A Major League Multiverse, 1972

[MilSox]

Greetings logo nerds… I present the visual outline of a writing project I’m working on, and was in large part inspired by some of the series on this forum.

 

This image is from an alternate 1972 where Major League Baseball has evolved into four circuits of six clubs and limited interleague play. It is the result of the past 20 years of baseball history which has been affected by three events that didn’t occur in our timeline:

-Bill Veeck is successful in moving the St. Louis Browns to Milwaukee County Stadium. Thereby returning the original Brewers franchise from the 19^th century to its original home and setting off a completely different pattern of franchise relocation.

 

-The Dodgers are granted their proposed domed stadium on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush in Brooklyn (the site of the current Barclays Center), and never moved to the West Coast.

 

-The lack of NL or AL ball on the coast opens the door for the Pacific Coast League to become the third major league going into the 1960s. A conflict that, much like pro football with the NFL and AFL, takes about a decade to resolve.

I’m not sure if this will be a series since my own design skills are limited. But my inbox is open if anyone would be interested in some collaborating.

 

This is also by no means a finished project… I’m still not completely sold on the timelines I have going for some of the teams which would affect this particular lineup. My goal is to be different enough from our universe to keep things interesting, but still grounded enough in reality to keep the reader’s suspension of disbelief. Where possible, I even have storylines and side plots that show how MLB’s franchise moves have affected other sports (such as when a highly-anticipated 1988 Monday Night Football game between division rivals the Baltimore Colts and Brooklyn Titans was hastily moved to Shea Stadium in the Meadowlands to accommodate a Dodgers playoff game at the BrooklynDome).

Anyway, let the speculation begin…..

 

.

 

 

[coco1997]

I've always enjoyed your commentary on this forum @MilSox, and I'm excited to see you try your hand at a series. Looking forward to this!

 

I know you said your own design skills are limited, but what program did you use to create the new logos I see above?

[neo_prankster]

I look forward to seeing this series build and grow.

 

By the way, what city do the Twenty-Ones play in?

[maxwasson]

On 11/22/2023 at 1:17 PM, MilSox said:

Greetings logo nerds… I present the visual outline of a writing project I’m working on, and was in large part inspired by some of the series on this forum.

 

This image is from an alternate 1972 where Major League Baseball has evolved into four circuits of six clubs and limited interleague play. It is the result of the past 20 years of baseball history which has been affected by three events that didn’t occur in our timeline:

-Bill Veeck is successful in moving the St. Louis Browns to Milwaukee County Stadium. Thereby returning the original Brewers franchise from the 19^th century to its original home and setting off a completely different pattern of franchise relocation.

 

-The Dodgers are granted their proposed domed stadium on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush in Brooklyn (the site of the current Barclays Center), and never moved to the West Coast.

 

-The lack of NL or AL ball on the coast opens the door for the Pacific Coast League to become the third major league going into the 1960s. A conflict that, much like pro football with the NFL and AFL, takes about a decade to resolve.

I’m not sure if this will be a series since my own design skills are limited. But my inbox is open if anyone would be interested in some collaborating.

 

This is also by no means a finished project… I’m still not completely sold on the timelines I have going for some of the teams which would affect this particular lineup. My goal is to be different enough from our universe to keep things interesting, but still grounded enough in reality to keep the reader’s suspension of disbelief. Where possible, I even have storylines and side plots that show how MLB’s franchise moves have affected other sports (such as when a highly-anticipated 1988 Monday Night Football game between division rivals the Baltimore Colts and Brooklyn Titans was hastily moved to Shea Stadium in the Meadowlands to accommodate a Dodgers playoff game at the BrooklynDome).

Anyway, let the speculation begin…..

 

.

 

 

 

Wonder what team is playing in KC with a dark navy and red color scheme? 

[coco1997]

58 minutes ago, maxwasson said:

Wonder what team is playing in KC with a dark navy and red color scheme? 

That’s definitely a Kansas City Monarchs logo.

[maxwasson]

1 hour ago, coco1997 said:

That’s definitely a Kansas City Monarchs logo.

 

For sure, but many other Kansas City baseball teams have used similar looking cap logos before so that could be the Monarchs, but it could have another name as well.

[teeray01]

IC could be Indianapolis.

[neo_prankster]

16 hours ago, teeray01 said:

IC could be Indianapolis.

 

Indianapolis Comets maybe?

 

Or maybe it could be the Cleveland Indians minus Chief Wahoo? Or Cleveland Industrials if the name got changed sooner than in real life?

[MilSox]

On 11/27/2023 at 5:21 PM, neo_prankster said:

I look forward to seeing this series build and grow.

 

By the way, what city do the Twenty-Ones play in?

 

I'm not sure if this will become a formal series like some of those you've seen in the Concepts section. But I'll definitely share some updates as I make them since I am not completely sold on all the timelines.
 

The 21s are the Seattle Centurys aka Seattle Century 21s. They evolved out of the ashes of the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. After the Coast League was declared a major league, they used the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle (aka the Century 21 Expo) as a platform to promote their brand of baseball.  The Centurys play in an Astrodome-like stadium called the Emerald Dome on the expo grounds where the Washington State Pavilion (the old Key Arena where the Sonics used to play) sits in our universe. (Strangely enough, the two original ballparks that exist in this universe are on the site of a NBA arena in our universe.)

 

Identity-wise the Centurys are sort of a mash-up of the Astros and Expos.  They're named after a world's fair that their city hosted like the Expos, and like the Astros they play in a state-of-the-art dome in a city built by aerospace technology, and wear "space age" uniforms.  But I'm still mulling a few ideas in my head of what they actually look like.. I want them to look unlike anything you saw teams doing in the mid-1960s, yet still plausible for that era.

 

On 11/27/2023 at 5:26 PM, maxwasson said:

 

Wonder what team is playing in KC with a dark navy and red color scheme? 

 

There's a clue in the initial post... The Browns moving to Milwaukee means the Braves had to find another city.

 

23 hours ago, coco1997 said:

That’s definitely a Kansas City Monarchs logo.

 

It's actually a Kansas City A's logo... or at least that's where I got it from. But a lot of the monograms adopted by new teams in this era were lifted directly from a minor league team in that area. Both the Monarchs and KC Blues of the American Association used a similar monogram at various points before the A's arrived.

[MilSox]

6 hours ago, neo_prankster said:

 

Indianapolis Comets maybe?

 

Or maybe it could be the Cleveland Indians minus Chief Wahoo? Or Cleveland Industrials if the name got changed sooner than in real life?

 

I haven't quite gotten to the 80s and 90s yet, but my plan was for the Indians to still be the Indians. In this universe, the Cleveland organization quietly phased out Wahoo in the 80s the way the Braves did with their native mascot logo. As such, they never became the source of controversy that they did in our world. In the 90s, the Indians have a rebrand inspired by legit Native American folk art to something along the lines of what we see with the MiLB clubs in Indianapolis and Spokane.

 

However, I am eventually gonna have to address the fact that Indianapolis wanted a MLB team in the 80s. I can't say I've considered how convenient it might be if a team moved to Indy and already had an "I" on their cap!

[seasaltvanilla]

First thought was Iowa City.

[maxwasson]

20 hours ago, MilSox said:

 

I'm not sure if this will become a formal series like some of those you've seen in the Concepts section. But I'll definitely share some updates as I make them since I am not completely sold on all the timelines.
 

The 21s are the Seattle Centurys aka Seattle Century 21s. They evolved out of the ashes of the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. After the Coast League was declared a major league, they used the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle (aka the Century 21 Expo) as a platform to promote their brand of baseball.  The Centurys play in an Astrodome-like stadium called the Emerald Dome on the expo grounds where the Washington State Pavilion (the old Key Arena where the Sonics used to play) sits in our universe. (Strangely enough, the two original ballparks that exist in this universe are on the site of a NBA arena in our universe.)

 

Identity-wise the Centurys are sort of a mash-up of the Astros and Expos.  They're named after a world's fair that their city hosted like the Expos, and like the Astros they play in a state-of-the-art dome in a city built by aerospace technology, and wear "space age" uniforms.  But I'm still mulling a few ideas in my head of what they actually look like.. I want them to look unlike anything you saw teams doing in the mid-1960s, yet still plausible for that era.

 

 

There's a clue in the initial post... The Browns moving to Milwaukee means the Braves had to find another city.

 

 

It's actually a Kansas City A's logo... or at least that's where I got it from. But a lot of the monograms adopted by new teams in this era were lifted directly from a minor league team in that area. Both the Monarchs and KC Blues of the American Association used a similar monogram at various points before the A's arrived.

 

That would be interesting to have two major sports teams in Kansas City vaguely named after Native Americans.