Baseball Players' League Teams in the Modern Day (Pittsburgh Burghers 4/8)

[coco1997]

Inspired by @Carolingian Steamroller's excellent Negro League Teams in the Modern Day thread, I decided to reimagine the eight teams of the Players' League of 1890 for 2022. Most of the teams will have very obvious visual inspirations from current day MLB teams, which I'll explain in my descriptions below. 

The first team is the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders:

WONDERS HOME:

 

WONDERS ROAD:

 

WONDERS ALT:

Visual inspiration: Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets
 

The Wonders were conceived as the visual love child of the Dodgers and Mets. I reworked the "Dodgers" script and used a great baseball-y font called "Retrofunk" to create the "Wonders" script. The stars on the jersey were inspired by the Dodgers' 1992 Hollywood Stars uniforms, and the arched Tuscan style "Brooklyn" on the road is akin to the Mets' road "New York" lettering. The T-bars on the sleeves are a nod to the Dodgers' Brooklyn days. 

 

C&C appreciated! I'll have another team up soon. 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

The Wonders!

 

[chcarlson23]

18 hours ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

The Wonders!

 

Hey that’s the O-Neders to you

[Coiler]

Looks whimsical, distinct, and combining the Dodgers/Mets without being too much like one or the other.

[coco1997]

On 3/23/2022 at 6:44 PM, Carolingian Steamroller said:

The Wonders!

 

 

On 3/24/2022 at 12:46 PM, chcarlson23 said:

Hey that’s the O-Neders to you

 

Steve Zahn is an underappreciated comic genius.

 

23 hours ago, Coiler said:

Looks whimsical, distinct, and combining the Dodgers/Mets without being too much like one or the other.

 

Thanks! That's exactly what I was going for.

 

Next up are the Boston Reds!

REDS HOME:

 

REDS ROAD:

 

REDS HOME/ROAD ALT:

 

Visual inspiration: Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds

 

What do you get when you cross the Boston Red Sox with the Cincinnati Reds? The Boston Reds, of course. For Boston, I incorporated a few signature elements of the Red Sox (McAuliffe style numbers and their classic striped stirrups) and the Reds (pinstriped, vest style uniforms and red pants). The Old English logo reflect both Boston and Cincinnati's earliest days. I wasn't originally going to use black, but the Red Sox stirrups in just red and white didn't really convey the desired effect, so I added black to the stirrups and tried to use it as sparingly as possible everywhere else. 

 

C&C appreciated as always!

[Carolingian Steamroller]

I kinda want black sleeves on the red alternate.

[coco1997]

2 minutes ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

I kinda want black sleeves on the red alternate.

 

I have to admit, this looks pretty good.

 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

The white trim really makes that work. If the trim was black, there might be an imbalance. 

 

 

[GrayJ12]

I always love looking at your concepts, you bring some very unique ideas to the table all the time and you execute them flawlessly.

 

Very unique basis about this concept series...I had not even heard of it until today. I am very much liking the approach that you are taking with this! I really like the red/black alt - gives me late 90's/early 2000's Cincy Red's vibes. I also like the callback to the very early Red Sox and Reds logos. Awesome as always!

[Coiler]

Like the Boston Reds. Good at making what I feared would be boring-not so boring.

 

Although the curious part of me wants to know how you'd handle the Cleveland Infants...

[MilSox]

Pretty much how they had to look. The black looks way better than I thought.

 

Weird how the Red Sox and Reds essentially swapped 19th century identities.

[coco1997]

On 3/25/2022 at 2:51 PM, Carolingian Steamroller said:

The white trim really makes that work. If the trim was black, there might be an imbalance. 

 

 

 

Agreed! Good suggestion.

 

On 3/25/2022 at 3:52 PM, GrayJ12 said:

I always love looking at your concepts, you bring some very unique ideas to the table all the time and you execute them flawlessly.

 

Very unique basis about this concept series...I had not even heard of it until today. I am very much liking the approach that you are taking with this! I really like the red/black alt - gives me late 90's/early 2000's Cincy Red's vibes. I also like the callback to the very early Red Sox and Reds logos. Awesome as always!

 

Thank you for the kind words! I hope you continue following along.
 

On 3/25/2022 at 5:53 PM, Coiler said:

Like the Boston Reds. Good at making what I feared would be boring-not so boring.

 

Although the curious part of me wants to know how you'd handle the Cleveland Infants...

 

You'll see soon enough!
 

21 hours ago, NicDB said:

Pretty much how they had to look. The black looks way better than I thought.

 

Weird how the Red Sox and Reds essentially swapped 19th century identities.

Thanks! And good observation about Boston and Cincinnati. 

 

Up today are the New York Giants!

GIANTS HOME:

 

GIANTS ROAD:

 

GIANTS HOME ALT:

 

GIANTS ROAD ALT:

 

Visual inspiration: San Francisco Giants, New York Mets

 

This one is pretty straightforward, basically a modernization of the New York Giants while trying not to let myself be too subconsciously influenced by @SFGiants58's excellent concept from his most recent series. Zippered uniforms (a la the Giants unis of the 1940s) in San Francisco's off-white with McAuliffe numbers while using the Mets' "NY" monogram. I also modified the Giants' 1951 alternate logo to read "1890." 

 

C&C is always appreciated! I promise the next team will be a bit more "outside the box."

[MCM0313]

On 3/25/2022 at 6:53 PM, Coiler said:

Like the Boston Reds. Good at making what I feared would be boring-not so boring.

 

Although the curious part of me wants to know how you'd handle the Cleveland Infants...

Hopefully the Infants would resemble the Chicago Baby Humans of BoJack Horseman. 

[MilSox]

I kind of wish the back number would match the front number for the sake of color balance.

 

Otherwise, you've got another winner.

[coco1997]

6 hours ago, NicDB said:

I kind of wish the back number would match the front number for the sake of color balance.

 

Otherwise, you've got another winner.

 

Done! I also swapped out the sleeve patch on the road jersey with the "NY" monogram.

GIANTS HOME:

 

GIANTS ROAD:

 

GIANTS HOME ALT:

 

GIANTS ROAD ALT:

[Carolingian Steamroller]

Minor tweak, make the undershirts for the road alternate black. 

 

It might make it a touch monochrome but I think on the field, it'll look better to have the under shirt match the socks.

[coco1997]

1 hour ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

Minor tweak, make the undershirts for the road alternate black. 

 

It might make it a touch monochrome but I think on the field, it'll look better to have the under shirt match the socks.

 

Good call. Here's that tweak:

 

[coco1997]

Up today are the Chicago Pirates!


PIRATES HOME:

 

PIRATES ROAD:

 

PIRATES HOME ALT:

 

PIRATES ROAD ALT:

 

Visual inspiration: Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox

 

For the Pirates, I went with yellow scripts and numbers to make the design a bit more distinctive and also to set it apart from the real life Pirates. I used a font called 'Westerion' (thanks, @Victormrey!) which is close to what Pittsburgh uses but just different enough. The sleeve patch combines the skull from the Pirates' 1997-2010 alternate logo with the White Sox diamond sock logo. My original road design was more heavily based on the White Sox away set before I decided on road pins as yet another nod to the Buccos' uniform history, and also because none of the remaining teams in this series will use road pins. Pant numbers are meant to evoke both Chicago's 1982-86 and '87-90 sets. Lastly, I figured I could get away with two distinct road wordmarks, so the road alt uses a modified version of the South Siders' current road script. 

 

C&C appreciated! 

[Coiler]

Great job again. As I said in the Penguins/Pirates color swap thread, blue works great for a team with a nautical name.

[Victormrey]

Great job as usual! I love the road alt jersey for the Pirates, I think you blended the C from the cap perfectly on the White Sox's "Chicago" wordmark.