Raysox's States Baseball League 33/52 (DE, PA, IA)

[raysox]

Out of the Park baseball is a powerful baseball management game, but I treat it more like an open world video game because I can't be normal and just have a vanilla save. During the World Baseball Classic, I set up a league where teams are based in countries, and can only hire players that are of the same nationality. The United States, Japan, Cuba all dominated - i'm sure you can imagine.

A few months ago, I saw someone on the dedicated subreddit post about setting up the same thing for US States. I've never done this, but I knew the concept worked. I just didn't want to manually fix the rosters. I did some research and figured out how to express fix the process and behold - the States League was born.
 

The team names and randomly assigned logos on OOTP are just awful. As a logo designer, I couldn't let this stay the case. As a crazy person, I went ahead and started making logos for teams to use in game. Each team will have a single set of jerseys and caps, since in game, they only preview the home uniforms and it's a little less work since it's a superficial mod. Thank you @MJD7 for the template!

FLORIDA 1/52

As a Floridian, I wanted to start here. Usually, my go to is deep green and orange, like the Miami Hurricanes. But I caught some inspiration driving around and really loved the green and yellow on our highway signs. They seemed bright, tropical, and iconic. I found a script font with a unique F, and crossed it off. 

 

TENNESSEE 2/52

This was the first team I thought of a logo for. One thing I didn't want to do is the easy route and simply match the colors for the most popular team in the state. Tennessee gives me orange vibes, unfortunately. But I wanted to bring in a lot of light blue. The logo is a T, made from the state shape, using the font Moonshiner, which is a play on the history of the state.

 

CALIFORNIA 3/52

California is by far the best team in this save. I don't need to sim to see that. I went classic for them, with inspiration from the flag. Red and brown is one of the most underrated color schemes, so I used red heavy, with two tone brown for the bear in the middle of a C. the uniforms are off white, and use a simple piping. Nothing too crazy. A few California people on twitter told me that royal blue and yellow would work better, but I politely disagreed since there are a billion blue and yellow teams in this. Also, going back to the team color thing, they'd look like Cal with the logo set i'd make.

 

Would love to hear what you think! I have 13 done and this thread will make me finish it all.

[sky1324]

This is great! I'm really looking forward to the rest. I love these three teams except for TN's blue front panel, I don't think paneled caps work unless the panel color matches the jersey color. Nice work!

[BurdBranding]

As a Californian, I applaud you for not listening to other California natives! Brown and red looks good and gives the state a unique identity (which is hard to do in a league so large). The logo is great, but the bear gets lost on the hat. I’ve also never been a fan of using one logo as a prominent visual point on multiple pieces of the uniform, but I can’t blame you for only doing one logo for every team because 50 states worth of logos is a lot to begin with. Maybe removing the bear and just using the block “C” on the hat is an option? It would fix the bear on brown problem that I mentioned while creating more logo variety throughout the uniform without over complicating things. Then again, my baseball aesthetics knowledge is lacking compared to other sports. That’s all nitpicking, though. I think you did an amazing job on all three! 

[FlyingLamprey]

Been following the series on Twitter, and these look great!  I'll echo what's been previously mentioned - the light blue panel is throwing me off a bit, and a plain C might be great for California.  I'd be curious to see what a pinwheel design a la Expos looks like for Tennessee - there's a chance it might be too much, but it could be very unique (unless you're saving the pinwheel for another state of course!).  Also for Cali, I do like the off-white idea, but what about a cream like the Giants use?  I think it'll mesh with the brown(s) nicely.  Other than that, everything looks amazing (especially Florida, those colors are so fun).  Keep up the good work!

[GriffinM6]

3 hours ago, CDCLT said:

This is great! I'm really looking forward to the rest. I love these three teams except for TN's blue front panel, I don't think paneled caps work unless the panel color matches the jersey color. Nice work!

Agreed on this take. Maybe an Expos pinwheel-style hat would work best as a way to get all three colors in there.

 

Cali and Florida look fantastic.

[TrueYankee26]

Good move using red and brown for Cali. Colors are more unique

[jackkmart]

a new Raysox thread. God is good.

[coco1997]

Awesome work as always, man! 

 

Florida - Any thought to using green, gold *and* orange? I feel like you could easily work it into the current design (orange outline around the script and making one of the sleeve and collar stripes orange) and to me, green and gold unfortunately just screams Oakland. 

 

Tennessee - I'll echo what others have said about the powder blue front paneled cap looking a little out of place. Love everything else, though. Is the uniform supposed to be off-white or pale gray? It doesn't look as bright white as the Florida jersey above it. 

 

California - I agree that brown and red is a great color scheme and the cream base complements it nicely! I'm getting 1930s Cubs vibes from the design which is a great thing. 

 

Can't wait to see more! 

[raysox]

Wow thank you everybody for the overwhelming support! I have about 15 of these done and will post some more later today after we bump it for these revisions
 

20 hours ago, BoysClub said:

Maybe removing the bear and just using the block “C” on the hat is an option? It would fix the bear on brown problem that I mentioned while creating more logo variety throughout the uniform without over complicating things.

I think this is a great suggestion, and the test backed that up. C without a bear it is!

I didn't realize this til yesterday but Cal has the perfect C-Bear logo and I wish I could just use that.

 

For all the Tennessee cap comments: I feel like it's valid and the cap is definitely unique. I tried a few options, including a color swap and a pinwheel cap. I think the white front kind of loses the logo, which doesn't really work in another color variation. 

[Victormrey]

Amazing idea for a series! And great commitment to make 52 designs 

 

 

Florida: I'm a sucker for the bottle green + orange combination, but I think your colour palette feels really unique compared to almost every other design out there. I love what you did for the wordmark, adding the dropshadow and the double outline around it.

 

Tennessee: I actually think the original cap looks great! I'd say a design with the white front could fit an alternate designs which features no pins.  Also, knowing how unique the State flag is, have you thought about addidng sleeve patches? I think that, for this case in particular, a roundel with the three stars could work perfectly.

 

California: just like with some Cleveland Guardians concepts, I can't get enough of the off-white / brown / red scheme, which in this case is the perfect match for the State! I prefer the simpler C version for the cap, for simplicity's sake, but if you add that last bear you posted (flipped) I think it could be a nice middle ground.

 

 

I can't wait to see the rest of the designs!

 

P.S.: just a minor detail, specially given how good the designs are, but you might want to change or remove the MLB logo from the jocktag 

[sky1324]

For Tennessee, why not just a solid orange cap? I agree that on white the logo disappears a little (maybe color the white parts powder blue when on white to combat that?) but I don't really like the powder blue on the cap.

[colinturner95]

yeah i think the Tennessee hat works best in all orange. maybe try the all orange with the outline of the logo in the light blue?

[coco1997]

Of the other Tennessee cap options presented, I think the orange cap with powder blue front panel works best. For whatever reason, white front paneled caps don’t look right with pinstriped uniforms, so I think this is the best way to go. 

[johne9109]

Great job all around. I love that you went a little outside of the box with not using orange and still created something that felt like Florida. Not a specific part of Florida, but the entire state W2G. California feels like it represents the entire state as well and not just SoCal or NorCal. Tennessee works great as well!

[raysox]

Thanks everyone! I think after letting it sit, i'm gonna go with the original Tennessee hat. 

UTAH 4/52

Utah is an early favorite of mine. The script logo is based off an idea I had last year, that features the Delicate Arch as an A. The cap logo is heavily influenced by Hugo Lara's Utah Utes rebrand, that featured the inner state shape as a simple modification of the block U. 


NEVADA 5/52
As you'll see over this series, I love a bit of negative space play. Nevada is also a state that you can fit the state shape into the lettering. Here is a tweet from 2020 that spurred on the idea. Remember, reusing stuff is cool sometimes! The colors are a bluish green, and several shades of silver, since it is the Silver State.  These uniforms are very men's league softball, but I felt like the off-color cap really paired well with the grey pullover.

 

GEORGIA 6/52
Obviously, had to go with peach as a primary color for the Georgia team. I originally had the cursive G logo, but I kept pushing it and decided that not every script and cap logo needed to match. The uniforms are inspired by the White Sox city connect, and really look sharp.

[AusGiant]

Hnnnng that Nevada pullover

 

Also not to blow my trumpet, but @johnrafael and I made the original jersey template 

[Silence of the Rams]

5 hours ago, raysox said:

NEVADA 5/52
As you'll see over this series, I love a bit of negative space play. Nevada is also a state that you can fit the state shape into the lettering. Here is a tweet from 2020 that spurred on the idea. Remember, reusing stuff is cool sometimes! The colors are a bluish green, and several shades of silver, since it is the Silver State.  These uniforms are very men's league softball, but I felt like the off-color cap really paired well with the grey pullover.

I think the University of Nevada Reno should take some cues from this

[FinsUp1214]

Oh, you nailed Utah. I love, love, love that color scheme; it reminds me immediately of the Delicate Arch license plate.

 

 

Just about the best accolade I could give it is that, as a Utah native, I’d be very proud seeing that uniform hit the field. Well done!

[johne9109]

12 hours ago, raysox said:

Thanks everyone! I think after letting it sit, i'm gonna go with the original Tennessee hat. 

UTAH 4/52

Utah is an early favorite of mine. The script logo is based off an idea I had last year, that features the Delicate Arch as an A. The cap logo is heavily influenced by Hugo Lara's Utah Utes rebrand, that featured the inner state shape as a simple modification of the block U. 


NEVADA 5/52
As you'll see over this series, I love a bit of negative space play. Nevada is also a state that you can fit the state shape into the lettering. Here is a tweet from 2020 that spurred on the idea. Remember, reusing stuff is cool sometimes! The colors are a bluish green, and several shades of silver, since it is the Silver State.  These uniforms are very men's league softball, but I felt like the off-color cap really paired well with the grey pullover.

 

GEORGIA 6/52
Obviously, had to go with peach as a primary color for the Georgia team. I originally had the cursive G logo, but I kept pushing it and decided that not every script and cap logo needed to match. The uniforms are inspired by the White Sox city connect, and really look sharp.

Home runs again all around. Good job thinking outside the box a little bit for Utah. It's so easy to just make a uniform using red rock colors, but you went for something that is different and amazing. Nevada works great and Georgis is a good balance of using that peach color and black to keep the Georgia style. 

[raysox]

11 hours ago, AusGiant said:

Hnnnng that Nevada pullover

 

Also not to blow my trumpet, but @johnrafael and I made the original jersey template 

thank you both for your service! Works like a charm and added a lot of realism compared to the old one I had.