM, Ridleylash said:

 More Cleveland-related tomfoolery;

"Warriors", "Heroes" and "Squires" would all be hilariously bad, and "Foresters" and "CBC" are not far behind that. "Natives" is about the kind of solves-nothing I could see Dolan pulling.

 

"Guardians" is probably the best of the challenged applications, but that's not really saying a whole lot. I think "Blues" makes the most sense for them since they already own the name, and "Bronchos" is too close to "Broncos" for me to think they go with it considering the Denver Broncos exist. 

 

I hope this means "Spiders" is off the table, at least.

Missed opportunity here.  Would have loved to see them to go with Cleveland Kings 

 

Nice cross-sport synergy lol

 

 

[Ben in LA]

I notice the Dodgers are wearing their primary roads a LOT more this season. That’s a good thing.

[rxmc89]

20 hours ago, Ben in LA said:

I notice the Dodgers are wearing their primary roads a LOT more this season. That’s a good thing.

Yes it’s great to see.  I guess they finally realized that those are actually their primary jerseys.  The only thing is they need to wear the pants with the blue piping again.  It looks incomplete without them.

[rxmc89]

On 6/5/2021 at 6:42 PM, coco1997 said:

 

[MJD7]

On 6/8/2021 at 3:05 PM, tBBP said:

Not that it directly applies, but how do you think we got the name "Jacksonville Jaguars"? Ain't no jaguars nowhere in Florida--or the States at large, unless at a zoo--but they chose it for the alliteration, and it works.

One of the centerpiece attractions at the Jacksonville Zoo is the jaguar exhibit, which is supposedly the largest in North America, although I’m not sure if it opened before or after the team was founded. Your overall point still stands though.

[Marlins93]

The NFL has too many teams named after big cats. They also have too many teams named after birds.  Way worse than MLB having two teams named after socks.*

 

*I guess the Reds are sort of named after socks/stockings, but that isn't really part of their identity.

[DarthBrett]

On 6/9/2021 at 2:08 AM, Ben in LA said:

I notice the Dodgers are wearing their primary roads a LOT more this season. That’s a good thing.

 

Had to look up and see if they actually were because I was curious. Up to Jun 11, here's how many times they wore it since 2014 up to this point

 

2021 - 16

2020 - NA (though if you pretend July was April and August was May and September was June they wore it 5 times last year, by far the least amount)

2019 - 9

2018 - 17

2017 - 10

2016 - 11

2015 - 8

2014 - 20 (though June '14 is also when they began wearing the new 'Dodgers' alt as their primary road jersey. They only wore the 'Los Angeles' jersey twice after June 7 in 2014).

 

So they have worn it more than the past 2 years, but they actually wore it just as much before in 2018 and 2014 up to this point and still went back to the 'Dodgers' road for most of their games. I think they will still end up wearing the 'Dodgers' jersey way more regularly just like they have the past 8 seasons.

[LA_Angels]

Forgive me if this has already been posted but the all star game hats just leaked...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQHEWS8lIAwKRp2YojF3JrvDsGhiBk_6WmL-PI0/

[DCarp1231]

14 minutes ago, LA_Angels said:

Forgive me if this has already been posted but the all star game hats just leaked...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQHEWS8lIAwKRp2YojF3JrvDsGhiBk_6WmL-PI0/

The account you posted from is private