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

[coco1997]

On 3/29/2022 at 12:15 PM, Coiler said:

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

 

2 hours ago, Victormrey said:

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.

Thanks, guys!

Up today are the Philadelphia Athletics!

ATHLETICS HOME:

 

ATHLETICS ROAD:

 

ATHLETICS HOME ALT:

Visual inspiration: Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City/Oakland Athletics 

 

An interesting element of the 1960s Kansas City A's uniforms is that they used numbers on both the front and sleeves of their jerseys, a detail I carried over to this design. I used a Blackletter style "P" in the style of Oakland's "A" as the primary/cap logo, and the shield of the Players' League logo replaces the MLB logo which appeared on the front of the A's' 1969 uniforms. I didn't want to overdo it with McAuliffe style numbers so I opted for standard block numbers instead. The away set is powder blue a la the great Phillies road unis of the 1970s-80s. 

 

C&C appreciated! The next team up might be my favorite in this series. 

[Coiler]

Looks a little plain and Phillies-ish, but I suppose the latter at least was intentional. Still a good uniform.

[Carolingian Steamroller]

The color is just perfect and probably my favorite part of the uniform.

 

Its bright but not harsh and doesn't veer in leisure suit territory. It's very 60's flannel era. I can feel the wool and durene.

 

Terrific work. Probably my favorite so far.

[MilSox]

Your Chicago Pirates looks like the White Sox, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee all met at a swingers club one night... but I love it.

 

 

[coco1997]

On 4/1/2022 at 1:43 PM, Coiler said:

Looks a little plain and Phillies-ish, but I suppose the latter at least was intentional. Still a good uniform.

 

On 4/1/2022 at 2:26 PM, Carolingian Steamroller said:

The color is just perfect and probably my favorite part of the uniform.

 

Its bright but not harsh and doesn't veer in leisure suit territory. It's very 60's flannel era. I can feel the wool and durene.

 

Terrific work. Probably my favorite so far.

Thanks!
 

On 4/1/2022 at 3:09 PM, NicDB said:

Your Chicago Pirates looks like the White Sox, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee all met at a swingers club one night... but I love it.

This might be my favorite comment I've ever received on one of my designs.  Now that I look at it, I do see a bit of Brewers in the design. 
 

Today we have the Buffalo Bisons!

BISONS HOME:

 

BISONS ROAD:

 

BISONS HOME/ROAD ALT:

Visual inspiration: Buffalo Bisons (AAA team), Buffalo Sabres

The original Buffalo Bisons apparently wore black and metallic gold (at least according to Wikipedia) so I adapted the modern Buffalo Bisons of the International League in those colors, with off-white, pinstriped uniforms at home for a nice vintage look. I also "borrowed" the NHL Sabres' 2011-12 "Buffalo" script for the road jersey since it always looked very baseball-y to me. 

 

C&C appreciated! The Cleveland Infants are up next. 

[MilSox]

I wasn't liking the Bisons until you explained the colors. But I would model your monogram off the road script since... as you said... it looks more baseball-y.

[Coiler]

Looks both distinct and Buffalo-y. Nice job.

[coco1997]

10 hours ago, Coiler said:

Looks both distinct and Buffalo-y. Nice job.

Thanks!

 

18 hours ago, NicDB said:

I wasn't liking the Bisons until you explained the colors. But I would model your monogram off the road script since... as you said... it looks more baseball-y.

Thanks. How about something like this?

BISONS HOME:

 

BISONS ROAD:

 

BISONS HOME/ROAD ALT:

[coco1997]

Up this afternoon are the Cleveland Infants!

INFANTS HOME:

 

INFANTS ROAD:

 

INFANTS HOME ALT:

 

INFANTS ROAD ALT:

 

Visual inspiration: Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Naps
 

The original Cleveland Infants allegedly wore blue and pink, which makes sense given that those are baby colors. The font used for the scripts is Neuland, which is fairly close to Cleveland's "caveman" scripts of the 1970s, and the radial arching was inspired by Cleveland's late 1910s uniforms. I got the idea to use the 1909 Cleveland Naps' flowery "C," since, uh, infants take lots of naps. I didn't want to even attempt some sort of silly, cartoon baby/infant mascot logo a la Chief Wahoo, so the script "C" becomes the primary logo. I added raglan sleeves to the home and road jerseys just to give them a little more personality. 

 

C&C appreciated! We finish off the series with the Pittsburgh Burgers next. 

[Coiler]

An appropriately goofy uniform for an appropriately goofy name. I was looking forward to this and it did not disappoint.

[eegl75]

1 hour ago, coco1997 said:

Up this afternoon are the Cleveland Infants!

INFANTS HOME:

 

INFANTS ROAD:

 

INFANTS HOME ALT:

 

INFANTS ROAD ALT:

 

Visual inspiration: Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Naps
 

The original Cleveland Infants allegedly wore blue and pink, which makes sense given that those are baby colors. The font used for the scripts is Neuland, which is fairly close to Cleveland's "caveman" scripts of the 1970s, and the radial arching was inspired by Cleveland's late 1910s uniforms. I got the idea to use the 1909 Cleveland Naps' flowery "C," since, uh, infants take lots of naps. I didn't want to even attempt some sort of silly, cartoon baby/infant mascot logo a la Chief Wahoo, so the script "C" becomes the primary logo. I added raglan sleeves to the home and road jerseys just to give them a little more personality. 

 

C&C appreciated! We finish off the series with the Pittsburgh Burgers next. 

its funny to think about how teams today are so concerned with team names, branding, identity, and being "intimidating", but back then they were just like "yo lets name the team after literal BABIES!"

[Bomba Tomba]

I have a feeling that if they existed today, they'd have been rebranded at some point into "Infantry", which I feel is badass.

 

Love the unique colors though.

[MilSox]

On 4/6/2022 at 5:01 PM, eegl75 said:

its funny to think about how teams today are so concerned with team names, branding, identity, and being "intimidating", but back then they were just like "yo lets name the team after literal BABIES!"

 

A lot of nicknames were derived from something a reporter called them. Guessing Cleveland had a very young team that year.

[Paul Lucas]

On 3/31/2022 at 4:39 PM, coco1997 said:

 

Thanks, guys!

Up today are the Philadelphia Athletics!

ATHLETICS HOME:

 

ATHLETICS ROAD:

 

ATHLETICS HOME ALT:

Visual inspiration: Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City/Oakland Athletics 

 

An interesting element of the 1960s Kansas City A's uniforms is that they used numbers on both the front and sleeves of their jerseys, a detail I carried over to this design. I used a Blackletter style "P" in the style of Oakland's "A" as the primary/cap logo, and the shield of the Players' League logo replaces the MLB logo which appeared on the front of the A's' 1969 uniforms. I didn't want to overdo it with McAuliffe style numbers so I opted for standard block numbers instead. The away set is powder blue a la the great Phillies road unis of the 1970s-80s. 

 

C&C appreciated! The next team up might be my favorite in this series. 

What a thing of beauty!!!! 

[Paul Lucas]

Late to the party, but just wanted to say:

 

The Wonders are…dare I say…wonderful!!!

 

Boston: love the color balance with the white trim…definitely like the black undershirt.

 

The Giants are Gorgeous. Prefer the original patch on the road, as well as the black undershirt.

 

The Pirates are hella cool.

 

The A’s are Perfection.

 

The Buffalo road script was an inspired choice.

 

Excellent work with the Infants.

 

All in all, HOME RUN!!!

[eegl75]

2 hours ago, NicDB said:

 

A lot of nicknames were derived from something a reporter called them. Guessing Cleveland had a very young team that year.

makes sense. they probably also weren't the best at fielding (bumbling infants)

[coco1997]

On 4/6/2022 at 3:51 PM, Coiler said:

An appropriately goofy uniform for an appropriately goofy name. I was looking forward to this and it did not disappoint.

 

17 hours ago, Paul Lucas said:

Late to the party, but just wanted to say:

 

The Wonders are…dare I say…wonderful!!!

 

Boston: love the color balance with the white trim…definitely like the black undershirt.

 

The Giants are Gorgeous. Prefer the original patch on the road, as well as the black undershirt.

 

The Pirates are hella cool.

 

The A’s are Perfection.

 

The Buffalo road script was an inspired choice.

 

Excellent work with the Infants.

 

All in all, HOME RUN!!!

Thanks, guys!
 

On 4/6/2022 at 7:57 PM, Bomba Tomba said:

I have a feeling that if they existed today, they'd have been rebranded at some point into "Infantry", which I feel is badass.

 

Love the unique colors though.

Thanks! And yeah, I agree. The "Infants" nickname likely would not have survived the 20th century, much like the "Orphans" or "Beaneaters."

Let's wrap up the series going into the Opening Day weekend with the Pittsburgh Burghers!

BURGHERS HOME:

 

BURGHERS ROAD:

 

BURGHERS HOME ALT:

 

BURGHERS ROAD ALT:

 

So what is a "burgher," exactly? Apparently it just refers to an upper class citizen of a city or town. My thinking behind the Burghers was basically “The Pittsburgh Pirates, minus any pirate imagery, but still with personality.” I wanted to avoid too many similarities with the Chicago Pirates, since that concept was already heavily Pittsburgh Pirates-influenced, so I I decided to make the Burghers a yellow dominant team, using a shade of gold closer to the Pirates of the '70s and making their home uniforms off-white. The cap/crest logo is a Pennsylvania keystone behind the Pirates' 1923-33 Tuscan style "P" logo, and the checkerboard pattern on the sleeves, pants and socks was inspired by the Pittsburgh coat of arms. I used a combination of the Pirates’ script “Pittsburgh” and a font called HT Motel to Frankenstein together a “Burghers” script. Big thanks to @Victormrey for helping me out with the checkerboard pattern and props to @Carolingian Steamroller for suggesting I ditch a “Pittsburgh” script altogether and just use the “Burghers” script on the road jersey.

 

C&C appreciated. Thanks for following along! 

[Coiler]

The Burghers look great, very Pittsburgh without being too obviously just a reskinned Pirates (as was your intention).