Minor Leages in Little League

[DL Watt]

My son was on the Storm last year. Loved the uni's. This year now that he plays coach pitch they have MLB teams......unfortuantley he is on the A's.

[jab8281965]

My home town had 3 different leagues depending on where you lived. The western part of town was the American League (with appropriate names), the central part of town was the National League (with appropriate names), and the eastern part of town was the International League - circa 1960s, as the teams were Toronto, Buffalo, Syracuse, Richmond, Rochester, Columbus.

The uniforms early on were color based, but as time went on the leagues used major league replicas - but for the International League, Toronto was royal blue and red, Buffalo was green and gold, Syracuse was navy and white, Richmond was royal blue and white, Rochester was burgundy, and Columbus was red and white.

All teams were sponsored by local businesses, so you were the "Art's Shell Mets" and the like.

[Luigi74]

I just found out last night that my nephew's team I help coach is going to be the Rays. I guess the new guy in charge of the league wants every team to have a different name no matter what the age level, in the past they would have Yankees, Tigers, Cubs and so on at each level. For whatever reason my nephew's age group got the worst group of names(haven't seen the uniforms yet) Rays, Blue Jays, Mariners, Marlins, Rockies and Rangers.

[BallWonk]

I just found out last night that my nephew's team I help coach is going to be the Rays. I guess the new guy in charge of the league wants every team to have a different name no matter what the age level, in the past they would have Yankees, Tigers, Cubs and so on at each level. For whatever reason my nephew's age group got the worst group of names(haven't seen the uniforms yet) Rays, Blue Jays, Mariners, Marlins, Rockies and Rangers.

I coached a team called the Devil Rays in 1999. The colors were black and purple. Ugh.

Though the Rays have bland uniforms, the colors should be good. Navy, light blue, or yellow are all fine colors for youth uniforms. The only drawback will be wearing tuberculosis awareness caps.

The great mascot caps in the minors are what make them especially attractive for youth league use. You're not stuck with some city's initial. I guarantee that, come October, few if any of the kids on your team will still be wearing their TB caps from summer.

[Luigi74]

I just found out last night that my nephew's team I help coach is going to be the Rays. I guess the new guy in charge of the league wants every team to have a different name no matter what the age level, in the past they would have Yankees, Tigers, Cubs and so on at each level. For whatever reason my nephew's age group got the worst group of names(haven't seen the uniforms yet) Rays, Blue Jays, Mariners, Marlins, Rockies and Rangers.

I coached a team called the Devil Rays in 1999. The colors were black and purple. Ugh.

Though the Rays have bland uniforms, the colors should be good. Navy, light blue, or yellow are all fine colors for youth uniforms. The only drawback will be wearing tuberculosis awareness caps.

The great mascot caps in the minors are what make them especially attractive for youth league use. You're not stuck with some city's initial. I guarantee that, come October, few if any of the kids on your team will still be wearing their TB caps from summer.

The Team MLB uniforms they wear always seem to be a few years behind what the pro's are wearing, so whatever the Rays wore in 05 or 06 will be the style we get.

Also the league is going back to the Team MLB shirts and caps after using just the caps last year with shirts that had the league name on the front and sponsor name on the back.

[BB61]

When I played (1988-96), we were always something predictable and not color coordinated -- Cardinals (Maroon), Phillies (Blue), Cubs (Yellow), Tigers (White/Blue #'s), Mets (Yellow), Phillies again (Gray), Dodgers (Navy), Cardinals again (Forrest Green), and then White Sox (Forrest Green again). I never understood that.

One year, I remember our league having an atrocious rainbow thing goin' on. Pink, Canary, Purple... Ugh.

When my dad coached (1996-2003), always wanted names that weren't used with colors that were reflective of the team name. Thus, we ended up being the Rockies, Angels, Diamondbacks, and Rangers throughout different years.

Having been on the board for a couple of years, I remember distinctively us wanting to get five or six colors for use in other sports so that if a shirt wasn't used, it could be recycled for one of the other sports that we did. In the end, we generally used red, maroon, orange, yellow, kelly green, forest green, sky blue, royal blue, navy blue, purple, black, and gray. That's a lot, but there were all sorts of possibilities.

I coached T-ball for three years, and I tried to get a baseball name each year that I liked and that the kids liked. Our first year, we were sky-blue and we were the Riversharks, and the kids loved it. The next year, we were navy, and called the BlueClaws. Again, the kids loved it (especially since I had the jersey and the hat to go with it!).

The thing that always irked me is that the league (and a lot of coaches were) encouraged to let the kids pick the names. The problem is that you ended up with names such as the "Phanatics", "Power Rangers", "Pokémons", etc. My last season we were purple, and the kids didn't like any of my suggestions, so we were the "Purple People Eaters".

[Drew22]

Here is what I would do if I were running a 12 team league.

Salt Lake Bees

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/bees.png

Montgomery Biscuits

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/biscuits.png

Tulsa Drillers

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/drillers.png

New Hampshire Fishercats

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Dre.../fishercats.png

Corpus Christi Hooks

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/hooks.png

Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/ironpigs.png

Vermont Lake Monsters

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Dre...akemonsters.png

Las Vegas 51's

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/lasvegas.png

Modesto Nuts

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/nuts.png

Orem Owlz

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/owlz.png

Clearwater Threshers

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/threshers.png

Trenton Thunder

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/Drewr22/thunder.png

Basically, no hats with letters on them and hats with different colored brims. I have a two navy jerseys, and two black jerseys, but everything else is different.

Some of the others I would have used were.

Idaho Falls Chukars

Cedar Rapids Kernals

Connecticut Defenders

Syracuse Chiefs

Sacremento River Cats

Chattanooga Lookouts

[Brick]

A Mudcats-Lugnuts little league game:

http://improveverywhere.com/2008/04/07/bes...-ever/#more-233

[-kj]

Wow. IE apparently has some weight to pull that off.

[Shumway]

A Mudcats-Lugnuts little league game:

http://improveverywhere.com/2008/04/07/bes...-ever/#more-233

That's the coolest thing ever. Heck, I loved it when we had tournaments when they announced our names when we came to the plate...of course, nobody can pronounce my last name.

I actually wish we had minor league teams as ours when I played....let's see if I can remember way back when and and throw out how uniforms worked when I played(all were gray pants):

Phillies(my team) - Red with white letters, then maroon/white

A's - Yellow with green letters

Rockies - Purple/Yellow, then Gray/Black

Angels - Gray/Red...I always wanted to play for them, not just as an Angels fan, but they painted halos on their caps

Marlins - Teal/Black

Pirates - Yellow/Black

Orioles - Orange/Black

Cubs - Blue/White

Prior to when I played, I know there was a Mets(Blue/Orange), Twins(Navy/Red), Giants(Black/Orange), Padres(Brown/Yellow) and Indians(Red/navy).

And the next level up was also MLB teams, but we played other leagues. I was on the Indians one year(Navy/White) and the Dodgers(Gray/Blue) the following. There was also the Blue Jays(White/Light Blue) and the Tigers(Red for some reason, and white) Then, our organization got pinstriped jerseys, like the Yankees, with navy pants.

[PSUdraw]

I guess lucky that the league I played in was made up of bunch small towns so the team names were the name of Towns. It interesting cause the teams have had the same colors for decades. Though there is a minor little league team using the Intimadators as there team name. Yes Dale Ernhart the Intimadators in black red and grey.

[jab8281965]

I guess lucky that the league I played in was made up of bunch small towns so the team names were the name of Towns. It interesting cause the teams have had the same colors for decades. Though there is a minor little league team using the Intimadators as there team name. Yes Dale Ernhart the Intimadators in black red and grey.

Both of my daughters play softball in our town. The league uses the names and logos of the NPF:

Force (Philly)

Racers (Akron)

Bandits (Chicago)

Riptide (New England)

Glory (DC)

Thunder (Rockford)

Brakettes (Connecticut)

If a level has more than 7 teams, they supplement the NPF teams with local college names/logos such as:

Wildcats (New Hampshire)

Huskies (Northeastern)

They used Eagles for Boston College last year, but BC asked they cease after the 2007 season as in order to protect their trademark, they'd have to charge a fee. Northeastern and UNH chose not to ask for a fee, and therefore have teams in the league using their logos. As a Northeastern alum, had one of my daughters ever been put on the "Eagles", I'd have had a big problem with it!!!

Apparently the NPF (since they have a team in Lowell - near where we live) wants the PR and isn't charging for the use of the logos - and some of the logos are pretty cool for little girls to wear.

[TheAK47]

Our little league has minor league teams for the younger players. Sometimes they even have college teams.

[Luigi74]

My team is now the Blue Jays, the old Blue Jays only had 7 players and 3 players who were supposed to be on my team never showed up for any practice or returned any calls, so they merged the teams and everyone agreed on Blue Jays. Also the guy who is in charge of the equipment told me that the league went on the cheap and every level is just going to have the t-shirt jersey.