The Sports Logo Pundit

The Sports Logo Pundit Has Moved

2011-04-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

You can find new posts from The Sports Logo Pundit over at www.sportslogopundit.com.

McMurry University

2011-02-15T21:19:00.000-08:00

McMurry University has been without a nickname and mascot since 2006 when the NCAA forced them to drop their Indians moniker. Five years later the Abilene, Texas school is in the final stages of picking a new nickname and voting for the name is currently underway here. Your choices: Bison, War Hawks and Circuit Riders.

Despite having no stake in the name (though I did say I was a friend of the university when I voted), I personally have submitted my vote for Circuit Riders, which is described by the McMurry search committee as “preachers who traveled from church to church during the founding of the Methodist church.”

Though I think Bison is too common and boring, I can easily get behind War Hawks because I think McMurry is more likely to produce a decent War Hawks logo. Circuit Riders would be a unique name but would be pretty difficult to illustrate in a satisfactory way. I fear they would just go with the McM logo shown above – a serviceable letter mark - and just tack the Circuit Riders name onto their athletic teams.

But the possibility of a great Circuit Riders logo is just too strong to pass up. I’m probably getting my hopes up for nothing, but I’m a sucker for the chance at the ridiculous. Vote Riders!

Catch Me On The Twitters

2010-12-19T20:28:00.000-08:00

Has it really been over two years since I last posted on The Sports Logo Pundit? Well, perhaps I'll get started again soon.

Lots of logo news has been in my brain so the very least I can do is start a Sports Logo Pundit Twitter account. So until I can get back to blogging, follow me - @SportLogoPundit - for all your logo news needs (or at least some of them).

Oklahoma City Thunder

2008-09-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

Prepare for my most intellectual review EVER...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....Your logo TOTALLY sucks!

We Want Cave Shimp! We Want Cave Shrimp!

2008-08-22T00:23:00.000-07:00

The Sports Logo Pundit is back! Recent emails from a couple of baseball front office folks has rekindled my interest in this blog and it's about time I got it going again. I'm not going to lie, I got a little tired of sports logos. Couple that boredom with a brand new baby in the house and you should be able to understand why you haven't heard much from me. I can't promise tons of posts or greatness, but you can expect at least a few posts each week. We'll just have to see how it goes.

One of the biggest reasons that I'm back is to encourage everybody to vote. Now I'm not talking presidential politics, I could care less. No, I'm talking big important stuff - like what to call the new Bowling Green, Kentucky baseball team. And I'm not doing this as a public service, I'm here to rally the troops for one name in particular...

"Bowling Green Cave Shrimp
Mammoth Cave, located near Bowling Green, is home to the endangered Kentucky Cave Shrimp, a sightless albino shrimp. The blind cave shrimp has been registered as an endangered species since 1983."

I haven't felt this strongly about a name the team contest since the GBL thought about naming one of their teams the Surprise Desert Penguins.

Please click here to go vote for the Cave Shrimp. Come on...do it for the Sports Logo Pundit. He needs the Cave Shrimp to win.

Picture stolen from Bus League Baseball who is also behind the Cave Shrimp name 100%

Tacoma Rainiers

2008-04-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

When is an alternate logo not an alternate logo? I think the answer is probably when it adorns every single piece of merchandise available in the team store, appears on every single publication - ticket brochures, pocket schedules and programs, all the staff clothing features it and generally, the primary logo is nowhere to be found.

That's what I observed at the Tacoma Rainiers home opener a couple weeks ago. Everything was plastered with this logo, a logo that is technically their alternate and supposedly was only supposed to be worn on special occasions. Maybe the team won't be wearing it all the time on the field, but off the field, this logo suddenly seems primary.

Which is too bad, it's not a very good logo at all. It doesn't fit at all in with the current set of logos at all and while the star is supposed to represent the Mariners affiliation, the elimination of the teal totally distances it from the Mariners.

But what makes this a disaster is that the cursive "R" that is an iconic northwest symbol that has been passed down through generations to represent the word Rainier - from the Seattle Rainiers to Rainier Beer and now to the Tacoma Rainiers - is nowhere to be seen. I'd even suffer through the awkwardness of this logo...

...over the new alternate logo simply because the cursive "R" is front and, well, off-center.

Other parts of this alternate package work better than the logo. The jersey script is fantastic and the red and the blue really remind you of the Seattle Rainiers jerseys . However, the jersey itself looks like a softball uniform. Check out those sleeves! Not to mention that I'm a traditionalist that hates solid color uniforms. That's a whole nother post in itself.

Whatever, it's not the whole package I have a problem with. It's the complete takeover of Cheney Stadium by this lesser alternate logo. Is this logo the future? Will this become the primary logo shortly?

If it does, I'm extremely disappointed. I'll admit that an update is overdue, but an overhaul, and a cheap overhaul at that, is completely unnecessary.

Team: Tacoma Rainiers
League: Pacific Coast League
Location: Tacoma, Washington
Stadium: Cheney Stadium
Mascot: Rhubarb
Merchandise: Very little available. I hate that MiLB.com has taken over many team's online presence.

Seattle Sounders FC

2008-04-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

I am so happy that Seattle's new Major League Soccer ownership group listened to the fans on the naming of the team that I'm willing to look past the awkward blue shield in their new logo. The fact that the team will be called the Sounders is enough of a victory for me.

I don't even mind the FC part. I understand the need to differentiate between this team and the current, original Sounders. That makes perfect sense to me.

And I'm not just saying that because I plan on applying for a job with them and I'm super nervous about my Googleability. I'm moving back up to Seattle in July and I'd love to be in on the ground floor of a new franchise. I would've wanted to work for whatever they called the team, it's just a bonus they are the Sounders.

However, I do think this concept I wrote about last year is a far superior logo.

DAY AFTER UPDATE - After I wrote this review last night and read Dave's comment, I went to bed and while trying to fall asleep I thought more about the Sounders logo. I've come to the sad conclusion that I can't overlook the faults just because of the name. In fact, because I love the name so much, I really feel cheated now by this lackluster effort.

I mentioned the second, blue shield that doesn't make any sense to me. I guess it was simply a way to get that blue somewhere in the logo. But how about this concept - a ten minute tweaking by jl murtagh on the Sportslogos.net forums. So much better, so much cleaner, improved upon by an amateur.

While that eliminates the unnecessary shield, two major problems still exist. First, the lettering. It's pretty obvious to me that they selected this logo long ago and left the name banner blank so they could fill it in when the time came to name the team. That being the case, the logo doesn't reflect the name Sounders at all and the lettering itself if just a basic font with just a tiny bit of embellishment. Nothing interesting or unique or eye-catching or marketable. Just a name, in normal font. Whoopee.

But what gets me the most is the design of the Space Needle. It is so basic, so cheap, that I'd expect to find better in the touristy gift shops that are in the Seattle Center. In fact, I'm sure I can probably find the same design on one of those three t-shirts for $9.99 table.

What I didn't think about last night is the missed opportunity that this logo represents. This could've and should've been so much better. This is a weak effort and whoever designed it can't really be proud of it. I bet it ended up being a logo by committee, and no logo looks right after that process.

As it stands now, this isn't an ugly logo, just a poorly designed one and it would've been no matter what name filled that banner.

Team: Seattle Sounders
League: Major League Soccer
Location: Seattle, Washington
Stadium: Qwest Field

2008 Bigger Dance - Now With DWP! Office Pool

2008-04-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

Every single year I post something about this and hope someone will play along with me and nobody ever does. Well I don't care. Why not try one more time.

The 2008 Bigger Dance is here! The Bigger Dance is a tournament run by Seattle sports radio station KJR to determine what pop-culture female is the "Queen of the Hardwood". I'm not proud to love this contest, but I do. It's one of my great meat head pleasures. But the main reason is because the final prize is so awesome - A free trip to ANY sporting event in the world. Airfare, hotel and tickets included. Oh, and the babes, too.

This year I've setup a DOWN WITH PANTS! Office Pool. So if you are interested in competing against my entry, just go to The Bigger Dance page, sign up for a Sports Club membership (Sorry! Hopefully that's not a deal breaker. I don't ever get any spam from them if it makes you feel better), and then enter...

Pool Name: DOWN WITH PANTS!
Password: downwithpants

I want to offer a prize to the winner of the pool, I just haven't figured out what it should be.

In case you're wondering, my Final Four consists of Stacey Keibler, Hayden Panettiere, Jessica Biel and Jessica Alba. Stacey Keibler and Jessica Alba face off in the final with Jessica Alba taking home her third straight Bigger Dance Championship.

Sadly, they missed the boat. No Kristen Bell. Have they seen the trailers for Forgetting Sarah Marshall yet?

Brandon's Unknown Talent: Baseball Card Photographer

2008-04-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

It was 2001, I was the Director of Media Relations/Community Affairs for the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings baseball team in Harlingen, Texas. Rapidly approaching was Team Baseball Card Night on our promotional schedule and we didn't have any cards made yet or had take any pictures yet and the deadline to get the photos in to ensure delivery by game day was only a day away.

We had no money to hire a professional and this was just before everybody and their mom had nice digital camera. So, since I had a camera that was a little bit more than a normal point-and-shoot - a beat up 35 mm Canon AE that was originally my parents when I was a kid that I had equipped with a nice zoom lens - I was enlisted to take the pictures.

Nevermind the fact that I had no experience and didn't really know how to use my camera that well. Until that point, I had just taken pictures for my amusement. I really didn't think that I'd do some work that would have to be published. But again, since the team had no money, it was up to me. I had one day to get it right.

I found the cards while I was home last week and all in all, given the circumstances, they aren't that bad. The color is horrible - I've always had trouble with the color on that camera for some reason. And some of the players I just couldn't get a good picture of - Willie Oropeza and Carlos Duncan in particular.

But some are really good. I love the picture of Joel Barreto because he was one of the only players that I took portraits of that smiled for me. No surprise there, he was always happy. Too bad you can't see his eyes. That's the problem with baseball caps.

And Joe Fretwell was such a good guy, one of the best dudes on our team. The card is a little weird because they cropped the picture so much, but the original photo is incredible and because of the beer ad over his shoulder, it fit him perfectly. Not that he was a drunk, it just worked with his personality in a weird way. It's one of my best pictures I've ever taken. I gave him the original when the season was over.

Clark Viegas was one of our coaches that we also signed to play for us late in the season when we were out of contention and didn't want to go through the hassle of finding a player to come down for only a week or two. This picture is great because it captures him looking like he's a coach showing you proper technique, but it also captures him as a player as well. Plus, he was a good guy too so I was happy to get a good picture of him.

Many of my best pictures were of the nicest guys on the team because they would help me out by posing or smiling or would let me keep taking pictures of them so I had a bunch to choose. The worst pictures are of guys that didn't care and didn't help or I didn't like enough to make sure they had a nice picture they would be happy with on their card.

And then there's the Jamie Clark card. Don't even ask me how I got him in this position, there's a point when you are throwing long that you hit and I somehow captured it. It was the only one that turned out of him, so I had to use it. Turns out it's one of my favorites and he was cut from the team before the cards were even finished, so I doubt he even saw it. I got future Major Leaguer Bobby Madritsch in a similar pose.

It still amazes me that I was asked to do these cards in the first place. It clearly illustrates just how shot the budget was for the WhiteWings that year. We didn't have a very good year on the field or in the stands and it hurt. It got so bad that there were times when payroll almost wasn't met. Occasionally our assistant general manager had to go out a few days before payroll and personally collect checks from people that owed us so that we would have enough money in the bank. Ah, the life of an independent baseball team.

What also amazes me is that this was only seven years ago - just yesterday in my book - and nobody associated with the team had a digital camera yet. That's crazy. The technology has advanced so quickly, has become so cheap and so readily available in such a short time period, it's absurd. Now anybody, and pretty much everybody, could take these pictures.

To see the whole set of professional baseball cards with amateur photography - these are crappy scans, by the way - click here.

South Shore Shooters

2008-03-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

So anybody who thinks that a good nickname for a Gary, Indiana based sports team would be the Shooters, please raise your hand. Seriously, Andrew Haines and the rest of you team owners, you can put your hand down - you don't count.

And don't go defending it by telling me that it honors the local casinos, either. That's almost as bad as it's other connotation.

Wait, it's not actually in Gary? It's in Dyer, 10 miles away? Well that makes it soooo much better.

Oh yeah, and while we're at it, Dyer - enjoy your half season of ABAish hockey. Good luck with Mr. Haines there. He's never burned anybody.

Doesn't anybody do research before investing in sports franchises anymore?

Team: South Shore Shooters
League: Mid-Atlantic Hockey League - What a joke
Location: Dyer, Indiana - the greater Gary area
Arena: Midwest Training & Ice Center

NCAA Tournament Best Logos Bracket - The Rest

2008-03-20T01:15:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with my picks...

Sweet Sixteen

East Regional

1. North Carolina Tar Heels
5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Two schools with classic interlocking logos and solid secondary logos. The strength of the leprechaun is just too much for the Tar Heel logo. Winner: Notre Dame

3. Louisville Cardinals
10. South Alabama Jaguars
It's basically clip-art, but something about that Jaguar is just, awesome. Winner: South Alabama

Midwest Regional

1. Kansas Jayhawks
13. Siena Saints
The Cinderella story ends for Siena. The novelty of the Saint Bernard wore off and the consistent Jayhawk gets the win. Winner: Kansas

3. Wisconsin Badgers
2. Georgetown Hoyas
Two heavyweight logos, but tonight I'm a little obsessed with Bucky Badger. Good effort by the Hoyas, though. They just ran into a buzzsaw. Winner: Wisconsin

South Regional

1. Memphis Tigers
12. Temple Owls
Finally, Memphis comes up against a professional logo. Temple destroys them. Calipari weeps. Winner: Temple

14. Cornell Big Red
10. Saint Mary's Gaels
Two Cinderella's, only one spot in the Elite Eight. St. Mary's clover logo is on fire. Winner: Saint Mary's

West Regional

1. UCLA Bruins
5. Drake Bulldogs
The Bulldog cannot be stopped. UCLA's silly script of an abbreviation finally gets the boot. Winner: Drake

6. Purdue Boilermakers
2. Duke Blue Devils
Duke has coasted on reputation up until this point. But the Boilermakers cowcatcher pushed the Blue Devils off the tracks and into the woods. Winner: Purdue

Elite Eight

5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
10. South Alabama Jaguars
It was a nice run for the Jaguars, but clip-art just can't get past logos as iconic as Notre Dame's. Winner: Notre Dame

1. Kansas Jayhawks
3. Wisconsin Badgers
Best game of the tournament so far. Kansas barely squeaks by basically because of just how well known the Jayhawk is. Bucky Badger, not so much outside of Wisconsin. Winner: Kansas

12. Temple Owls
10. Saint Mary's Gaels
The Temple logo is very nice, but it's a pretty basic owl, not a ton of creativity involved to create it. The Saint Mary's logo, on the other hand, is a one of a kind. Winner: St. Mary's

5. Drake Bulldogs
6. Purdue Boilermakers
The Bulldog is very nice, the best Bulldog of the bunch. But much like the Temple logo, it has peers. Purdue's logo is very unique. Winner: Purdue

Final Four

5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
1. Kansas Jayhawks
This is a very tough call, both school's logos are classics. But Kansas squeezes by because of how much it represents college basketball. Notre Dame would get the nod in football. Winner: Kansas

10. Saint Mary's Gaels
6. Purdue Boilermakers
Two unique logo, but the Cinderella newcomer Saint Mary's takes home the cake simply because it is so much more eye catching than the Boilermaker's train. Winner: Saint Mary's

Championship

1. Kansas Jayhawks
10. Saint Mary's Gaels
The Gaels had a very nice run and their logo is definitely deserving of the top spot. But the Jayhawks logo is just a little bit better. Winner: Kansas

Ok, that was ridiculous. Saint Mary's in the Final Four? Highly doubtful. But what do you want to bet that this bracket ends up doing a lot better than some of the brackets that I actually put thought into? I'd be willing to bet that this one ranks near the top of all my brackets. If it doesn't win, it'll probably be the one where I picked the winners based on which mascots would kill the other mascots.

NCAA Tournament Best Logo Bracket - Second Round

2008-03-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with my best logo bracket picks. Again, click on the team name to see the logo...

East Regional

1. North Carolina Tar Heels
8. Indiana Hoosiers
It's a battle of classic interlocking logos. Carolina's secondary logo seals the deal. Winner: North Carolina

5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
4. Washington State Cougars
Like I said in the first round, I love the Cougars logo. But Notre Dame has two great, memorable logos. Sorry Wazzu, but once again, you Coug'd it. Winner: Notre Dame

6. Oklahoma Sooners
3. Louisville Cardinals
Oklahoma skated by in the first round with the simple interlocking logo, but Louisville's logo just has more life, even if it looks a little strange. Winner: Louisville

10. South Alabama Jaguars
2. Tennessee Volunteers
I'm telling you, that's one wicked Jaguar. South Alabama easily upsets Tennessee and their boring "T". Winner: South Alabama

Midwest Regional

1. Kansas Jayhawks
8. UNLV Runnin' Rebels
I love the Runnin' Rebels mustache, but the Jayhawk is just too iconic and memorable. Winner: Kansas

12. Villanova Wildcats
13. Siena Saints
Oooooo...Doggy! Winner: Siena

11. Kansas State Wildcats
3. Wisconsin Badgers
Before this tournament, I guess I never really noticed Bucky Badger. He's pretty badass. K-State only got by because USC is garbage. Winner: Wisconsin

7. Gonzaga Bulldogs
2. Georgetown Hoyas
The battle of the bulldog logos. I like Gonzaga's, but let's be honest, it's a little generic. The Hoyas logo is a one of a kind. Winner: Georgetown

South Regional

1. Memphis Tigers
8. Mississippi State Bulldogs
Memphis gets by once again despite having a horrible logo. Mississippi State only advanced because Oregon was so putrid. Winner: Memphis

12. Temple Owls
13. Oral Roberts Eagles
I never really noticed it too much before, but Temple's Owl logo is pretty good. Oral Robert's Eagle is just too amateurish to get into the Sweet Sixteen. Winner: Temple

11. Kentucky Wildcats
14. Cornell Big Red
Whoa...massive upset here. At second glance, I'm just not loving Kentucky's logo. Cornell, the sentimental favorite, and it's nasty looking bear pull it out in overtime. Winner: Cornell

10. Saint Mary's Gaels
2. Texas Longhorns
Another massive upset. St. Mary's logo is just too creative for the simple longhorn outline. Winner: Saint Mary's

West Regional

1. UCLA Bruins
9. Texas A&M Aggies
Again, not a fan of the Bruin's logos, but it's so much more bright and interesting and fun than A&M's. Winner: UCLA

5. Drake Bulldogs
13. San Diego Torreros
The Torreros strangely thin Torrero got by one dog, but Drake's Bulldog is too detailed and strong. Winner: Drake

6. Purdue Boilermakers
3. Xavier Musketeers
It was an X-citing run, but the single letter "X" can't stand up against a very cool train. Winner: Purdue

7. West Virginia Moutaineers
2. Duke Blue Devils
Duke barely beats out West Virginia for one sole reason: It has a devil in it. I'm a sucker for a devil. Winner: Duke

The rest of the tournament, coming up tomorrow...

NCAA Tournament Best Logo Bracket - First Round

2008-03-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

The Sports Logo Pundit is back! It's been hard to find time to do any blogging since the birth of my first child in February, but I'm starting to get back into the swing of things.

And my first post back is a doozie. I've signed up for what seems like a million NCAA basketball brackets this year and I continue to use different methods, theories and general silliness to fill them out. For one of my brackets, I decided to pick whoever I though had the best logo. Seems like a natural thing to do for a logo blogger.

So here are my picks for the first round. They are poorly researched and most decisions were made after just a quick glance at the logo, so don't get too bent out of shape if you disagree.

To see the logo, click on the team's name...

East Regional

1. North Carolina Tar Heels
16. Mount St. Mary's Moutaineers
Carolina features the classic interlocking "NC" and the foot with tar on the heel. It's an iconic college basketball logo that is simple and works on nearly all fronts. Mount St. Mary's has a triangle and the words "The Mount" for a logo. Winner: North Carolina

8. Indiana Hoosiers
9. Arkansas Razorbacks
It's a simple interlocking IU versus a mean looking piggy. Like Carolina, the IU is classic and iconic. Winner: Indiana

5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
12. George Mason Colonials
Is there a more recognizable logo than Norte Dame's "ND" or their boxing leprechaun? I don't think so. Mason's logo, a green and gold shooting star, can't compare. Winner: Notre Dame

4. Washington State Cougars
13. Winthrop Eagles
Though I am a Washington Huskies fan, I do have a secret love for the Cougars logo. In fact, it's one of my all-time favorites. Poor goofy looking Eagle never had a chance. Winner: Washington State

6. Oklahoma Sooners
11. St. Joseph Hawks
Again, it comes down to the simple, iconic interlocking "OU" over a cool but perhaps overly designed Hawks logo. Winner: Oklahoma

3. Louisville Cardinals
14. Boise State Broncos
I don't know why, but I've never been a big fan of the Louisville logo. But I really don't get Boise State's dead eyed, Smurf blue bronco. Winner: Louisville

7. Butler Bulldogs
10. South Alabama Jaguars
It's a clip art battle! But that's a pretty wicked Jaguar. Winner: South Alabama

2. Tennessee Volunteers
15. American Eagles
I hate to give the win to a bit orange "T", but that is one seriously ugly eagle. Yuck! Winner: Tennessee

Midwest Regional

1. Kansas Jayhawks
16. Portland State Vikings
I want to give this to the futuristic, disembodied Viking head but I just can't. The Jayhawks logo is one of the most recognizable in all of college basketball. Winner: Kansas

8. UNLV Runnin' Rebels
9. Kent State Golden Flashes
Kent State's hawk head and spine are no match for the best mustache in all of collegiate athletics. Winner: UNLV

5. Clemson Tigers
12. Villanova Wildcats
A big orange paw versus the letter V. Villanova's use of two colors secures them an overtime victory. Winner: Villanova

4. Vanderbilt Commodores
13. Siena Saints
Nothing against Vanderbilt's logos, but I'm just a big sucker for a big ole' Saint Bernard. Winner: Sienna

6. USC Trojans
11. Kansas State Wildcats
USC has better logos, I'll admit. But I hate them with such a passion, I cannot pick them to win anything. Winner: Kansas State

3. Wisconsin Badgers
14. Cal State Fullerton Titans
Wisconsin has two logos that they use all the time, the "W" and their awesome Badger. Fullerton is one of those schools that has multiple versions of their logo used for many different things and none of them really work. Winner: Wisconsin

7. Gonzaga Bulldogs
10. Davidson Wildcats
Davidson's logo looks like a charcoal sketch. Probably the worst NCAA Division 1 logo period. Winner: Gonzaga in a landslide.

2. Georgetown Hoyas
15. UMBC Retrievers
The Hoyas have one of the best looking dog logos in the NCAA while UMBC might have the worst. Winner: Georgetown

South Regional

1. Memphis Tigers
16. Texas-Arlington Mavericks
Ugh. I have to pick between these two stinkers? I can't believe that a major university like Memphis has such a generic looking logo. But it's so much better than the horrible UTA horsey. Winner: Memphis

8. Mississippi State Bulldogs
9. Oregon Ducks
Mississippi State takes the win simply because they have a banner across their "M" that reads State while Oregon is simply an "O". Winner: Mississippi State

5. Michigan State Spartans
12. Temple Owls
Now this is a major upset. The combination of their "T" and their sweet Owl beats a big green "S". Winner: Temple

4. Pittsburgh Panthers
13. Oral Roberts Eagles
This is the upset bracket. I hate the Pittsburgh Panther's logos. The "Pitt" is fine, the panther is so nasty. Oral Roberts has a cartoon Eagle, but at least he's an agreeable fellow even if he was funded by the lies of a televangelist. Winner: Oral Roberts

6. Marquette Golden Eagles
11. Kentucky Wildcats
The "MU" logo looks fine and is probably, on it's own, better than the Kentucky "UK". But the "UK" logo is such a major part of college basketball and is so iconic, it can't be defeated by a similar, maybe better newcomer. Winner: Kentucky

3. Stanford Cardinal
14. Cornell Big Red
Stanford features an "S" with a tree, while Cornell has a big, mean, roaring bear. I'm also factoring Cornell's old, sassy bear logo and that my wife is an alum. Winner: Cornell

7. Miami Hurricanes
10. Saint Mary's Gaels
The interlocking "SMC" that Saint Mary's unveiled last year is one of my favorite new college logos. Miami's funky looking seagull and their "U" can't match it. Winner: Saint Mary's

2. Texas Longhorns
15. Austin Peay Governors
Let's Go Peay! Let's Go Peay! Too bad the "AP" logo is no match for the Longhorns. Winner: Texas

West Regional

1. UCLA Bruins
16. Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils
While I've never been a huge fan of UCLA's logos, they are definitely much better than MVSU's. The Delta Devils have such potential though. Someone design them a better logo. Please! Winner: UCLA

8. BYU Cougars
9. Texas A&M Aggies
While I like the BYU logos, it's hard to figure out which ones they are actually using right now. The A&M logo isn't anything special necessary, but at least it's consistent and well known. Winner: Texas A&M

5. Drake Bulldogs
12. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
So many Bulldogs. I love the Gonzaga logo, but the detail in Drake's Bulldog makes this my favorite Bulldog logo. I used to think higer of Western Kentucky's logo, then I took a closer look. It's just a hand and a sash. Winner: Drake

4. Connecticut Huskies
13. San Diego Torreros
Upset alert! San Diego's kind of effeminate Torrero takes down Connecticut's panting, fey Husky. Winner: San Diego

6. Purdue Boilermakers
11. Baylor Bears
I've always liked the way Purdue's train logo and the school's name on the cowcatcher. Baylor's bear just isn't very memorable. Winner: Purdue

3. Xavier Musketeers
14. Georgia Bulldogs
The "X" is so edgy. The G, is fine, but it's just not X-citing enough. Winner: Xavier

7. West Virginia Moutaineers
10. Arizona Wildcats
This one comes down to a last second shot and West Virginia hits a runner from halfcourt. Winner: West Virginia

2. Duke Blue Devils
15. Belmont Bears
Duke gets the nod even though I like Belmont's cray bear logo. But for college basketball's premier program, their logo really is kind of unmemorable. Winner: Duke

The rest of the tournament coming shortly...

Springfield Sliders

2008-01-28T17:57:00.000-08:00

I'm always impressed when a really small-time team understands the importance of a great logo.

The Springfield Sliders will become the fifth team in the Central Illinois Collegiate League when they open the 2008 season at Robin Roberts Stadium. They have already jumped to the top of the league standings and probably to the top of all collegiate wood bat leagues with this outstanding logo. Heck, it's better than a lot of Minor League Baseball teams, maybe even better than a few Major League teams - I'm looking at you Tampa Bay Rays!

And it instantly gives them credibility. I know nothing at all about their ownership group, but if I were approached by their sales people trying to sell me season tickets or advertising, this logo would go a long way in establishing that these guys mean business. With a logo like that, I wouldn't consider this a fly-by-night, rinky-dink organization upon first glance.

Now they actually have to back it up, a logo can't do it alone. But it definitely goes a long way.

Plus, I have a soft spot for turtles, so this is right up my alley.

Team: Springfield Sliders
League: Central Illinois Collegiate League
Location: Springfield, Illinois
Stadium: Robin Roberts Stadium at Lanphier Park

P.S....Can I just say how much I love the CICL. I wish I could make it out to Illinois just for some ballgames in this league. You've got three uber-historic stadiums living on in Danville, Quincy and Springfield, and one of the best recreations of a historic stadium in the country in Dubois County.

Clinton LumberKings

2008-01-18T00:30:00.000-08:00

I don't know this for sure, but I'm pretty sure that this new Clinton LumberKings logo (left) is the first foray into logo design that the New Era Cap company has taken on. Perhaps they should stick to making baseball caps more and more expensive instead, since that's what they do best.

While I agree that Louie could've used a little bit of a tweak, perhaps just an upgrade to a more contemporary style of artwork, why they needed to make him so creepy is beyond me. In a sensitive time for baseball on all levels, there are just far to many cheap steroid jokes that one can make about the new Louie.

Seriously though, you can say that I'm reading to much into it, but I really think that this logo is an unintentional commentary on how different we think baseball players look now than we used to. Let's be honest with ourselves, thanks to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, we now think of baseball players, especially sluggers, as being barrel chested, monstrous armed, razor sharp jawboned, aggressive monsters.

That was never how I thought baseball players looked growing up. My vision of them, especially because of the ugly fashions of the 70's and 80's, was very similar to the old Louie logo. More soft, round and jovial. More of an every man, less of rage filled nerd beater. I know it's a bit naive and juvenile and old-fashioned to think of any era of baseball player this way, but I like that fantasy and I'd prefer to not be reminded of the changes even in our logos.

Not to mention that they felt the need to get rid of the board with the nail. That's arguably the best part of the old logo. It definitely loses a great deal of it's charm with a plain baseball bat in his hand.

Team: Clinton LumberKings
League: Midwest League
Location: Clinton, Iowa
Ballpark: Alliant Energy Field
Mascot: Louie the LumberKing - who will be getting a facelift as well, I'm sure. Hide the kids.

Non-Logo Content: Walberg Resigns at Pepperdine

2008-01-17T23:36:00.000-08:00

The Vance Walberg experiment has ended at Pepperdine. Walberg, the coach that jumped from high school to city college to Division I basketball, resigned today citing personal and family reasons for leaving.

It was a short, ugly tenure for Walberg, his 14-35 record speaks for itself and his final game as head coach was one of the worst Division I games I have ever watched. Gonzaga, who in fairness is hitting their stride and with Josh Heytvelt finally healthy might be good enough to beat anyone in the country, made Walberg’s Waves look downright silly in front of Pepperdine’s largest crowd of the season and the largest student crowd that I have seen in the threes years I’ve been going to their games.

It’s disappointing to see the experiment end this way. Walberg’s attack-attack-skip-attack-attack style of play – a style that emphasizes quick drives to the basket followed by a pass to outside shooters if the layup isn’t there - was supposed to, at the very least, make the Waves an interesting team to watch. As the originator of this style that has been partially implemented by many teams on all levels across the country including John Calipari at Memphis, Walberg was called on by Pepperdine to bring his style whole-heartedly to the Waves and take a team that had become dull and predictable under Paul Westphal and turn it into something exciting and completely crazy.

Unfortunately, the cupboard was left so bare by Westphal except for returning freshman Michael Gerrity and raw talent Kingsley Costain, Walberg never had the horses to make it work. Gerrity, a talented, gritty point guard, quickly transferred to Charlotte before the 2006-2007 season leaving just Costain to shoulder the load of a demanding style of play. He played admirably in a forgettable 8-23 season, but when he was mysteriously kicked out of school just before this season started, Pepperdine was left with a young, largely anonymous group of players that currently aren’t deep enough to make the system work. And except for occasional games against lower level teams like Division III Hope International earlier this month, we never got to see AASAA in all its glory.

Assistant coach Eric Bridgeland takes over for Walberg on an interim basis. If Pepperdine wants to continue working with and developing the AASAA style of play, Bridgeland is a good choice to take over for Walberg permanently. As a coach at Division III Puget Sound, his teams played a similar (if not the same) up-tempo style and were wildly successful. As Pepperdine’s recruiting coordinator, he has worked for two seasons to put together a team that eventually, with more experience and even more athletes on board, could make the system work. Their top three scorers are talented, athletic freshman. Crawford High School (San Diego) teammates Tyrone Shelley and Malcolm Thomas lead the way with 15.6 and 13.6 points per game respectively while Australian forward Daniel Johnson is chipping in 9.7 ppg.

I am of the opinion that this is the direction Pepperdine should take the program. It is unfair to these freshman and the recruits coming in next year that they recruited specifically to play this style to suddenly bring in someone that will totally change what they are doing. It’s a better option than completely throwing away the last two seasons and starting over, as tempting as that seems. It can’t get much worse than 14-35, but if they dump AASAA after just two seasons, I fear that it will get worse.

But I fully expect Pepperdine to go after a replacement with a bigger name than Bridgeland to make some, please excuse me, waves. They took a lot of heat for making such a bold decision to go after a gimmicky city college coach with no Divison I experience in Walberg and I have to think that they are wrongly excited to show the Pepperdine community that they are taking the losing very seriously and want to correct a mistake in judgement, whether it really is the right move or not.

This is Malibu after all, image is everything. Firestone Fieldhouse is not immune.

Non-Logo Content: Fight! Fight! Vermont vs. Manchester

2008-01-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

Last night in Burlington, Vermont in a game between the Vermont Frost Heaves and the Manchester Millrats of the hapless ABA, things got a little bit chippy. There were three fights in total and you can see them all by clicking here. The first fight is at 1:06 (the Millrats coach acts like a fool) , 1:56 (both teams go at it) and the worst of the bunch - a sucker punch by the Millrats Ife Anosike - is at 2:56. The last fight came with less than a minute to play and the game was called as a result.

Since some on the Our Sports Central ABA message board were worried that these actions would go unpunished and that the live record of the game broadcast by PlayON would be taken down - both very reasonable concerns based on the ABA's piss poor record - I made a few screencaps of the sucker punch to preserve what is a big black eye for the Millrats and the ABA in general.

It all started when the Frost Heaves' Erik Nelson and Anosike got tangled up down low (click on the images to enlarge)...

Nelson, got up and headed down court but as he ran by he gave Anosike a little pat on the belly...

Pretty innocuous, right? Well, Anosike didn't take that little tap lightly...

That's quite the vicious sucker punch if you ask me. He must've missed because Nelson was fine, but if he connected it could've been very bad.

According to Our Sports Central's Paul Reeths, the league won't take any action. Instead, Reeths says that Joe Newman sent an email to the Millrats saying that "self-regulation and self-determining of team standards is a very positive way to approach this difficult situation." Why expect anything more out of Newman?

The Millrats have suspended Anosike but they are calling on Vermont to do the same to Nelson saying in a press release this morning, "we would hope that the antics of Erik Nelson, who hit people with shoulders all game, smacked Sanders on the back of the head, and popped Anosike for no reason prior to the final melee, would be looked at by the Frost Heaves organization."

What a joke. This is bad even by ABA standards. What league doesn't take action following a brawl? One that exists solely to collect $10,000 market reservation checks and doesn't care otherwise about what's happening...that's who.

In fact, yesterday the league announced a new team. The ABA is playing less than 50% of their scheduled games and people are still buying into this fraud? Shameful.

Non-Logo Content: The Boomer

2008-01-11T23:59:00.000-08:00

I worked for the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings baseball team (now the Harlingen WhiteWings) as the Director of Media/Community Relations during the 2001 season. It was an interesting and difficult season to work for the WhiteWings and to be quite honest, I didn't like Harlingen very much. One season in the Valley was plenty. But I still had fun and wouldn't trade it for anything.

One afternoon before we headed to Edinburg for a game against the Roadrunners, we were sitting around the office shooting the breeze a little bit with our team's manager, Boston Red Sox hall-of-famer and one of the greatest characters I have ever known, George "The Boomer" Scott.

Once a great player for the Sox, The Boomer was a gruff, overweight, old school kind of a baseball guy from Mississippi that unfortunately had some health problems and was never well liked by his players. No matter, he was still hilarious in his own, understated way. I can still here him walk into the office and yell at me "HEY BIG MAN," I don't think he ever knew my real name. "YOU FIND A PITCHER FOR ME YET?"

When we traveled the 30 miles to Edinburg for games we rented a couple vans for the team and a pickup truck for Boomer instead of the usual sleeper bus. But we noticed that Boomer was picking up the equipment and leaving at 11:30 or noon for a game giving him a good two or three extra hours to get to the ballpark. We were curious as to why he was leaving so early for ballgames and he explained that he had been going to a barbeque place in McAllen for lunch and to take it easy for a little while before the game.

"The owner of that place is a total asshole," piped in our assistant GM, John. "They have good food, but he doesn't sponsor us and is always a jerk when you talk to him."

A silence settled over the room and after a long pause, Boomer, in all sincerity, broke it in the only way that The Boomer - keep in mind he's a big, old school, Mississippi born African-American - could....

"Whell......Ah don't go dere to find out that the man is an ass-HOLE. Ah go there... fortheCHICKEN!"

And with that....we lost it. I think I laughed for half an hour straight.

You're the man Boomer, wherever you are. You might be the only reason I have any positive memories of my time with the WhiteWings.

New Hampshire Primaries - Redux

2008-01-08T18:09:00.001-08:00

I think that today is a good day to reiterate that the above logo and especially this logo are probably my favorite logos EVER. Click here to read my review from this past summer.

Indiana University

2008-01-08T00:02:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everybody! The Sports Logo Pundit is back and I hope to keep this thing rolling along at a nice pace after this. I'll probably add in a little bit of general sports talk since I just don't have anywhere else to write about sports, but I'll try to keep it focused on logos as much as possible. So stay tuned, please tell your friends, and enjoy at least until my little girl is born in February and I totally disappear.

For my first post of the new year, I just simply want to point out the logos of the lesser schools of the Indiana University system. I couldn't believe how cheap they went with these. I guess I can understand it for NAIA schools like IU East, IU Northwest, IU Southeast and IU South Bend, but IUPUI? A large Division 1 school gets the same generic treatment as IU East? And why didn't IPFW have to conform?

And seriously, what the hell is going on over there? Should their motto be "The Indiana University system: keeping a weary eye on Illinois since 1820"?

Oakland County Cruisers

2007-12-26T22:53:00.000-08:00

What a down December for The Sports Logo Pundit. Not a way to end a pretty good year overall. Oh well, I hope to get back on the horse starting next week.

Until then, I would like to blow your mind with what is perhaps the saddest logo contest that I have ever come across. Last week, the Frontier League announced that in 2009 the Oakland County Cruisers would be joining the league. Never mind the fact that they don't yet have a ballpark, they have more than a year to get that done. But they did eschew the normal name-the-team contest and skipped straight to the logo selection process...

Oh boy, how will I ever choose? Do I go with the most horrible neon green in both baseball and automobile history or with the nearly unreadable scripts complete with gradients? And as a fan of rec league softball t-shirts, I'm really all about the clip-art background designs, it's about time someone brought these back to professional baseball.

Team: Oakland County Cruisers
League: Frontier League
Location: Waterford, Michigan
Merchandise: Sweet! You can buy shirts with at least three of the logo choices on them.

Quad City River Bandits

2007-12-14T01:46:00.001-08:00

It's late and I need to go to bed. But I just saw this and wanted to quickly share. The Quad City River Bandits are back! Thoughts?

Cal State Northridge vs. Utah Valley State

2007-12-10T23:34:00.000-08:00

I just posted my first Big West Conference Report for the college basketball blog Storming The Floor. After seeing Cal State Northridge handle Utah Valley State, I had to name the Matadors the Team of the First Month...

Team of the First Month: Cal State Northridge
UC Santa Barbara was picked to win the Big West by the media and they have lived up to the billing by going 9-1 in the first month. No surprise there. Cal State Northridge didn't get a lot of preseason love but the Matadors have taken care of business against lesser opponents. Led by senior forward Calvin Chitwood (13.3 ppg, 7.5 rpg) and senior guard Jonathan Heard (12.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and complemented by junior three point specialist Deon Tresvant (11.4 ppg) and junior rebounding force Tremaine Townesend (10.8 ppg, 9.5 rpg), Northridge has only been beaten by Duquesne and Gonzaga. Both were thumpings and their biggest win so far was against Cleveland State, so it's hard to get too excited. But it's better than expected and better than any other non-Gaucho Big West squads.

Here are a handful of pictures from the game...

Welcome to the Matadome, all 1,600 seats of it. What a dump. It's an embarrassment of a Division I facility. But it is home to the hardest working cheerleaders in the NCAA...

Seriously, I've never seen cheerleaders lead more cheers. They performed during every single timeout and did a solid job. Not bad for what is essentially a glorified community college. Oh yeah...don't forget the basketball...

Too bad the students have forgotten. Despite a good team, students don't turn out that for games in any meaningful way and the ones that do sit on their hands. The loudest group of students was a bunch of deaf kids. Seriously.

Now, about that logo. It's a solid logo when you just quickly glance at it or see it in a much smaller form. But now that I've found a larger version and really looked at it, it's a bit rough. What is with the big thick black line on the nose and chin? I suppose it's supposed to be a shadow, but it's really unnecessary. And how big can one man's hands be?

Team: Cal State Northridge Matadors
Conference: Big West
Location: Northridge, California
Arena: The Matadome

Vancouver 2010 Olympics Mascots

2007-12-04T23:04:00.002-08:00

Have you seen the 2010 Olympic mascots yet? I know I'm a little bit late - these were released last week - but I love Quatchi, Sumi and Miga - they are really cute. I'm so going to buy the set of all three for my kid (maybe kids by that point). And they have a cool website too! It should come as no surprise to anybody that knows me that the mascot that I'm most like is Quatchi...

New Hampshire Fisher Cats

2007-11-30T23:47:00.000-08:00

When I saw the headline proclaiming that the New Hampshire Fisher Cats had changed their logos, I got a little excited. Could they possibly come to their senses and allow the New Hampshire Primaries to be set free? Sadly, it was not to be. They are still the Fisher Cats, but now they are Fisher Cats that have lost my respect.

Why? That has to be the question that you ask when thinking about this identity change. Other than the fact that they weren't the Primaries, I found virtually nothing wrong with their old logos. There were small things I didn't like and they weren't necessarily my style, but they were well done and logos that a team could be proud of for a very long time.

But the Fisher Cats have been lured to the dark side in search of a temporary increase in merchandising dollars. This identity set is incredible in it's trendiness.

First of all, the eye logo above that follows in the steps of the Lake Elsinore Storm originally (the best selling cap in baseball for a few years running) and the Orem Owlz last season. Thankfully, this logo isn't actually being used as one of their caps yet, but I'd be willing to bet that it's only because they know that they will sell a bunch of caps this season because of the identity change even without resorting to using this logo. But next season, when sales lag, it'll be slapped on a cap and peddled like crazy.

Secondly, the primary logo shown above. What is going on with this trend of having the mascot peer over a name or around something? The New Britain Rock Cats already has the Eastern League peering covered, not to mention the tail and the silver animal. In fact, I'm not convinced that the Fisher Cat isn't really the Rock Cat. Or maybe a twin? Separated at birth? Clone? Whatever, they are definitely related.

Thirdly, the cap/alternate logos. As much as I hate the eyes logo, they might actually be better than any of these wretched logos. You got your severed paw logo, your illegible and unproportionally itty-bitty"F" logo, and your "NM" or "NN" or, oh...that's supposed to be an "H" logo. Disasters all around.

And I haven't even mentioned this early 90's color scheme. To go from a simple and classy green and black to the same color scheme sported by the Sacramento Surge in 1991 dumbfounds me. I thought that this teal-ish, emerald green and yellow was something that we would never have to see again, but it rears it's ugly head in New Hampshire and I can't figure out why.

This set is an abject failure, in my opinion. It was a change that was totally unwarranted and unneeded and because it wasn't even executed well, it is completely unloved here at The Sports Logo Pundit.

Team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats
League: Eastern League
Location: Manchester, New Hampshire
Stadium: Merchantsauto.com Stadium

Fresno Grizzlies / Yakima Bears

2007-11-29T23:32:00.002-08:00

One week. Two teams. Two bears. One design firm. One idea.

Cheers to the Silverman Design Group on this one - I'm very impressed with their ingenuity. Why develop two completely different team identities for your clients when you can first basically copy the Brown University and UC Riverside logos and then pass that template off on two different baseball teams? And cheers to the Grizzlies and the Bears for letting this happen. They really did their homework choosing these logos.

Taking both logos on their own and without factoring in their lack of originality, both of these logos are at least minor improvements over their previous sets of logos (Fresno's - a unique and interesting look that I kind of liked but understandably never caught on - and Yakima's). On it's own, I think the Yakima logo is very nice and the alternates are also interesting - I could actually see myself purchasing one of their caps (Ballpark Digest has a PDF of the entire identity package here). The Fresno one I don't like as well, especially the dead white space around the ball. But they will both definitely outsell the previous designs and I'm sure that's all the owners were considering when they approved these logos.

I just think it shows an alarming lack of imagination and judgement by all parties involved, especially Silverman. It would be one thing if the teams were affiliated in some way. If they had a parent company that wanted a standard template, I could understand. But these are two different teams with two different owners. How a design firm can look themselves in the eye after allowing what are essentially the same logos to be released in the span of a week is beyond me. You would think that pride in original, well designed logos would've topped the desire to take the easy way out. But it's also possible that they gave each team original, well designed logos in addition to these retreads and the teams just wanted the status quo.

Either way, those of us that love logos and really look forward to the time of the year when baseball teams start releasing new logos were left scratching our heads. Combine these with tomorrow's review (again, thanks to Ballpark Digest for this PDF), and you can call me utterly confused. What in the world is going on around here?

Team: Fresno Grizzlies
League: Pacific Coast League
Location: Fresno, California
Ballpark: Chukchansi Park
Merchandise: The new caps are really dull.

Team: Yakima Bears
League: Northwest League
Location: Yakima, Washington
Ballpark: Yakima County Stadium
Merchandise: I like the cap, but $31.99?

UCSB Beats UNLV In Last Second - PICTURES ADDED!

2007-11-28T01:13:00.000-08:00

Wow, what an incredible game. That's my video of James Powell's three pointer with .4 seconds left that gave UCSB the victory over UNLV.

UPDATE 10/28: Here are a handful of pictures from the game. I love the Thunderdome, it's so warm with all of the wood and when there are a ton of people in the gym like there were on Tuesday night, it's a great place to see a game. Click on the images to bigify...

It was a great game as UCSB came from 12 points down two different times setting up the Powell heroics. I wish I would've let the video keep running and captured the storming the court scene, but here are a couple pictures that hopefully illustrate the aftermath. There are times that I wish my camera did a better job at capturing quick motion, but then I wouldn't get these strange, watercolor-like images that almost capture the joy and the craziness better than higher quality pictures could...

Back tomorrow with, *gasp*, an actual logo review. Say it ain't so!

ABA Franchise Scorecard

2007-11-21T00:29:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry for the layoff. I've been away from the computer quite a bit over the last two weeks and just haven't been had the energy or willpower to post on any of my blogs. Don't worry, though, I'll be back in full force shortly. Just need a refuel.

Anyway, longtime readers have heard me criticize the ABA quite a bit on this blog, all of it warranted. The ABA is, at best, a big joke. At worst it is a massive scam perpetrated by Joe Newman that people continue to buy into and nobody in their right minds can figure out why.

I finally went to my first ABA game two weeks ago and it was worse than I expected (to read my review of the game, head here). There was nothing professional about the Los Angeles Push vs. Long Beach Breakers game and I knew that night that it wasn't going to last long for the Push. And surprise, surprise, the Push have announced that they have suspended operations only six games into the season.

They aren't the first ABA team to have done so. In fact, below is a ABA Franchise scorecard posted on the excellent ABA message board on OurSportsCentral by BreakersFan. Even though I know and everybody knows what a fraud the ABA is, it's still stunning to see just how poorly the ABA is doing this season, worse than ever before. My comments are in bold following the team name...

48 Teams were included in the 2007-08 ABA schedule announced in August. Since then, 3 more teams have been added to the schedule for a total of 51 teams scheduled for games in 07-08.

As of the minute, 29 of the 51 teams remaining playing, as far as we know. The scorecard:

29 Remain active:
Atlanta Vision - Have not played yet
Bahama Pro-Show - Have not played yet
Beijing Aoshen Olympian - Tentatively have scheduled teams to fly to Singapore to play them. Most likely will never happen.
Boston Blizzard
Chicago Throwbacks
Corning Bulldogs
First State Fusion
Georgia Gwizzlies
Halifax Rainmen - Had a big crowd for their opener
Houston Takers - Actually made a long road trip
Jersey Express
Long Beach Breakers
Manchester Millrats - Had solid opener
Maywood Buzz - Home opener on Friday, fingers crossed
Minnesota Ripknees - Was out, in, out, in...Almost all games against teams that either don't exist anymore or haven't made their road trips
Montreal Royal
Orange County Gladiators - Home opener on Saturday against a team that no longer exists
Orlando Aces - Have not played yet
Quebec Kebekwa
San Diego Wildcats
South Chi-Land Infernos - Have not played yet
St Louis Stunners - Haven't made any of their road trips
Strong Island Sound
Syracuse Raging Bullz - Have canceled their next few games, appear to be folding
Texas Tycoons
Vermont Frost Heaves - Most successful ABA team
West Palm Beach Imperials - Randomly appeared on standings after apparently folding earlier. Have not played yet
West Texas Whirlwinds
Westchester Phantoms

22 Departed:
XXX Anderson Champions
XXX Arkansas Fantastics
XXX Buffalo Silverbacks
XXX Cicero Cometas USA
XXX Detroit Panthers
XXX Flint Tropics
XXX Henderson All-Starz
XXX Jacksonville Jam
XXX Los Angeles Push
XXX Mississippi Miracles
XXX Monterrey Poisen
XXX Pacific Rim Rockers
XXX Peoria Kings
XXX Quad City Riverhawks
XXX Reno Sharpshooters
XXX Rochester Fire
XXX Rock River Fury
XXX Rome Legion
XXX Sacramento Heatwave
XXX San Francisco Rumble
XXX Tucson
XXX Virginia Ballerz

With the schedule so messed up and the instability such that teams can't even make road trips, even the best run clubs have virtually no chance of making it. I don't think that this league, in this form, will make it until January 1st. You will probably see a handful of teams (Vermont, Manchester, Quebec, Halifax - basically the Northeast teams) break off and do their own thing and the rest will probably fold.

And I hope that this will end Joe Newman's reign of terror on minor league basketball. But it seems like every time one team dies, two crappier franchises spring up in it's place. There are so many suckers with $10,000 to burn out there, Joe could keep this going for years and years and years. It may never end.

Witchita Wingnuts

2007-11-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

Ugh. The Wichita Wingnuts? Ridiculous.

The Wichita Wranglers of the Double-A Texas League moved to Springfield, Arkansas to become the Northwest Arkansas Naturals after the season and the independent American Association quickly jumped into Wichita and Lawrence Dumont Stadium. Definitely a smart move as Wichita isn't a dead baseball market, it just doesn't have a stadium and won't be building one anytime soon that can compete in the continuing upgrading of the Texas League facilities and franchises.

One thing that the Wingnuts have to do is convince people that the American Association isn't a vastly inferior product and that the team should be taken just as seriously as the Wranglers were. So announcing an identity as bush league as this new Wingnuts nickname and logo is very counter productive.

I'm usually all for different, goofy and fun but only in the right situation. This was not the right situation. They needed something a little more dignified to illustrate their arrival. I have a hard time taking them seriously with that silly rabbit, baseball, wingnut, dog thing that they have going on below. Maybe the Wingnuts is the right name. It definitely is catchy, but these logos are amateur and don't give off the right impression that this team needs to build.

At the very least, if you are going to try to do something different and make a big splash, the name and the logos shouldn't be unoriginal. Remember the Lansing Lugnuts? Yeah, same idea, except done 11 years ago and done so much better then.

Team: Wichita Wingnuts
League: American Association
Location: Wichita, Kansas
Stadium: Lawrence Dumont Stadium

Fresno Pacific Sunbirds

2007-11-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

After a week of flashbacks and game reviews, I think I'll end the week on a high note and present you with a great logo that I just came across.

While doing some research on Southern California college basketball, I came across Fresno Pacific University and their absolutely gorgeous Sunbirds logo. I have a hard time believing that there is any NAIA school with a more attractive logo than Fresno Pacific's. There are a bunch of NCAA Division-I schools that should be jealous and all 1,200 of FPU's students should be very proud.

School: Fresno Pacific University Sunbirds
League: Golden State Athletic Conference
Location: Fresno, California
Merchandise: Sadly, the Sunbird logo isn't available anywhere online.

UC Santa Barbara Soccer vs. Cal Poly

2007-11-08T22:55:00.000-08:00

Last year I saw the video on YouTube of the UCSB students marching through Isla Vista with a soccer goal after the Gauchos won the NCAA National Championship and thought to myself, "gee, I guess I should've gone to a game this season". But despite the fact I knew that their team was good, I didn't understand the level of student support that Gauchos soccer received. Soccer at most schools, even if the team is really good, doesn't get much student support and usually isn't something to go out of your way to attend. That isn't the case at UCSB, as I heard one student say on Saturday night "we don't have football, our basketball team usually sucks....this is kind of our thing."

So I finally took in my first Gauchos soccer game this past weekend when they took on Central Coast rival Cal Poly. Earlier this season, the Mustangs beat the Gauchos 2-1 in front of a crowd of over 7,000 up in San Luis Obispo. Even though both teams are good and it's a pretty fierce rivalry, if Poly wouldn't have won that game, Saturday's game might have just been a little better than average crowd-wise. But that game really fired up the faithful on both sides and despite cold, foggy conditions, 8,100 rabid soccer fans packed into Harder Stadium and created an atmosphere for collegiate soccer that I had never experienced or ever expected.

My first inkling of what I was in for was when I arrived to campus and found that there wasn't a parking spot anywhere near the stadium. I had to drive around for a while and finally found a parking garage where most people had retreated to park. After a much longer walk than I expected, I finally arrived at the stadium a few minutes after the listed game time only to find a ticket line that stretched all the way across the south side of the stadium. I really didn't think I'd make it in before halftime when I first lined up, but I've got to give credit where credit is due and compliment the ticket booth for making that line move very quickly. I only ended up missing a couple of minutes. It helped that all seating is general admission so people couldn't stand there and mull over their seating options.

Once inside, I took a seat behind the Cal Poly student section only because it was at the end of the field that the Gauchos were on offense. The Mustangs dominated the first half and scored a beautiful goal that silenced the Gaucho crowd and let the Poly students puff out their chests and have their moment of superiority for at least a few minutes.

During halftime I moved around to the other end of the stadium, again to be close to the goal that UCSB was shooting and to be much closer to the Gauchos student section. I'm sure glad that I did because not too long into the second half the Guachos scored their first goal and the place went absolutely crazy. Then, minutes later, they took the lead and Harder Stadium exploded into joyous celebration. I've been to a lot of sporting events. I have seen touchdowns, I have seen last second shots, I have seen a lot. But I don't know if I've ever seen a crowd collectively lose their minds the way they did after that second goal. It was incredible, serious goose bump kind of stuff. Not too long after that, the Gauchos added their third goal and I found myself jumping up and down and high-fiving strangers.

At the end of the game, the students rushed the field...at a soccer game. That was a first for me and was a very impressive showing of how important soccer is to this university.

Best seven dollar sports ticket I ever purchased.

SLO is Where College Gameday Should Be

2007-11-06T23:59:00.000-08:00

If I asked you "what's the hardest college football ticket to come by this weekend", what would you guess? Cal vs. USC? Florida vs. South Carolina? Michigan vs. Wisconsin? Williams vs. Amherst?

Well, you'd be wrong. The hardest ticket to come by this weekend is the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs - North Dakota State University Bison Division I-AA (or FCS) game at Cal Poly. I was planning on going, it's about a two hour drive from here but I love SLO and it would be worth the trip to see the #1 ranked Bison come to the Central Coast for a game in front of a Homecoming/Parent's Day crowd.

But I'm starting to get a little anxious since I don't have a ticket. The game is completely sold out - Alex Spanos Stadium seats only a little over 11,000 - and there aren't any tickets available on Craigslist and neither RazorGator nor StubHub even have the game listed. I've put out some feelers on the various sites, but haven't had any luck yet.

I'm sure that if I show up outside the stadium before the game, I can find myself one ticket. But that's a pretty long drive to risk not getting in. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

From the SLP Archive: Jamestown Jammers

2007-11-05T23:59:00.000-08:00

I'm still not 100% back to the Sports Logo Punditry, so let's dig back into the archives really quick. I was just reading my new issue of Baseball America and I saw the Jamestown Jammers logo a couple of different times. I still can't believe that this is an actual logo used by an actual, professional Minor League Baseball team. It makes me shudder every time I see it. Originally posted on April 9th, 2006...

I don't know how this new logo for the Jamestown Jammers of the New York-Penn League slipped under my radar for so long, but now I long for those carefree days of sweet, ignorant bliss.

The Jammers had a pretty awful logo to begin with, but you would expect that with change would come improvement. Sadly, that is not the case. I thought that minor league baseball had progressed past these cheap looking designs. There have been some bad, cartoony logos introduced over the past few years, but at least they look professionally done.

This is, without a doubt in my mind, the worst logo in baseball and it rivals the Charlotte Krunk for the worst logo reviewed on the SLP. Please, let us put this logo behind us and move forward to bigger and better things. I encourage the Jammers to do the same thing.

From the SLP Archives: Seattle Supersonics

2007-11-02T23:24:00.001-07:00

First of all, thanks to Mike for pointing out the Casper Ghosts, I will get to that this weekend. But today, because of the disheartening news that Clay Bennett has filed his intention to move the Seattle Sonics to OKC, I bring you my rant about the sale of the team from July 18th of last year.

I really dislike Bennett and his hostage taking tactics he has used since taking over, but the person who deserves ALL of the blame is that snake in the grass Howard "Mr. Starbucks" Schultz. Screw him for ever selling to outside interests. He can take his coffee and shove it you know where. I mean it when I say in this that if I ever ran into him in person again - I used to quite often at Salumi - I will give him a piece of my mind.

In the meantime, these idiot Sonics owners will never get even a dollar out of me and I wish that the people of Seattle would stay away from the Key in droves. Buying tickets will not save this team, it's not about you, it's all about that big corporate suite money.

Wow! What a bummer. If you haven't heard yet, Howard Schultz has sold the Seattle Sonics and Storm to an Oklahoma City group led by Clayton Bennett for $350 million, a profit of $90 million for Schultz after figuring in the losses that he has claimed. The team will definitely play the 2006-2007 season in Seattle, but after that they are not contractually obligated to stay in town if they can get out of their Key Arena lease, which probably wouldn't be a problem.

For all Sonics and Storm fans this comes as no big surprise and a big shock all at the same time. Schultz has been complaining for the last two years about Key Arena and all of the money that he has lost and has been frustrated by the lack of interest that the city, the state and all of it's residents have expressed about publicly subsidizing yet another sports stadium in Seattle. It isn't a surprise to see Schultz sell out.

But I don't think anybody could have anticipated that he would sell to a group who, despite everything that they say about wanting to stay in Seattle, are so obviously focused on bringing a team to Oklahoma City permanently. The New Orleans Hornets are scheduled to play once again in OKC for the 2006-2007 season and George Shinn wants to relocate them there for good. But you have to think that the purchase of the Sonics by a major player in bringing the Hornets to town in the first place, is an indication that the Hornets will be staying in New Orleans and the Sonics will be taking over in 2007.

It's a disgusting move by a man, Howard Schultz, who claims to be a community leader and owes so much of his success and the success of his other company, Starbucks, to Seattle and the State of Washington. It is a sale obviously aimed to put pressure on the city to build a new arena, or else. In today's press conference, Shultz said that the OKC group "has a better chance to succeed in negotiations with local government" failing to add what he really wanted to say: "because if they don't, it will be the city's fault that the Sonics are gone for good."

I'm rooting for the city and state not to cave. As much as I love the Sonics, hell I worked part-time for the Sonics and Storm for two and a half years, I don't ever support public funding for stadiums, anywhere. At least not a majority of funding unless the facility will be open to the public most of the time. And I don't mean open to the public to buy expensive basketball or concert tickets, I mean open to everybody to use equally, like a community center. I didn't think that Safeco Field should have been funded and I still think Qwest Field is a joke.

Seattle has so many other pressing capital fund projects that need funding. The city needs a new viaduct before it collapses, a new 520 bridge before it sinks and, for god sakes, to finish an actual rapid transit system. I know that it isn't necessarily the same money that would fund these projects but it doesn't matter, you can't be whining about no funding for some projects and then brag about your brand new, publicly financed basketball arena. Nobody will buy it. Key Arena is not a threat to life and limb, it does not need to be replaced. The viaduct and the 520 are. Fix them now, screw the arena.

If the OKC group really wants to stay in Seattle like they say, they will see what an advantage it is for them to put forward the majority of the funding for a new arena and run it themselves keeping all of the profits. But you know as well as I do that isn't going to happen when their hometown is ready and willing to have it's own team permanently.

Howard Schultz should have been able to see that advantage too, but when public funding is possible, nobody is willing to put up their own money. He has forced the city and state into an impossible position, either they buckle and give up more than ever or they lose the team. Damn you Howard Schultz, I hope whenever you show your face in public someone lights into you for this. I know that if I ever see you at Salumi, you will get an ear full. Unfortunately, I live in California, so I won't get the opportunity any time soon.

As far as the logo goes, this is a logo blog after all, I have always thought it was garbage. I am happy they ditched the red and went back to the original colors, but this logo is so lackluster it's unacceptable. They had an opportunity to go back to the great skyline in a basketball logo and didn't and I never forgave them for that. And they have never been the Sonics to me, they never should have dropped the Super from their name. The Sonics can move anywhere they want if you ask me, but the Supersonics will live on no matter what happens.

Open Thread: Birmingham Barons

2007-10-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

This is probably going to be a slow week here at The Sports Logo Pundit. I'll be out of town from Tuesday to Thursday and mostly out of the internet loop that whole time. So I apologize for the lack of posts this week.

So, to encourage a little bit of participation and keep this thing active while I'm gone, I'm going to ask for your opinion on the Birmingham Baron's logos that were released last week. The comments section is yours, tell me what you think about it or tell us whatever else is on your mind. I don't care, it's an open thread for a reason.

Team: Birmingham Barons
League: Southern League
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Stadium: Regions Park
Merchandise: Still selling the old stuff at full price

Lancaster JetHawks

2007-10-25T23:14:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned last night, the Lancaster JetHawks introduced their new logos and identity package yesterday.

One of the basic criteria I use when I judge a redesigned logo is simply, is it an improvement over their previous logo? And in the JetHawk's case, the answer is a resounding yes. Actually, I really liked one of their logos, but when it was stripped down and turned into a cap or a jacket, it was pretty pitiful, bordering on horrible.

The new logos have some problems. In particular, the hawk itself and that funky eye. Because of the eye and the aggressive angles, the hawk doesn't have any life. It looks more like a statue than anything, maybe taxidermy. But at the same time, it goes great with all of the other elements of the logo because of how aggressive and sharp everything is.

But I don't see why they need to put different versions of basically the same thing on the caps other than to cash in on people who can't decide between the two logos. I'm sure I just answered my own question, but I think it would've been much more cohesive had they chose between one or the other for both of made one of them totally and completely different than the others.

At times, I think that these new packages give too many alternate options (see the Lehigh Valley IronPigs) and I think this is a case where it would've been better to stick with a primary logo, one cap logo and maybe a sleeve patch.

But again, anything over this is an improvement. Despite my quibbles with the logos, overall it's a very successful redesign that the JetHawks and the Antelope Valley can certainly be proud of. Now let's get out there and start selling some tickets and improve that game day experience.

Team: Lancaster JetHawks
League: California League
Location: Lancaster, California
Stadium: Clear Channel Stadium
Mascot: KaBoom - Although I'm assuming there will be a new KaBoom
Merchandise: Old and New

Linfield Wildcats

2007-10-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to get to the Birmingham Barons new logo or the Lancaster Jethawks new logos tonight, but I ran out of time. So, instead, here's a quick look at Linfield College's classic Wildcats logo. I visited McMinnville, Oregon over the weekend and had the pleasure of checking out the Linfield campus. It's a very nice place and I was especially impressed with their facilities and was surprised to find an extensive selection of Wildcats merchandise at their bookstore. Not too shaby for a small Division III school.

Linfield's Sports Information Director, Kelly Bird, was kind enough to send me a full sized version of their logo and this quick history lesson...

"As competitive athletics increased in popularity and prominence during the 1920s, the Linfield student body voted that the college’s athletic mascot would be a “Wildcat” because Linfield was “a small school with a lot of fight and scratch.”

Before the 1924 vote, spectators at Linfield athletic events cheered variously for the “Baptists”, owing to Linfield’s early heritage, or the “Cardinal and Purple,” a reference to the school colors.

The current Linfield athletic logo, showing a scowling Wildcat wearing a jauntily cocked sailor's cap, first became a fixture in 1963 under Hall of Fame coach Paul Durham. It remains a recognizable symbol of all Linfield varsity athletic teams."

Thanks again, Kelly. I love the logo and I loved the campus. I don't know if we'll be moving to McMinnville (that was our reason we visited), but if we do, you can be sure that you'll find me cheering on or working for the Wildcats.

School: Linfield College Wildcats
Conference: Northwest Conference
Location: McMinnville, Oregon
Facilities: Beautiful facilities. Check out Maxwell Field.
Merchandise: Even the online store is better than most

RIP: Las Vegas Gladiators

2007-10-22T23:17:00.001-07:00

I'm a little slow with this news, but if you didn't hear already, the Las Vegas Gladiators of the Arena Football League will be moving to Cleveland next season with Bernie Kosar at the reins.

There are some in the Vegas area that are pretty happy that the Gladiators are gone. Owner Jim Ferraro ran the team into the ground. After a season in which they averaged over 10,000 fans a game, Ferraro moved them from the Thomas & Mack Center to the Orleans Arena where attendance dipped to a staggeringly low 5,383 in 2007. Granted the team stunk going 2-14, but that is no reason to drop nearly 5,000 fans per game. That's simply poor management. Chances are Vegas will get another team in the pretty near future. Going a couple years without football could end up being worth it.

And while some are happy, there are others that are without a doubt upset. The handful of fans in the area will have to go without football for a while, the players who now have to spend their downtime in The Flats instead of the Bellagio, and maybe most of all, the Gladiators cheer squad, the Goddesses. I mean, what on earth are these girls going to do for work now?

I mean, young, busty, flexible, dancers just don't have a whole lot of opportunities in the Vegas area. Perhaps we should set up a fund for them, maybe do some bake sales or car washes or something. Jim Ferraro, I ask you...What about the cheerleaders? Can't we all just think about the cheerleaders for once?

Team: Las Vegas Gladiators
League: Arena Football League
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Arena: Orleans Arena
Mascot: Thraxx
Dance Team: Goddesses

Hawaii Hurricanes - UPDATE!

2007-10-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

The ABA keeps on chugging away adding teams all willy-nilly and hoping that at least a handful of them make it beyond the first week of the season. The latest sucker to join the party is Honolulu's Andrew Moss, the new owner of the ABA's most far-flung and travel budget busting basketball team. Yeah, good luck with that. I wonder how many teams will actually make the trip out to Honolulu when most of them struggle to get to their game at the middle school gymnasium down the street.

Hawaii has hosted ABA basketball once before. The Hawaii Mega Force lasted all of two games during the 2005 seasons. The players were never paid and the owner, Orrys Williams, was banned from the league by Joe Newman himself (although I'm sure he would be reinstated and championed by Joe if he would just cough up some cash).

The Mega Force left doom and gloom and destruction on the face of paradise's professional basketball scene, so in an attempt to distance themselves from that destruction and to put a happy face on the return of basketball, Moss decided to go with a positive team name that would brighten everybody's day. A team name that suggests good times ahead and great things to come. A team name that...Oh who am I kidding, they called the damn team the f-ing Hawaii Hurricanes. You know, a big, destructive, killer storm that rips through an island leaving nothing but a mess behind it. Or, as I like to call it, the perfect metaphor.

And to top it off, they designed a logo showing a big ABA basketball ready to brutalize the islands. I mean seriously, if this team tanks and leaves a slew of unpaid bills, ripped off ticket holders and conned investors in it's wake like it is destined to do, when his day in court comes, all Moss will have to do is point to the logo and say "we warned you!" Personally, I think all ABA teams should change their name to Hurricanes. It just works so well.

You know why I know the Hawaii Hurricanes won't survive? Because according to their logo, they will be playing with a ball that has all sorts of hard angles and points. Dribbling that ball is going to be one hell of an adventure. Nobody is going to pay to see that.

UPDATE - 10/16 - Hey Hawaii...don't make me say I told you so. From the Honolulu Advertiser...

"The Hawai'i Hurricanes professional basketball team has been downgraded before it even hit the Islands. After several "shady" business deals by Hurricanes owner Andrew Moss, ownership of the Hawai'i franchise was transferred to a group of investors called Pacific Rim Inc. yesterday."

Gee, what a surprise. Shady business deals from an ABA owner? The whole ABA is a shady business deal. What a joke.

Why don't people do some research before they join the league, buy season tickets or sponsorships or commit to coach or work or even play in this league. The general rule is "you are going to get screwed" and then you should be surprised if you don't.

It's to the point where I don't have any sympathy for anybody who associates themselves with the ABA. The broken promises are par for the course. Quit getting suckered.

Team: Hawaii Hurricanes
League: American Basketball Association
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Arena: Neal Blaisdell Center

SBCC vs. VC - La Playa Stadium

2007-10-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

I took in a community college football game this weekend up in Santa Barbara. The reason? Because I've wanted to see a game at La Playa Stadium on the campus of Santa Barbara City College, a stadium that probably has one of the most beautiful views in all of college football.

It just so happened that when I finally had a chance to go to La Playa Stadium, my hometown Ventura College Pirates were playing. I'm glad that there was an incredible view because a 7-3 game isn't exactly riveting football. But the Pirates did pick up the victory, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Anyway, here are some pictures from La Playa Stadium. Try to tell me that there is a stadium with a better view than this...

This was taken during halftime. The VC team didn't go back to a locker room, I'm not sure that there is a visitor's locker room, so they just went on the other side of the track and spread out on the grass. That's the first time I ever saw that. You gotta love community college football.

Aww...Only at a college football game in Santa Barbara. Purse dogs love football!

Port Huron IceHawks - UPDATED AGAIN!

2007-10-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

Wow. Now that is on BAD logo. Seriously, I don't think there is anything left to say except...YUCK!

UPDATE - 7/27/2007...

And it just gets worse. For some reason, the IceHawks changed their colors to red and black. Why, I have no idea. I'd be wiling to bet it's because they got a good deal on red jerseys or had leftovers from the old Flags team that they can salvage. It's either that or they just want to capitalize on the Red Wings color scheme. Either way, it still stinks.

UPDATE - 10/12/07...

I've got to give it up to SLP commenter jonez who chimed in with "AM I the Only one seeing the word KINNEY within the iced tail feathers of the bird??" Good eyes jonez, I never even noticed that. You are absolutely correct, the word KINNEY is right there.

If you are wondering what that cryptic word means, it's pretty simple. Larry W. and Frank D. Kinney are the owners and president and governor respectively of the IceHawks. It explains so, so much.

Team: Port Huron IceHawks - or DrunkenParrots
League: International Hockey League - a few of the former UHL teams
Location: Port Huron, Michigan
Arena: McMorran Place

Picture stolen from the Port Huron Times Herald

American Hockey League Logos

2007-10-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

Running the risk of disparaging anybody's opinions, I have to post a rebuttal to the AHL top 10 and worst 10 logos lists that I just read over at Faceoff Factor.

The problem lies in how we judge logos. The criteria in his list are...

1. Does it associate well with the NHL affiliate?
2. Is it hockey related?
3. Can people recognize it from far away?

Using his criteria, I can understand his rankings. But for me, the only criteria that I would use of these three items is #3. I don't think that logos associating with their NHL affiliate is a very important factor. For the average fan of these teams, it doesn't make that much of a difference. And I really don't like it when they take the affiliates name and almost exact logo. It's boring and weak.

I also won't penalize a logo if it isn't related to it's sport. In fact, if a logo can be effective and get the point across without relating to the sport it can gain some big time points.

I still can't say that I have a specific criteria about how I judge logos. I just look at them and determine if they strike me as something I like or not. I wish I could boil it down a little bit more than that, but I just can't.

So, using my "criteria", here are my top five AHL logos. Why only five? Because I don't think there are 10 good logos in this league. I could do a top fifteen of my least favorite logos though but ten of those might tie for first place. Faceoff Factor rankings in parentheses.

5. Portland Pirates (5th on the Worst 10 list)

I can't say that I'm in love with this logo, but I do like Pirates and I do like that kind of coy, coniving look on the Pirates face. I can't believe that I have to pick this as my fifth favorite AHL logo. This league is brutal.

4. Houston Aeros (not ranked)

I love the idea of this logo. The bomber is very cool and the wordmark is interesting and different. However, I don't like how it's all put together. The flying through the puck thing is weird because it begs the question, "what happened to the wings?"

3. Toronto Marlies (1st on the Top 10 list)

I love the Toronto Maple Leafs logo, so that wins it big points automatically. But I'd prefer that they do something with the unique and historic Marlboro's nickname. But what are you going to do? They are owned by the Leafs. And I have to wonder why they need both the historic leaf and the current maple leaf logo (on the shield) on the same logo. Seems like overkill.

2. Grand Rapids Griffins (not ranked)

First of all, I love Griffins as a nickname, it's a totally unique name in all of professional sports. The wordmark is very well done, I love the two f's in the middle separating the city name and I love how it creates an arch. And that griffin is great. It's fierce but isn't scary and is both kid friendly and something that an adult would have no problem wearing it on a t-shirt.

1. Milwaukee Admirals (1st on the Worst 10 list)

Simply read my review of this logo. It has stood the test of time for me. One of my favorite logos period.

Sports Logo Pundit Insta-Poll

2007-10-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

College basketball season is rapidly approaching. I LOVE college basketball and there is virtually no way that I'm not going to write about it extensively.

The question is, where should I write about it? Should I write about it over at my personal blog Down With Pants!, here on The Sports Logo Pundit, on my own new blog solely about college basketball that I would have to create or should I find an established blog to be a correspondent for (I'm already going to do Big West updates for Storming the Floor)?

So what do you think? Could you take a bunch of non-logo related, college basketball posts on this blog? Please vote below...

Seattle Sounders - MLS Concepts

2007-10-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

They guys over at GOALSeattle.com are nervously reporting that October 11th could be the day that the MLS announces that they have awarded an expansion franchise to Seattle. I'm all for it. I've now been to a couple of MLS games and was won over and I definitely think it could do well in Seattle. I wish there was a soccer specific stadium in town rather than the massive Qwest Field, but I'm not willing to have taxpayers pay for yet another unnecessary stadium.

My hope is that Seattle MLS, headed by current Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer, will stick with tradition and take the Sounders nickname with them. I personally can't imagine a Seattle soccer team that isn't called the Sounders. I almost don't think it would be worth having an MLS team in town if they wouldn't be called the Sounders. Seriously, that's how much I love that name.

Above you see my favorite of the concepts done by Luminous Creative that GOALSeattle obtained (click here to see the others). It's the only one that he did that incorporates the Sounders name with the FC Seattle or Seattle FC that many are suggesting will be used. I love the use of Chief Sealth, the man Seattle is named after and the symbol of the City of Seattle (this is an exact replication of Sealth from the city's logo) and I like that he retained the blue and green that the Sounders have used all along.

Too bad the Seattle MLS group appears to have hired a different firm, hence the availability of these concepts online. Oh well, as long as they remain the Sounders and improve upon their current logo, I'll be plenty happy.

Team: Seattle Sounders
League: Current - USL First Divison... Proposed - MLS
Location: Seattle, Washington
Stadium: Qwest Field
Merchandise: Get the current, OK logo before it's gone

Tampa Bay Rays

2007-10-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome back correspondent Chris Roberts with his review of the soon to be released Tampa Bay Rays logo. My thoughts are in the comments...

When it comes to a good logo, especially in sports, I’m almost always a huge fan of simplicity. Logos that are simple, yet classy, and convey a solid imaging really appeal to me – that’s why I’m almost always a fan of baseball logos like the Red Sox, A’s, Yankees, Dodgers, and Cubs. The logos are simple, but they aren’t so simple that a solid brand can’t be built around them.

For contrast, enter the Tampa Bay Rays.

Now before you say, “Hey, new guy at the Sports Logo Pundit, the team’s called the ‘Devil Rays,’” note that the team from the glowing orange dome is being reinvented across the board – new logo, new unis, new colors, new name. Well, not so much a new name so much as the name going on a diet and shedding six keystrokes.

I hated the old look. The color combination was horrible, and the logo always seemed too busy to me. I say that because, well, I prefer the old logo to this one.

Blue is a favorite color of mine, so points to the Rays for the new color scheme, but the logo is painfully bad for two reasons.

First, the font is a very weak choice. While this slight skewing of the Mediaeval font might look nice on a book jacket or a plaque, try telling me with a straight face that it looks passable on a uniform. Well, I suppose it doesn’t look all that bad, but it’s at best quite weak looking when on the uni.

Second, the primary logo could have been so much more, especially when you put it up against the old logo. Maybe they’re trying to pander to the roughly 25% of people living around Tampa Bay that are over 65 with something easy on the eyes. Maybe they really wanted to have a logo that would cause people to think they were going shopping instead of going to a Rays game – heck, that might even boost attendance. No matter the motivation, the new logo is a downgrade from their gaudy former logo – this is very noticeable when you compare the old word mark to the new.

Other minor details are the diamond – I’d rather have it without home plate and second base; with those features I think it looks cheap and makes something that should be subtle annoyingly obvious – and that odd gleam on the “R.” Plus, the logo is just plain – you can be simple without being plain. The plain logo leads to the even plainer uniforms, which can be a good thing, just not here.

Overall, this logo gets a grade of a weak (recurring theme here, which is quite fitting considering the franchise’s considerably weak history) C-, higher than it should be if only for the use of blue.

Team: Tampa Bay Rays
League: American League (MLB)
Location: St. Petersburg, FL
Stadium: Tropicana Field
Mascot: Raymond D. Ray
Merchandise: Get your Devil Rays merch before it’s too late!

Tournament of Logos

2007-10-03T23:49:00.001-07:00

I just want to pass along a couple of links today, both related to each other.

The first is for the NHL Tournament of Logos, a blog and contest that recently wrapped up with the Montreal Canadiens taking the top spot over the St. Louis Blues logo. Not sure if I agree, but the public has spoken.

Now Chris, the tournament master, is launching the Tournament of Hockey Logos. He will start with either the AHL or the ECHL with voting in the first tournament opening on October 15th.

On his site right now he has posted all of the logos for both leagues and I have to say, the ECHL tournament is going to be the most interesting. While the AHL, to me, has a clear winner in the Milwaukee Admirals...

...The only logo that really stands out in the ECHL is the Victoria Salmon Kings...

...And I wouldn't choose it as the best logo, it just happens to be my favorite logo of the bunch, warts and all.

Anyway, it should be an interesting tournament and both of those sites are worth checking out if you have some time.

Binghamton Mets

2007-09-30T23:22:00.000-07:00

Our latest correspondent random review comes from Nick, who briefly wrote a rival logo review site, Logo Quality Control, before I crushed it like a bug. Just kidding, I really enjoyed his site's short run before it succumbed to the "blocked at work" fate that kills so many blogs. If only our employers were more sympathetic to our nerdiness.

A few years ago, my wife and I took a short road trip through Pennsylvania and New York and we ended up spending the night in Binghamton. There was some sort of motorcycle or RV or boat fair going on, I can never keep them straight, and as a result, every hotel was booked solid. Keep in mind, we’d been driving straight from Virginia, we’d witnessed a terrible car accident, and we drove through a town that had been long ago abandoned because of underground coal fires. We were tired and we were ready to get some dinner and get to sleep.

Eventually, we did find something—a Super 8, I think—on the edge of town. We drove downtown to find some dinner and that’s when I discovered two things I’d never noticed before. The first is something I’m sure many people never knew—the good people of Binghamton spelled their city name wrong. This happens a lot—illegible land claims, stupid postal clerks, bureaucracy at its finest. You spell a city name wrong when you send your information to the Postmaster General and you never recover.

The other, of course, is that the Binghamton Mets, the Double-A affiliate of the New York Mets and member of the Eastern League, have a “bee” as their mascot. I may have known this prior to my visit, but it struck me as odd. I don’t know even know what a Met is—I hear in the New York City area, it’s a baseball-headed creature—but I’m pretty sure it’s not a bee. I don’t think the New York Mets are one of those clubs who put firm pressure on their farm clubs to adopt the parent club’s team name, but if you like the bee theme, go with Binghamton Bees. It actually works, you know. It sounds better than Binghamton Mets anyway.

The logo itself, though… first of all, when I look at a team logo, I’m almost always looking for the bad. The bad things tend to stand out, you know? It’s like this: when you hear a terrible song, you can right away say, “Man, this song sucks.” Sometimes, though, when you hear a song you think you might like, you listen a little longer before you affirmatively state you like it. Just to make sure the chorus doesn’t ruin it or there’s no cheesy guitar solo. You have to be sure.

Well, I didn’t spend too much time looking at this logo, honestly. The colors are perfectly okay and expected with them being affiliated with the Mets and all. Blue and orange work together, generally. This logo is their hat insignia, which is why there’s no “Binghamton” or “Mets” spelled out. So that’s not a problem, either. Full team names on baseball caps never ever ever works. And I think there’s a “B” behind the bee…I can’t be totally sure because the bee blocks most of it. Which may beg the question: “Why have the ‘B’ at all?” I don’t know. Call me crazy, but if you’re going to put a letter on your hat to signify the team’s city, why obscure it?

But no big deal because it’s the entire package we’re talking about. But I can’t get behind anthropomorphic animals. I’ve tried and I’ve failed. And of all the thousands of teams that have anthropomorphized animals (or worse), it’s hard to say some aren’t as bad as others. But insects just aren’t scary when you cartoon them up and give them big arms and clothes. Especially when it doesn’t, well, look like a bee. I mean, it’s yellow. It has wings and antenna. But it looks nothing like a bee. The wings are way too simplistic. I know this is a hat insignia but this bee image appears in nearly all their team art with the same wings. They look like aspirin. Or Frisbees. And another pet peeve of mine is when a mascot in a logo wears a uniform that the team does not wear. I can find no image of a Binghamton Met wearing that uniform. And it seems a bit detailed for a logo.

But the biggest question of all is: What in the world is going on with the bee’s “tail”? Is that supposed to be its stinger? Is it a superbee? One of those African Bees from South America that was supposed to invade Texas and then the rest of America in the 1980s and kill everyone? Is that a saw? Is it some sort of swoosh to imply movement? Someone sometime needs to explain that.

It’s not awful. It’s not Tri-City Dust Devils awful. It’s family-friendly and visually attractive with its colors and its composition (even though the “B” is awkwardly obscured). It’s just that the bee itself is way too cartoony, way too detailed in some placed and lacking it in others, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why it’s a bee at all. I keep wanting to call the team the Binghamton Bees and I keep being wrong.

By the way, I’m kidding about Binghamton being misspelled. It’s just missing a “p,” that’s all.

Grade: D+

Team: Binghamton Mets
League: Eastern League
Location: Binghamton, New York
Stadium: NYSEG Stadium
Mascot: Buddy the Bee
Merchandise: Get your softee Buddy the Bee

Alexandria Blizzard

2007-09-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I find logos that, for whatever reason, I can't review. I don't know what it is about them, but they leave me speechless. I just simply have to post them and say "here's a logo for you...enjoy".

Such is the case with the Alexandria Blizzard of the NAHL. I don't know why, but it defies description.

Anyway, here's a logo for you...enjoy!

Team: Alexandria Blizzard
League: North American Hockey League
Location: Alexandria, Minnesota
Arena: Runestone Community Center

Minot Skyrockets

2007-09-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

It's getting late and I'm just about ready for bed, but before I head there, I have to share this logo. It's not everyday that I come across a minor league basketball logo that I actually like...The Minot Skyrockets of the CBL.

The biggest question I have about the Skyrockets though, is how in the world does a team start in San Jose, California and then decide to relocate to Minot, North Dakota? That seems pretty drastic.

Team: Minot Skyrockets
League: Continental Basketball Association
Location: Minot, North Dakota
Arena: Minot Municipal Auditorium
Dance Team: Rockettes - I know it's small potatoes, but I'm surprised they haven't received a cease-and-desist letter about their name yet.

Niagara IceDogs

2007-09-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Yikes, it's been a busy weekend. I had my best friend in town and we went to see his Washington State Cougars get blown the heck out of the water by USC. What an awful display they put on. We left at halftime and hightailed it to the Rose Bowl to see my Washington Huskies get blown the heck out of the water by UCLA. Kind of a brutal weekend of college football for us. Anyway, I haven't had much time, thankfully I have correspondents. Big thanks go out to John Baker for his review of another random logo. Expect more from him in the future...

When owners of a new minor-league franchise are at a loss for a new and clever name, there is a temptation to take any noun or adjective and simply stick the word “dogs” on the end of it. Sometimes, if the owners are feeling particularly clever or creative, they might change things around a bit and spell it “Doggs,” or, God help us, “Dawgs.” Thus, we have had inflicted on us Sea Dogs, Surf Dawgs, RiverDogs, Sun Dawgs, Beach Dogs, and Swamp Dogs, to name just a few.

Since one of my very own favorite teams ends its name with the word “Cats,” it is probably wise to point out that not all household pets are created equal. Some of these names are more clever than others. When the city of Memphis was angling for an NFL team some years ago, the proposed name was the Hound Dogs. That would have been a great name. Not only did it have an obvious connection to the iconic Elvis Presley song, but there really are hound dogs in Tennessee. When the owners of the Washington NBA franchise decided that Bullets was perhaps not the best name for a team located in a city with one of the highest rates of gun violence in the country, one of the proposed alternatives they came up with was Sea Dogs. This suggestion was met with laughter and derision, but at least the term already existed. If Washington, D.C. were located on the ocean, instead of some obscure river, and if the town was known for its maritime tradition, rather than for sex, lies and video tape, it might have worked. This would be a great name for a team located in Norfolk or Annapolis.

But some of these other alternatives are just silly. Surf Dogs and Beach Dogs bring to mind critters who make your local beach a hazardous place to walk. And if this is a women’s team we are talking about, would that make them the Beach Bitches? Come to think of it, that would be a pretty good name for, say, a roller derby team, but it would probably be a bit over the top for a team you might want to take your kids to watch.

This brings us to today’s entry, the Niagra IceDogs of the Ontario Hockey League, located in St Catharines Ontario. What exactly is an IceDog, anyway? Most dogs I am familiar with do not seem to care for ice any more than these other animals. Of course, there are those dogs in Alaska and Canada who run in those long races, but they are usually either referred to by their breed, most often Alaskan or Siberian Huskies, or are called sled dogs. Now, that wouldn’t be such a bad name for a team located in someplace like Fairbanks or Nome, but as far as I can tell, such hard working canines are not indigenous to southern Ontario. It seems an ice dog is just a dog with the word “ice” tacked on to the front of its name, and most dogs do not fair much better on ice than most people. They tend instead to get cold and fall down a lot, not the sort of image you would want for a hockey team. Some time this season, the IceDogs will take on their rivals the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds to determine the alpha male of the frozen canine set. Watch where you step, and don't eat that yellow snow!

So IceDogs is a dumb name. But perhaps the owners could get around that by coming up with a really compelling logo. How about a fierce or determined husky? How about some mean-looking critter biting through a hockey stick? How about a figure raising his hind leg above an opponents logo in a gesture of distain? Perhaps they could have, but alas, they didn’t. Instead, they came up with a cartoon-ish representation of a dog in a hockey uniform.

I am trying to figure out what I like about this logo, and the answer is, well, nothing really. There is nothing about it that tends to make it distinctive or connect it to the local community. It is just a dog in a hockey uniform. The drawing itself would not be bad if it were submitted as an assignment in a high school art class, but is otherwise nothing special. It is flat and two dimensional. It is not even clear whose uniform this bland pit bull-looking creature is wearing, as he has a big white X on his shoulder, which appears to be apropos of nothing in particular. The colors and word mark are not bad, but they are not especially compelling, either. The overall effect is just bland.

It doesn’t even make me want to bay at the moon in disgust, but instead to want to curl up on the floor and go to sleep. As logos go, I can hear this one barking.

Team: Niagara Ice Dogs
League: Ontario Hockey League
Location: St. Catharines, Ontario
Arena: Jack Gatecliff Arena

Edmonton Oil Kings/Flin Flon Bombers

2007-09-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, it's hockey season again? The Western Hockey League kicked off it's season with the return of the historic Edmonton Oil Kings franchise. In front of a Rexall Place crowd of 6,782, the Oil Kings did opening night up right posting a 4-3 victory over the franchise that last abandoned Edmonton, the Kootenay Ice.

Put the Oil Kings logo down as my favorite new/old logo released this year. Of course, I'm not sure that there were any other new/old logos released, but that's neither here nor there. The Edmonton Oilers owned Junior-A franchise did a little bit of work to update the classic Oil King logo, notably replacing the St. Georges Cross with an oil drop and the reworking of the colors. The results are exceptionally simple and...

Wait! We interrupt this review because The Sports Logo Pundit found something that blew his mind. While researching the Oil Kings I came across a jersey that automatically jumps up to the top of my all-time favorites...

That's Bobby Clarke and his jersey from when he was a member of the Western Hockey League's Flin Flon Bombers. The Bombers name and famous exploding "B" logo have been used by this strange sounding Manitoba city since 1936 without too many changes.

And would you believe it, the Flin Flon Bombers still exist as a part of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. Unfortunately, this jersey isn't part of their current uniform, but even without it, they still look pretty darn good.

Team: Edmonton Oil Kings
League: Western Hockey League
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Arena: Rexall Place

Team: Flin Flon Bombers
League: Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League
Location: Flin Flon, Manitoba - named after the character Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin. Seriously.
Arena: Whitney Forum
Merchandise: Great game worn jerseys

Topeka Roadrunners

2007-09-18T23:57:00.000-07:00

Tonight marks a step forward for The Sports Logo Pundit as I unveil our very first Correspondent. Thanks to Chris Roberts of Turning 25 for stepping up and tackling a pretty rank logo (IMO) that I chose at random for him. Look for more reviews in the future from Chris and other correspondents. For the guys that have emailed me and I haven't yet responded, don't worry, I'll get back to you this week.

Logos for sports teams are funny in that you almost always have to suspend belief when you approach them.

What do I mean? Well, without question we accept a smug leprechaun to front the Boston Celtics, and for the past couple of years we have tolerated a buffalo-slug hybrid to represent a team called the “Sabres.” Realism isn’t a thing of necessity when it comes to sports logos. When executed rightly, you don’t need to be realistic, either – see also “Iron Pigs” and “Cardinals, Arizona.”

The suspension of belief should come naturally, though, as if the logo itself compels you to just [cue whisper] believe. I shouldn’t have to get myself into the zone to buy into a logo.

Inside that zone today is the logo for the Topeka RoadRunners. The team from Topeka is originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the RoadRunners moniker certainly passes better muster. This NAHL team is moving to Kansas’ capital this season after a grassroots movement among the city’s hockey fans to woo the team away from the land of enchantment.

Instead of a complete redesign, which a junior A hockey team probably couldn’t swing budget-wise, the RoadRunners are simply recoloring their logo and changing up the font in the word mark for the move. New this season are the golden-brown beak, changed from a much less natural blue, the silver color in the feathering, and a semi-serif-style font in place of the non-styled block-serif for the word mark.

Looking at the bulk of the logo, the roadrunner’s head, I’m first distracted by the whole “prehistoric” styling – the jagged black lines outlining the areas of color, the silver head-feathers sweeping up behind the beak to conjure imagery of mean, nasty horns or spikes (which you could easily mistake them for altogether at first glance).

Bothering me the most are the teeth – roadrunners don’t have teeth, so why make that such a prominent feature on your logo? Yes, it’s obviously a treatment to make the logo look meaner, but we’re back to the whole “forced suspension of belief” deal.

Plus, it’s an unnecessary liberty taken with the real bird’s morphology. Really unnecessary considering how successfully birds can be styled to look “mean” without adding teeth – see the Seahawks, the Ravens, and the aforementioned Arizona Cardinals.

Roadrunner head aside, the new font fits well and isn’t really all that bad. While I personally would stay away from a font like that, the style fits here pretty well.

While Topeka’s new, used hockey team comes with a refreshed logo that could be worse, it’s nowhere near the front of the pack, or flock if you want so badly that easy, easy pun. For that, I’m willing to give this guy a C+.

Team: Topeka RoadRunners
League: North American Hockey League
Location: Topeka, Kansas
Arena: Landon Arena
Mascot: Yes, it’s a roadrunner (surprise), but I can’t find his/her name anywhere!
Merchandise: Not online yet

Phoenix Mercury

2007-09-17T22:13:00.001-07:00

I don't comment on actual on-the-field stuff too often, but I would like to congratulate the Phoenix Mercury for winning the 2007 WNBA Championship by defeating the Detroit Shock 108-92 yesterday. Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter are two of the league's best, most exciting young players and Penny Taylor is another outstanding Australian import that raised her game in the playoffs including scoring 30 in the final game. Plus, the old run-and-gun specialist Paul Westhead is their coach, and he's one of my all-time favorites. It was a well deserved win for a very good team.

A few years ago, I worked game days for the Seattle Storm and had an absolutely great time and came to really enjoy WNBA basketball. I recognize that it's not for everybody but I think it's a great league that deserves some respect and I'm sick of how virtually every sports blog has something snide to say whenever something happens in the WNBA. Every crummy joke that they make is so cliche. We've heard them all over the league's history. I wish they'd just give it up already and leave the WNBA be. No one's forcing you to cover it.

I challenge all the haters to go to a game and look around you and see how much fun the hordes of little girls are having. Better yet, if you have a daughter, take her and some of her friends and see how much fun they have. YOU don't have to enjoy the game, but recognize how important the league is to little girls and some other largely underrepresented groups, including people who like affordable family entertainment.

My wife is pregnant right now and if we have a girl I hope and pray that the WNBA will still be around for her to look up to the players and enjoy. Heck, I hope that the WNBA will still be around if we have a boy so that he can see that women have a place in sports other than being cheerleaders and beer girls. Marginalizing women like that isn't how I expect my children to think especially with a smart, strong, doctor mom in the house.

One thing though, can we please do something about the Mercury logo? It's really bad. Definitely not a championship caliber logo.

Team: Phoenix Mercury
League: WNBA
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Arena: US Airways Center
Mascot: Scorch
Merchandise: Get your championship gear now!

Vancouver Canucks

2007-09-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

The NHL season is fast approaching and if you didn't already know, the entire league is changing it's jerseys this season. They are going to a new, high performance jersey designed by Reebok. I don't even want to get into the new design and cut of the jersey other than to say that I dislike the whole idea, but at least it has given us something to talk about.

My favorite NHL team is the Vancouver Canucks simply because they were the closest to where I grew up and because I loved their logo. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest (near the Canadian Southwest) Orca whales are a big part of our culture and have a deeper meaning than they do anywhere else in North America. I appreciate their use in this logo, even if it has virtually nothing to do with the nickname Canucks (in fact, it had more to do with their old ownership group, Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment, but I'm fine with that). However, I wasn't sold on the burgundy in the old logo and I was happy to hear that they would be returning to the Canucks original blue and green color scheme with their redesign.

Unfortunately, they didn't bring any green into the recolored logo, and I don't know why. White, silver and navy don't make for a particularly striking logo, especially on this jersey. The green really stands out on the stripes and sleeves and on the alternate logo and it needs to be repeated on the crest. Combine the crest with the one color "Vancouver" text above it and you have a big colorless hole right in the middle of the jersey. It's disappointing that they fouled it up so bad in that respect because it could've been wildly successful.

The one thing that they did get right is the alternate logo. Basically it's just an update to their original primary logo...

It finally looks like a "C". It was too hard to quickly understand what they were getting at in the original. Although what I loved about the old stick in a hockey rink is that the Canucks were willing to celebrate one of the lamest logos of all-time.

Team: Vancouver Canucks
League: National Hockey League
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Arena: General Motors Place
Mascot: Fin
Merchandise: Replica jerseys keep getting more and more expensive.

WANTED: Correspondents

2007-09-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

I really want to see The Sports Logo Pundit go crazy and have new posts up every single day and continue to be read by more and more people. But I can't keep up.

Especially right now, there is a lot going on in the logo world. Teams are releasing logos left and right, others are running name-the-team contests that should be highlighted, there are a ton of uniform changes and whatnot that could easily be talked about (although UniWatch already does such a thorough job of this that's it's kind of ridiculous for me to try to keep up) and I just don't have time to get to it all.

So I have decided to try and recruit a handful of correspondents, A team of writers that can help keep this thing on track. Basically, a group of pundits that would keep an eye out for new logos or would be willing to review a logo that I send them. It would probably amount to writing a review once every two weeks or so, depending on how many takers I have.

If you are interested, please email me at sportslogopundit@gmail.com and I will email you a random logo to write a review about. I'll check out your review, probably post it on here and we'll go from there.

California Lutheran Kingsmen vs. Pacific Lutheran Lutes

2007-09-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

It was an epic gridiron battle between Lutherans on Saturday afternoon as the Pacific Lutheran Lutes traveled to Thousand Oaks to take on the California Lutheran Kingsmen. Fans packed the 2,000 seats of Mt. Clef Stadium on the CLU campus for the 2007 season opener and the debut of the Kingsmen's coach Ben McEnroe.

The setting for a game is spectacular, the view from the stands is great and the ability to get really close to the action on the visitors side of the field is outstanding. It's just too bad that Mt. Clef Stadium is one of the worst stadiums that I have ever been to anywhere. It's about as rickety and downright scary as it gets. Cal Lu is hoping to build a new stadium pretty soon, and none to soon. I doubt those grandstands can take too much more abuse.

Enjoy some pictures from the game (click to enlarge)...

It wasn't a successful debut for Coach McEnroe as the Lutes came in and rolled over the Kingsmen 48-17. It got mighty ugly as the Kingsmen had to use three different quarterbacks and turned the ball over seven times. Ah, Division-III football at it's best.

Oh well, they don't charge anything for admission, so you can't beat the price.

Portland Beavers - GOOD NEWS UPDATE!

2007-09-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

Michael emailed me this morning with some horrible news. The Portland Beavers new ownership is considering a name change. They have presented the public with five options complete with logos and is asking for your input. The options are: sticking with the Beavers nickname, The Portland Green Sox, Sockeyes, Thorns or Wet Sox.

I really don't want to see them go away from the Beavers nickname. It has way too much history, is completely unique throughout professional sports (although it is Oregon State University's mascot), and people identify Beavers with baseball in Portland. When the Beavers moved to Salt Lake and the Rockies replaced them, I don't think anybody knew what to do with the name. It never fit, but not necessarily because of the fact that they took a parent club's name that didn't match the city one bit, but simply because they weren't called the Beavers anymore.

I understand why they want to change - to distance themselves from all of the problems that the Beavers management has had over the last few years and to distinguish themselves from OSU. And a name change might temporarily be a hit - they would sell a bunch of merchandise to the diehard fans. But in the long run, the Beavers name has to stick. It's too ingrained in the culture of Portland to allow another nickname to be more than a momentary success.

For the next week, the team is asking for the public's opinion. I've already voted. I gave my first, second, third, fourth and fifth choices to the Beavers (and the website allowed me to do that, which surprised me). I'd ask you to vote for Beavers and then leave them a note urging them not to change names, but do what you like, I'm not your mom.

In case you're wondering, if they have to change, I'd vote for the Wet Sox. But I don't even want to dignify the thought of changing by reviewing any of these logos.

I also don't think this is a very serious effort, just something done more out of curiosity and to generate some publicity. If they expected to change logos next season, why in the world would they release a 2009 PCL All-Star Game logo in red and black. Even though the logo is a little generic, if they were serious, they would have waited until they knew the colors the team would be wearing. It's not like releasing the All-Star Game logo was a time-sensitive matter.

UPDATE - 9/5 - Good news, the Beavers announced today that they will be keeping their nickname. Sounds like the fans spoke out pretty strongly in favor of history. I'm happy to have done my part.

I think it's a very smart move to keep the name but I also think it was very smart of them to at least explore the possibilities. Merritt Paulson is a new owner and I'm sure he wanted to know as much as he possibly could to make this thing work.

And it didn't hurt to have all that publicity. By exploring the options, he made the citizens of Portland take ownership of that nickname and a personal stake in keeping the Beavers nickname in town. I think it was a very shrewd move that will pay off in the long run.

Team: Portland Beavers
League: Pacific Coast League
Location: Portland, Oregon
Stadium: PGE Park
Mascot: Boomer
Merchandise: Get your Bob L. Head!

New NFL Logo

2007-09-03T22:27:00.001-07:00

Why mess with a good thing? Are the minor changes to the NFL logo really worth changing everything league wide from jerseys and licensed merchandise to signage at stadiums?

Personally, I don't think so, especially when the changes are negative. I understand what they are trying to do, simplify and modernize. But the new logo is too simple and too clean. If they were trying to best illustrate the NFL as the No Fun League, they did a good job. The new logo isn't any fun, it's all business, kind of like the NFL in general.

What I have always liked about the current logo is that it looks like it is from the 1980's. It uses it's own made up font including the awesome curly-q "L" that nicely fills the dead space. The stars are busy, but they are what I think of most when I think of the NFL logo. And the football laying over the stars gives the logo a lot more depth despite it being drawn very 2-D while the new football is more 3-D. The current logo just has a lot more life to it.

Not that any of it matters in the long run. Team logos are one thing, they mean a lot. And the iconic images of the NBA and MLB are too ingrained to be changed. Despite the NFL's popularity, the logo isn't as meaningful or as ingrained in our culture, so tweaking it isn't a big deal even if it's a negative change. Chances are, I'll never even notice the difference and I probably never would've if they didn't make an announcement about it.

Houston Leones

2007-08-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm going to give you fair warning before I show you this logo. It is one of the most disturbing and nightmarish logos that I've ever seen.

Earlier this month the United Soccer League announced the arrival of the Houston Leones (thanks to SLP advanced scout Jesse Acevedo for alerting me). The team will play it's home games at owner Juan Carlos Hernandez's Soccer World Center in Richmond, Texas. Because they will be totally in control of their own stadium and because of Hernandez's close ties to the local Hispanic community, the USL and the Leones expect to be very successful, and I'd be willing to bet that they will do quite well for themselves.

You know, I think I need to become a successful developer with the resources to just build my own stadium. I can't find a link, but apparently this Soccer World Center is a 17 -acre facility that has three fields including the main stadium that seats 4,500 fans and is able to expand to a 8,000 - 10,000 capacity. I should have something like that for baseball. All it would take is the business know how and years and years and yeas of hard work.

So maybe I won't be building my own facility, because I know nothing about real estate or construction. But if Juan Carlos Hernandez would be willing, I'd gladly accept a gift of a baseball stadium from him. Please Mr. Hernandez?

Ok, enough talk, it was just an excuse to make sure that the hideousness of their logo is below the fold. I'm sure this team will be successful, but this logo isn't going to do them an favors. It's bad...scary bad. It's haunted my dreams since Jesse first emailed it to me. Consider yourself warned, I cannot be responsible for what happens here on out...

Sleep tight! Don't let the Narasimha TEAR YOUR FRIGGING HEAD OFF!

Team: Houston Leones
League: USL Premier Development League
Location: Richmond, Texas
Stadium: Soccer World Center

RIP - Mike Warchol - 1972-2007

2007-08-28T23:39:00.000-07:00

I found out some sad news last night on MySpace of all places. On August 12th my former co-worker with the Grays Harbor Gulls baseball team, Mike Warchol, added me as a friend on MySpace. I wanted to catch up with him and see how he was doing but I put off writing him an email until I thought about it last night. What I didn't know was that later that night after he added me as a friend, Mike passed away in his sleep. He was just 35 years-old.

Mike was an important person in my life because I worked extensively with him during my first job in baseball with the Gulls. I emailed the team one day during my freshman year of college inquiring if they had any positions available, basically to do anything, from interning to concession work. I didn't care, I just wanted to work at a ballpark that summer. Mike emailed me back almost immediately and since I was at school at the time for media and radio journalism (I wanted to be a play-by-play guy), he thought it would be good for me to work with him doing public and media relations for the team along with all of the other crazy things that you have to do when you work in a small minor league front office.

It was Mike that taught me how to write a game recap, a press release, he let me do the radio updates (we didn't have a full-time broadcast), compile stats and whatnot. For some teams this stuff isn't that important, but for Mike it was. He was so passionate about the team and his job that he went kind of overboard, or as I prefer to call it, he did exactly the right amount of media and public relations that a baseball team should do and the newspaper and radio stations rewarded him for it by giving the Gulls very good coverage, probably the best of any team I have worked for. I developed my passion for writing (it doesn't always shine through here, but it is there)and for baseball because of Mike and his passion and all that he taught me.

Mike left baseball when the Gulls folded, got married and moved to Vancouver, Washington and I lost track of him. But it came as no surprise to me when I found out that he continued his passion for writing and became a regular contributor to Rivals.com and he published WashingtonPreps.com, a very important and influential website devoted to Washington High School sports. He poured everything into those websites and devoted himself to helping kids get the recognition and coverage that they deserved and, from the looks of the comments, did a great job of it.

After learning of all the work and writing that he was doing, I was really eager to share my Sports Logo Pundit site with him, I thought he'd get a kick out of it at the very least. I came this close to firing an email off to him through MySpace before I did a little reading on his profile and came to the sad fact that he passed.

Mike was a great guy that did a lot of good for me and for others and I've always appreciated it. He will be missed. My thoughts go out to his wife and their children.

UPDATE: Here is a great article from The Vancouver Columbian about Mike that captures what he was all about.

Trenton Thunder - Open Thread

2007-08-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Trenton Thunder unveiled their new logos for the 2008 season and I'm torn. I haven't decided what I think of them yet. The first time I saw the new logos I didn't care for them, so I put them aside and came back later and started to warm up to them. But now I'm looking at the PDF file of the whole package on Ballpark Digest and, well, I just don't know.

What do you think? The comment section is open (as it always is), I'd love to hear what you have to say about them. Try to convince me one way or the other.

I'll be back on Monday to let you know what I think

MONDAY UPDATE - After thinking about it over the weekend, I really like this logo in theory. I think it looks great as a logo by itself and like Dave said, it's very hard to visualize Thunder, and they have done a wonderful job giving the Thunder nickname a personality of it's own.

Where I think my problem with this logo lies is in the execution, take the primary cap (left) for example...

Personally, it's just too wide and too, I don't know, round or puffy for a cap. I like something a little more compact and more, for a lack of a better word, striking on a cap. The alternate cap (right) is much more successful in this regard, not to mention that the bolt and the bat form a "T" - don't know if this was intentional, but if it was, nice work.

Overall, I think it's a very good logo and one that I'm sure will be very successful. I just won't be sporting their primary cap anytime soon.

Team: Trenton Thunder
League: Eastern League
Location: Trenton, New Jersey
Stadium: Waterfront Park
Merchandise: All the new stuff is already available

Bakersfield Blaze - Sam Lynn Ballpark

2007-08-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Sam Lynn Ballpark, home of the Bakersfield Blaze. Doesn't that picture stink? It's because Sam Lynn is the only ballpark left in Minor League Baseball that faces west meaning that the sun sets directly over center field creating the very unique sun delayed start time.

What I find interesting from a logo standpoint is that despite changing their logo in 2001, they have yet to really embrace it at Sam Lynn. See the Blaze logo on the front of the ballpark? That's their last logo and it appears more often throughout the ballpark than the new one does, which for me is fine, because their new logo is really quite terrible.

What exists even more are Dodgers logos, this is a Dodgers town. In fact, I was under the impression while at the ballpark and from talking to a few people that Bakersfield was a Dodgers affiliate for most of their existence. But a little bit of research says that it's just not true. They were a Dodgers affiliate from 1968-1975 and then again from 1984-1994. It seems that Bakersfield just longs for the Dodgers and has no interest in any of the other teams they have been affiliated (say what you will about Tampa Bay, but they did bring some solid prospect through town).

Anyway, back to the ballpark. The listed game time wasn't until 7:30 and still they had to delay the game by at least 20 minutes while they waited for the sun to hide itself behind the giant center field fence. The sun setting over center is something to be seen and might be the only reason that you should make a special trip to Sam Lynn. There was something about waiting for the sun to set before the game could start that was very charming, I don't even know why.

Even when the sun set and the game finally began, it still wreaked some havoc poking through an opening between the smaller fence, the trees and the huge fence that must be on stilts.

The other advantage to a west facing field is that you get to enjoy the colors created by the sunset. Usually you don't get to see it because it's behind you, but here it's right in front of you to enjoy...

Sam Lynn is a very unique ballpark, but not in a good way. It's a dump, plain and simple. But again, it's an oddly charming dump.

The first four rows of the seating are great. They are sunk below the field so when you sit in the front row, which is where I sat, your head is basically level with the playing field making for a very intimate experience. And these rows stretch from base to base, meaning that there is no room for dugouts. Take a look at the above picture and notice that under the party tent in right field foul territory are both the bullpens and the dugout, combined. I've never been to a ballpark where the teams were that far away from the action.

And if you think that center field looks pretty close, that's because it's only 354 feet away. It's a tiny place that's surrounded by trees making it a very cozy ballpark.

My advice to you if you're going to Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield is to shell out a couple extra dollars to sit close and let yourself forget just how ugly and mismatched the rest of the stadium is. The view, the field and the entertaining show that the Blaze management puts on make it worth a trip even if the rest of the stadium leaves a lot to be desired.

Team: Bakersfield Blaze
League: California League
Location: Bakersfield, California
Stadium: Sam Lynn Ballpark
Mascot: Heater - I can't prove this, but I bet you anything they got Heater from the Chico Heat when they folded
Merchandise: From MLB.com shop

Lehigh Valley IronPigs - UPDATED!!!

2007-08-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

Chris over at Turning 25 wanted to know my opinion on the new Lehigh Valley IronPig's logo and I am happy oblige.

Two things are working against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs from the beginning with me. First of all, I hated to see the Allentown Ambassadors fold in 2004, they had one of my favorite independent league logos and having been to the quirky and strange Bicentennial Field a couple times, I was sad to see it go (it does still play host to the National Pro Fastpitch's Philadelphia Force, though).

I'm also not that happy to see the Ottawa Lynx flee Canada leaving the Great White North with only one Minor League Baseball team, the Vancouver Canadians. It's a sign of the big money times and it's troubling for people like myself who liked it better when everything wasn't well funded and perfect.

But on to the nickname and logo itself. I give it a lukewarm "I like it". The name is interesting and is definitely unique, maybe a little too "unique". I don't like that it's IronPigs instead of Iron Pigs or even Ironpigs but what can you do? It's become perfectly acceptable to write a team name this way and teams won't stop doing it anytime soon.

I like both the wordmark and the pig head as individual pieces. I think they are both spot on given the nickname and they will be a strong visual presence in the community for many years to come. I would love a t-shirt with just the wordmark on it and I'm looking forward to purchasing a game cap with the pig head on it. However, I don't like them combined as they are in the logo above. The city name makes the whole thing look off-center and crooked.

Despite the reservations that I have about the IronPigs nickname, logo and the team in general, I do have a lot of faith in Plan B Branding, the San Diego masterminds who designed this logo and marketing plan and have revolutionized minor league branding packages. I trust that they have a plan for this nickname and logo and will help the IronPigs get the most out of it and by the end of the 2008 season we will be admiring the IronPigs for all of the success that they had in their inaugural season.

UPDATE - Yesterday the Lehigh Valley IronPigs released the rest of the package produced by Plan B and I'm happy to report that my faith is paying off. The alternate logos, wordmarks, jerseys and caps are incredible. Very well done, although five different sets of jerseys is a little bit of overkill. My favorite of the alternate logos are both of the full body pigs and the "I" with the tail...

The only logo that I really don't like is the Saturday cap logo that shows only the snout, eyes and rivets. It's not my style, I wouldn't wear it, but I am positive that it will be their best selling cap. Just look at how popular the Lake Elsinore Storm caps are and I hate those passionately.

You can see the whole package over at BallparkDigest.com and at the IronPigs website.

Team: Lehigh Valley IronPigs
League: International League
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania
Stadium: Coca Cola Park
Online Store: Caps, jerseys and a ton of shirts are now for sale

Swing of the Quad Cities

2007-08-13T22:49:00.001-07:00

According to the Swing of the Quad Cities website, "A new era in the Quad Cities baseball history began officially on October 20, 2003, when the team was officially renamed the Swing of the Quad Cities."

What is an era, you ask? Four whole seasons. That's all the era of the Swing of the Quad Cities will last.

The team announced last week that they will be changing their nickname again after this season and launched a name-the-team contest that will last the rest of the season.

The Swing abandoned the Quad City River Bandits nickname after a name-the-team contest following the 2003 season. Eleven years before that, Quad City Angels became the River Bandits after a name-the-team contest. Before that first name-the-team contest in 1992, Quad City teams bore the Angels nickname for 27 seasons in 33 years.

The Quad City franchise is in the middle of an identity crisis. Teams not in turmoil don't typically change their name this often. But because they tried to take a big, bold step in 2003 to rebrand their team with the unconventional Swing nickname, unconventional "of the Quad Cities" city name, and unconventional, funky color scheme, they now are paying the price. The Swing nickname was born out of a name-the-team contest but the team cranked it up a notch and it went over the heads of all of their fans.

I'm sure that we'll see something much more conservative this time around, for better or for worse. But personally I think they should keep this nickname but tweak the color scheme (get rid of that tan and burnt orange) and change the official team name to the Quad City Swing. The Quad City Swing is a great sounding name and it befuddles me why they didn't use it in the first place.

Team: Swing of the Quad Cities
League: Midwest League
Location: Davenport, Iowa
Stadium: John O'Donnell Field
Mascot: Clyde
Merchandise: Baseball nerds collectors items at this point

Open Thread: Steely McBeam

2007-08-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Two things tonight...

1. The second Down With Pants! Blogger Fantasy Football League needs one more team. If you have a blog, are interested in playing some fantasy football with a bunch of other bloggers (none of them are sports bloggers) and can make a live draft on Sunday, April 26th at noon Pacific time, by all means either leave me a comment or email me and I'll send you the invite.

2. We did this a couple weeks ago with the Los Angeles Galaxy. I want to open the comments up and see what you guys think of Steely McBeam...

...the new mascot for the Pittsburgh Steelers. There's been a lot said about Steely this week on other blogs, but I'm curious about my readers who usually are a little bit different than the average sports blog reader. I know of at least one regular who will probably have a very strong opinion of this "guy".

Have at it...

Chaminade University Silverswords

2007-08-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

Quick question for all the logo designers out there. What would you ask in return to design a new logo and brand for a Division II college that gets a lot of national exposure for one week each season? Would a trip to Maui, tickets to the Maui Invitational and $200 spending money do it for you?

Well if it does, then I have good news for you. Chaminade University in Honolulu is holding a contest to design their new athletics logo. The winner gets everything above or $500 in cash. The contest is open to anyone 18 years or older and submissions must be received by September 1st.

If you decide to take the challenge, you have quite a bit to work with. I love the Silverswords as a nickname and the possible imagery that you can derive from that name, both abstract and literal, is endless.

On the literal end, the Silversword is a beautiful plant that grows only on Maui's volcano Haleakala that only blooms once every twenty years with one big flower. But one of the requirements is that the logo have the possibility in the future of a mascot tie-in so they are basically asking for an abstraction of the literal.

I'd be willing to bet, or at least hoping, that what they are looking for is a mixture of both done in a classy, conservative, Hawaiian way.

But is the reward enough to get what they are looking for? This is a pretty good opportunity for a young, up-and-coming or, perhaps, amateur designer, but I doubt that many professionals will be lining up for the opportunity. Maybe I'm wrong. I might take a stab at it just for kicks. It's enough of a reward for me but I know I won't win.

No matter what happens, it will be an improvement over what they use now. Notice that I didn't add a logo to this post? That's because they don't really have one. They just use the university crest when needed.

For more information, here's the press release and here's the PDF flyer. If you do submit a logo for the contest, I would love to see it. I swear that I won't share it with anybody.

Team: Chaminade University Silverswords
League: Pacific West Conference - incidentally, one of my favorite league logos
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii - Not Lahaina like I thought when I visited Maui. You should have seen the look on the lady in Lahaina's face when I asked her where the college was. They just play the tournament there.

2008 MLB All-Star Game

2007-08-04T11:48:00.001-07:00

I love that despite being a self-proclaimed sports logos "expert", I tend to miss all of the big sports logos news until days after it's made. But to be fair to me, if a team releases a logo and it makes ESPN or CNN/Sports Illustrated or Fox Sports, I can't be blamed if I miss it. I'm too busy reading OurSportsCentral or analyzing the ABA website and it's always fluid roster of teams. Besides, I'm not really an expert, just a fan. A really lazy fan.

Anyway, somehow I've made it a tradition to review all-star game logos. I've reviewed the last two MLB All-Star logos so I guess I shouldn't stop now especially when the 2008 version is in such sharp contrast to the last two in San Francisco and Pittsburgh.

The Yankees All-Star game logo is exactly what you would expect it to be...

Classic to the point of being boring? Check.
Pinstripes? Check.
Facade? Check.
Yankees script in a prominent place? Check, although in other pictures I've seen it says "Major League Baseball" in red. That's probably the logo that all the other teams will use and this is just for the Yankees.
Yogi Berra trotted out like a mascot? Check.

Event: 2008 MLB All-Star Game
Location: The Bronx, New York
Stadium: Yankee Stadium
Merchandise: Yawn!

Chupacabras Team Shop is Now Open!

2007-08-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

My nerdiness is in full swing. From my fake/fantasy football team the Oxnard Chupacabras website...

The Oxnard Chupacabras team shop is now open and ready to take your orders. Men's and Women's t-shirts, hoodies, long sleeve t-shirts, caps, buttons and even dog clothes and thong underwear featuring the Chupacabras logo will turn heads and leave you the envy of all of your friends. And no back-to-school wardrobe is complete without a sweatshirt or baseball jersey.

Get your all Chupacabras merchandise today by clicking here.

Viva Las Chupacabras!

New Hampshire Primaries

2007-07-28T11:08:00.002-07:00

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats announced this week that for one night only in August, they will become the New Hampshire Primaries. Woo Hoo!

For people like myself who have had a big crush on the Primaries logos since they were first released and public outrage made the new Manchester team dump the name in favor of, basically, anything else (eventually a name-the-team contest came up with Fisher Cats), this is great news. Not only because the Primaries will finally see the field but also because there is now an increased presence of this logo online including a whole Cafepress.com storefront selling t-shirts and other Primaries merchandise.

Like I said, I absolutely love these logos. The day that they were released in 2003 I thought that they were the most creative, well thought-out, interesting and well done logos that had been released in years, heck, maybe ever. You've got the whole package with this set. The word mark is beautiful, of course the donkey and the elephant represent the two parties and I love how they are seemingly getting along but are also keeping a wary eye on each other, and the crossed bats behind them is a very nice touch giving it great balance and good luck.

And then there's the secondary logo of Uncle Sam calling his shot. I still feel robbed that I was never able to get an official game hat featuring this logo it (I only wear 5950 fitted caps). It would've quickly become my favorite hat in my collection and when I wore it out I would've bought a new one. I rarely purchase a duplicate of a hat even if I've worn it out, but my man-crush on the Uncle Sam logo is so strong that I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to go without.

I've never been upset with the Fisher Cats management for dropping the Primaries name and logos because the people who didn't like it stood up and went crazy with their opposition. They did what they had to do at the time. Rather, I've always kind of felt bad for them. The fans were very shortsighted and couldn't see the big picture. This name and these logos were going to be so much fun to promote and market and get creative with that they ultimately missed out in the long run.

Anyway, if you are a Primaries fan and you are in the New Hampshire area, mark Saturday, August 25th on your calendar. The Primaries will be taking the field at MerchantAuto.com Stadium for one night only sporting the specially designed uniforms. The game will be followed by, I'm sure, a very patriotic and celebratory fireworks display.

Big thanks goes out to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats management for bringing back the Primaries even if for just one night and also for providing me with the logos on this page. Cheers!

Team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats/Primaries
League: Eastern League
Location: Manchester, New Hampshire
Stadium: Merchantsauto.com Stadium
Mascot: For the Fisher Cats, it's Fungo. But think of all the Primaries possibilities.
Merchandise: Fisher Cats and some Primaries stuff here. Primaries Cafepress store here.

Saint Mary's College Gaels

2007-07-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

I've been sitting here trying to figure out some way of cleverly describing why I like the new Saint Mary's College logo, but it's just not coming to me. Darn you serious lack of creativity! Actually, I'm still thinking about this. So here's a boring, one paragraph review...

I just simply like it. It's classic but unique and does a nice job of illustrating Celtic traditions (they describe a Gael as a Celtic warrior). And it is a huge improvement over the previous generic "SMC" logo.

Thoughts anybody?

Team: Saint Mary's College Gaels
Conference: West Coast Conference
Location: Moraga, CA
Facilities: Alas, no pictures
Merchandise: Not too much with the new logo yet

Corning Bulldogs

2007-07-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

This was a fascinating look into how a logo is developed an illustration of what a great tool Chris Creamer's Sports Logos Community is for designers and teams alike.

The designer, cyandlux or Sean Von Felden (I assume that's his real name) started posting preliminary designs for the ABA's Corning Bulldogs logo last week. Each time he posted an updated design, the other members of the board gave him constructive criticism and with this feedback and the feedback of the owner of the team (I'm sure it was hard to please both of those inputs at the same time), in a relatively short time, it evolved into the final product shown above.

I like the logo, it's definitely one of the best logos that the ABA has ever had, but there are problems with it that even the designer admits to in his posts. Like the basketball dog tag. He didn't want that in there and neither did the other posters, but the owner really wanted a basketball in there somewhere so there you go.

He also admits that he went crazy with the outlines. One of the earlier versions of this logo was just the bulldog without wordmark or outlines or dog tag and it was the best of the bunch except for a couple of problems with the ears and nose that he ended up fixing. I think if he went with just the current bulldog without the outline, it would be an outstanding logo. But again, I think the owner wanted the outlines. What can you do?

Kudos to Sean for his solid design, which probably didn't pay too well. And also kudos to 24 year-old James Schultz, the owner of the Bulldogs for finding him, probably through the boards. I've said that if I owned a sports team and I needed a logo done on the cheap, I'd enlist the services of some of the young designers on these boards.

If history is any indication, the Bulldogs won't play out their entire season. But unlike the other ABA teams that inevitably will fold, at least the Bulldogs will have a solid logo to take to their grave.

Team: Corning Bulldogs - hopefully the find someone to redo their website as well
League: American Fraudulent Basketball Association
Location: Corning, New York - will this small town embrace this team?

2008 NBA All-Star Game

2007-07-18T00:41:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to lie to you, I'm dead tired. I played beach volleyball tonight after playing rugby last night and I'm just about out of it. Granted it's pretty late, I should go to bed, but I've been doing so good with more regular posting that I really wanted to get something up tonight.

Thankfully, the 2008 NBA All-Star Game logo was brought to my attention. I don't really have to say much more about it other than WOW! That's a very impressive, classy, interesting, balanced and stunning logo. Easily the nicest NBA All-Star Game logo yet. It suits the city of New Orleans and the Hornets very well.

Very well done NBA and New Orleans, now start preparing for another major hurricane to blow through your town. Just ask the people of Las Vegas how much they enjoyed the NBA All-Star game.

Los Angeles Galaxy

2007-07-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try something new on the SLP tonight and see what happens. I'm just going to give you the logo and let you say whatever you want to say about it in the comments. Please feel free to weigh in on the LA Galaxy's new logo and then on Sunday night I'll give you my thoughts.

As a little food for thought, here's their old logo and here's a story about the change.

Lurkers - de-lurk!

SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE - I HATE, HATE, HATE this logo. It is so ridiculously boring and cheap. I can't say that the old logo was great, but it had a ton more life than this joke. I hate the fonts that they used, I hate how all of the letters in the "GALAXY" look like they are tipped the wrong way, I hate all the dead space...I just plain HATE it. I think this logo is awful.

And I hate that they introduced it mid-season, I hate that they did it only because Beckham is on his way and they want to force people to buy merchandise, and I absolutely hate that that you can only get jerseys with the Herbalife sponsor across it. Herbalife is a creepy pyramid scheme and I would never pay to advertise them.

I will have a lot more to say about the MLS tomorrow. I want to like the MLS, in fact I went to my first Galaxy game last week and had an absolute blast, but this whole Beckham precedent and a lot of the other things that they are doing rubs me the wrong way. I don't think I'll ever be able to take this league seriously even though I want to.

Team: Los Angeles Galaxy
League: Major League Soccer
Location: Carson, California
Stadium: Home Depot Center - here's my review on Yelp and a few pictures I took.
Online Store: Get your Becks jersey now!

USL Second Division Rankings

2007-07-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

In other logo review blogging, today Climbing the Ladder ranked the logos of USL-2. I like his list, mine would be just a little bit different, but we both agree on the best logo, the Bermuda Hogges, and the two worst logos.

He says that he is planning on ranking the USL-1's logos and at least ten of the PDL's best logos. I don't envy him one bit for tackling the PDL, I was just going through it and some of those logos are brutal. I can't say that there is even one that jumped out as the best.

If he does the PDL, let me nominate my hometown Ventura Fusion for the top ten.

Rio Grande Valley Vipers

2007-07-09T22:38:00.000-07:00

On the other end of the D-League spectrum from the Iowa Energy is the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Thanks again to Mike for emailing me this logo.

The name Vipers isn't unique, in fact, it's pretty overused. Just off the top of my head I can name the Calgary Vipers of the Northern League and the Tennessee Valley Vipers of af2, and I know there are more. But at least it makes some sense. Snakes are quite common in the RGV and the team calls Dodge Arena home and Dodge produces the popular Viper sports car. It's not a great reason to choose a nickname, but at least there's an OK reason, albeit unofficial.

But where the name leaves something to be desired, the logo more than makes up for it. I have to applaud the Vipers management for going with something so clean, compact and simple. The Vipers nickname invites people to go crazy design-wise, whether it be the cartoon in Calgary or the unnecessary craziness of Tennesee Valley. But the RGV Viper is very life-like and comes off as a lot more intimidating. And instead of holding onto the necessary sport identifier that we see in all of these logos, it is naturally slithering around it.

I also am a fan of this logo because there's no outline of the state of Texas anywhere, and I like to pretend that the basketball is the same snarling basketball in the Energy logo and it's about to be put out of it's misery by a far superior logo.

Team: Rio Grande Valley Vipers
League: D-League or NBDL - I can't remember what they want to be called now.
Location: Hidalgo, Texas - the greater McAllen metroplex
Arena: Dodge Arena

Iowa Energy

2007-07-08T22:23:00.001-07:00

A big thanks to Mike for alerting me to and asking for my opinion on a couple new D-League logos including the above Iowa Energy logo that was released on June 29th. I do appreciate the help.

A little bit of background on the Iowa Energy is in order. The team released a handful of finalists to the public last month and asked for fans to vote. Unfortunately, Iowa Scarecrows, Iowa Thoroughbreds, Des Moines River Rats, Iowa Corncobs and Iowa Maize were all met with fierce backlash so the team pulled the plug on the name the team contest. Most expected another group of nicknames to choose from but instead the owners chose the Energy on their own. While none of those nicknames were particularly great, except maybe the Scarecrows, I'd be willing to bet that there are a lot of people cursing their complaining now.

And while the name is bad for so many reasons, the logo is even worse. I used to doodle a lot during elementary and middle school and one of the things that I used to do is draw a baseball or a basketball or whatever and draw a face on it, usually grimacing with eyes around the seems with flames trailing it. I never thought that if I would've developed it a little bit further it could one day become a professional logo.

This must have been some quick and easy money for the design team. For their sake, I hope they didn't charge by the hour because I doubt it took too long to do. In fact, in less than two minutes I drew this on my drawing pad...

...And let's be honest, It wouldn't take me that long to clean it up and pass it off as a professional logo.

I haven't even mentioned the colors. Now I like these colors, they look great...when they are the Phoenix Suns colors. Mike mentioned that the owner is a huge Suns fan, however, the Energy have nothing to do with them at all. They are affiliated with the Bulls and the Heat. Seems like stealing an NBA team's very unique color scheme without any other reason than "I like it" is a weird way to build a new team and brand.

Team: Iowa Energy
League: D-League
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Arena: Wells Fargo Arena

Santa Barbara Foresters vs. California Oaks - 7/3/07

2007-07-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

I swear to you that I will post a logo review sometime soon. The holiday has me all messed up.

On Tuesday night I went to see the Santa Barbara Foresters take on the California Oaks in Carpinteria, about fifteen miles away from their normal home field at UC Santa Barbara. They were playing at Carpinteria High School as a benefit for the city's Little League teams. Quite a few fans packed the little tiny seating area at the high school's field and they were treated to an entertaining game in an absolutely gorgeous setting.

I complain a lot about living in Southern California. Honestly, I can't wait to move back up to the Pacific Northwest next year. However, there are a few things here that you just can't find up in Washington. Like a ballpark in front of breathtaking mountains and citrus orchards and a cool breeze blowing in off the ocean. The stadium isn't much to look at, but the field is in incredible shape and the view...well it speaks for itself (click on the pictures to bigify)...

The life of a ballplayer, huh? It just isn't fair.

Wow! The last picture will be forever burned in my mind as my version of what baseball will look like in heaven.

Everett Hawks

2007-06-26T23:38:00.001-07:00

After reading a strange little press release on OurSportsCentral about the Snohomish County Stallions, a new indoor football team that will begin play in some new start-up league, I started to wonder about the Everett Hawks. An article about the Stallions mentions that they have thought about the Everett Events Center, the home of the Hawks, as their arena. How in the world anybody thinks that there's room for a second indoor football team in the Everett area is beyond me. The only explanation that I could come up with? The Everett Hawks must have folded.

A quick Google search showed what I suspected - the Hawks are still going strong and I sincerely doubt that they will be going away anytime soon. These Stallions are barking up the wrong tree here or, as the case may be, pooping on the wrong barn floor (I just made that cliche up. Does that still make it a cliche?)

While surfing through the Hawks website, I clicked on the Dance Team link and found this picture...

That's Rachel Kerr, the Hawk's Dance Team Coordinator, showing off the goods for some reason. I'm not saying anything about Ms. Kerr personally, but I just don't understand why this picture is on their website. It's so inappropriate. She's the Dance Team Coordinator not a dancer. She puts the team together, I suppose she teaches and choreographs their routines and she schedules them for appearances. All the rest of staff are happy with head shots so why she warrants her own modeling shot above the actual team itself baffles me. Is she a local celebrity of some kind that that fans are interested in? Search me - I just don't get it.

This isn't the first time that I've posted about dance team coordinators. They have this weird power on some team's websites that isn't given to any other member of the organization. None of the players get that kind of treatment, neither do any of the coaches or any of the staff. If there is one good thing to take from this, at least she doesn't have some lengthy, self aggrandizing biography like my man Jasen Page.

Seriously, how ridiculous is it to have a dance tea....Wait, what? This is a logo blog you say? What about the Hawk's logo? Fine. Have it your way...

The hawk head part of the logo is alright, nothing special. But the "Hawks" wordmark is overkill. It's too complicated and is hard to read especially the "S" on the end. That being said, the logo is pretty average. Nothing to rant about and nothing to rave about, that's why I wrote about their dance team coordinator.

Team: Everett Hawks
League: af2
Location: Everett, Washington
Arena: Everett Events Center
Dance Team: Birds of Prey - featuring Rachel Kerr in the office!!!
Mascot: Everett the Hawk - wow. creative.
Online Store: Replica jerseys for $35!

Fort Wayne Mad Ants

2007-06-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to one the SLP's advance scouts, Benjamin K. Shown, for pointing me to the brand spanking new Fort Wayne Mad Ants logo.

I'm loving it! It's about time that the D-League had a team with some cojones. General "Mad" Anthony Wayne would be proud. I didn't think that I could take anymore Los Angeles D-fenders, Anaheim Arsenal, Bakersfield Jam bore-fests.

This is one of the freshest nicknames and logos released this entire year. It has some flaws - the ant in the circle is a little awkward - but I don't care, the whole package works especially when you take into consideration how cool the dunking ant on this poster is...

Now that's how you build an identity and a brand. I'd be willing to bet that merchandise will be going "Mad Fast" too!

Team: Fort Wayne Mad Ants
League: D-League
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Arena: Allen County War Memorial Coliseum

East Kentucky Miners & Indiana Ice Miners

2007-06-19T23:05:00.001-07:00

The Sports Logo Pundit would like to welcome two of the latest teams to enter the minor league sports landscape: The East Kentucky Miners of the the Continental Basketball Association and the Indiana Ice Miners of the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League.

While it doesn't appear that anything is official, according to this article, former Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler - an Ivy League graduate for what it's worth - and his business partner are planning on relocating the Florida Pit Bulls, a failed ABA team, to Pikeville, Kentucky to become the East Kentucky Miners of the CBA. This will be the second CBA team that Fielder's ownership group operates. The Indiana Alley Cats (who it doesn't appear have paid their web hosting bill lately) joined the CBA last season.

I'd be willing to bet that you have no idea what the MAHL is. Don't worry, I didn't either. The MAHL is a startup hockey league hoping to get off the ground in the fall. The Ice Miners of Indiana, Pennsylvania join the Mon Valley Thunder and the Wooster Warriors as the first three teams to be announced for the inaugural season.

When I first heard about the MAHL, I thought that it might be either a fake or a fantasy league, something seemed fishy about it. But after doing a little bit of research it appears that it's on the up-and-up. Operated by Andrew Haines, who also either runs or ran the American Indoor Football Association and the National Profesional Basketball League (two leagues with varying success. The AIFA just completed a relatively successful first season while the NPFL tried to have a season but crowned a champion in April after only six games), the MAHL will at the very least give it a go, but I wouldn't expect a high quality product on the ice. Minor league hockey is a tough nut to crack, just ask the UHL.

Now that we know the teams, there are so many questions that come to mind...

"What are the odds that two of the newest professional teams have the Miners nickname?"
"How is it possible that they could release such similar logos simultaneously?"
"Which Miners logo is better?"
"How will global climate change affect the mining of ice? "
"Which team has the better chance of survival?"
"Is Miners the most overused nickname in all of minor league sports?"

Here are the answers...

500-1
Lack of creativity
Doesn't matter, they are both ripoffs of many other logos. Maybe a slight edge to the Ice Miners because their wordmark is pretty cool.
It has gotten so bad in the ice mining industry that they had to retrain them to play hockey.
The CBA is on iffy ground, but Jay Fiedler signed some pretty hefty contracts as a football player and probably has more money to waste. Plus I still have my doubts that the MAHL will ever play a game.
Now it is.

Team: East Kentucky Miners - "COMING SOOON"
League: Continental Basketball Association
Location: Pikeville, Kentucky
Arena: Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center

Team: Indiana Ice Miners
League: Mid-Atlantic Hockey League
Location: Indiana, Pennsylvania
Arena: S&T Bank Arena

Hawaii Hurricanes

2007-06-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

The ABA keeps on chugging away adding teams all willy-nilly and hoping that at least a handful of them make it beyond the first week of the season. The latest sucker to join the party is Honolulu's Andrew Moss, the new owner of the ABA's most far-flung and travel budget busting basketball team. Yeah, good luck with that. I wonder how many teams will actually make the trip out to Honolulu when most of them struggle to get to their game at the middle school gymnasium down the street.

Hawaii has hosted ABA basketball once before. The Hawaii Mega Force lasted all of two games during the 2005 seasons. The players were never paid and the owner, Orrys Williams, was banned from the league by Joe Newman himself (although I'm sure he would be reinstated and championed by Joe if he would just cough up some cash).

The Mega Force left doom and gloom and destruction on the face of paradise's professional basketball scene, so in an attempt to distance themselves from that destruction and to put a happy face on the return of basketball, Moss decided to go with a positive team name that would brighten everybody's day. A team name that suggests good times ahead and great things to come. A team name that...Oh who am I kidding, they called the damn team the f-ing Hawaii Hurricanes. You know, a big, destructive, killer storm that rips through an island leaving nothing but a mess behind it. Or, as I like to call it, the perfect metaphor.

And to top it off, they designed a logo showing a big ABA basketball ready to brutalize the islands. I mean seriously, if this team tanks and leaves a slew of unpaid bills, ripped off ticket holders and conned investors in it's wake like it is destined to do, when his day in court comes, all Moss will have to do is point to the logo and say "we warned you!" Personally, I think all ABA teams should change their name to Hurricanes. It just works so well.

You know why I know the Hawaii Hurricanes won't survive? Because according to their logo, they will be playing with a ball that has all sorts of hard angles and points. Dribbling that ball is going to be one hell of an adventure. Nobody is going to pay to see that.

Team: Hawaii Hurricanes
League: American Basketball Association
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Arena: Neal Blaisdell Center

2012 London Olympics and More

2007-06-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the logo for the 2012 London Olympics yet? OH. MY. GOD. Worst logo ever. I don't even want to post it here because looking at it will make me sick. The review that best sums up how I feel about this abomination comes from LAist. There's really nothing that I can add to their review other than it also caused an epilepsy scare. What a logo!

As a bonus since I am left speechless by this logo, I bring to you a story that I wrote for Down With Pants! last night. Since my readers over there aren't big sports fans, I figure my SLP readers will appreciate it more...

No Charley, Thank You

If you haven't seen the tirade that Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman went on over the weekend, do yourself a favor and check it out (click here). I don't care if you hate sports or not, this is a great piece of theater and possibly one of the greatest tantrums of our time.

It got me thinking about my own short time in baseball and of former Houston Astros pitcher Charley Kerfeld.

In 1997 I was interning in Hoquiam, Washington for the Grays Harbor Gulls, an independent team in the Western Baseball League. Charley was the manager that season and you would be hard pressed to find a bigger character. Literally. He was around 6'7" and weighed close to 400 lbs and a lot of that was muscle. He had to cut the sleeves of his jerseys open to get his arms through the holes. Charley was a great guy who loved to have fun and always had a smile on his face and made coming to work everyday an adventure. He also had a fiery temper when the right situation arose.

One night in the middle of the season the umpires were busy blowing a lot of calls. The ump out on the bases, in particular, was struggling hard and missed a couple of easy plays. You could see Charley's temperature going through the roof with every blown call and you knew something had to give.

In the fifth inning our center fielder Al Mealing attempted a stolen base and somehow the base ump got himself out of position and didn't have a good view of the play. He called Mealing out when it was obvious to every single other person in the ballpark that the shortstop didn't come anywhere close to applying the tag. Charley had had enough and came storming out of the dugout toward second base. You have never seen a man that large run that fast, he was out there in less time than it took Mealing to get from first to second on the stolen base attempt.

And he let that ump have it. Charley was a fan of colorful language but was also a polite Texas gentleman so he wanted us to crank the music up as loud as we could whenever he came out to argue so that the kids and their parents wouldn't be offended. The guy that ran the click effects had "God Bless Texas" pumping through Olympic Stadium as soon as the umpire called Mealing out and yet we could still hear Charley as loud as if he was standing next to us in the press box.

After a long argument the umpire finally gave Charley the heave ho, so he slowly started making his way down the first base line to the cheers of the crowd. Everybody thought the whole thing was over and he was finished with his tantrum but something didn't seem right to me. The Gulls locker room was behind the third base dugout so unless he was planning on walking through the stadium back to the locker room or to the office, Charley was going the wrong way.

Suddenly, just before he got to first base he turned and bolted for second. He was a 400 pound freight train rumbling down the base path. Just before the base he dropped down into a perfect feet first hook slide, popped up with the agility of a cat and wildly called himself safe right in the umpire's face. The entire stadium erupted in the loudest applause and laughter of the entire season.

To top it off he pulled the base up out of the dirt and chucked it into center field. He then stormed off the way that he came, showered and changed, grabbed a beer and watched the rest of the game from the grandstand; a hero's reward for a job well done.

The next morning I came into the office and Charley's truck was already in the parking lot. I knew something was up because he rarely made it to the ballpark that early. When I got in I could hear him giving instructions to the clubhouse attendant and shortly the clubby came out of Charley's office carrying a base. It turns out that he ruined the base when he pulled it out of the ground and he found it bent and broken in the groundskeeper’s storage. He brought it back into the office, cleaned it up a little bit and promptly signed it...

Dear Jim,

Thanks for the memories.

Love,
Charley Kerfeld

...and had the clubby place it in the umpire's locker.

Well played Mr. Kerfeld, well played indeed.

Coach Wellman: Are you taking notes for next time?

Utah Blaze

2007-06-04T23:46:00.001-07:00

Despite doing my best to ignore tonight's big Utah Blaze/Colorado Crush Arena League Football game, I for some reason paused on ESPN2 and caught a glimpse of the Blaze's logo on a TV backdrop. It's rare to see an AFL logo that is understated and I was impressed with the simplicity of the Blaze logo. My first impression of their logo was very positive but when I found the logo online tonight I soured on it a little bit. I like the flame but the wordmark is a little too mechanical for my tastes.

While surfing the Blaze website, I was surprised to find that they have a dance team. Salt Lake City, if you didn't know, is a pretty conservative city. Women, Mormon or not, typically are expected to dress in relatively modest fashion. So it's surprising to see any SLC residents out in public in this state of undress. This dance team could have come from any of the other heathen AFL cities.

What sets this dance team apart from the rest of the minor league dance teams and places it squarely in Utah is the conservative answers given on their bios. Here is a quick breakdown of the 14 Utah Blaze dancer's Future Goals...

Get married - 6 members - including Laisa (right, great hair by the way) who wants to marry a handsome man and Nicole B. who wants to find Prince Charming

Have/Raise Children/Family - 8 members

Be Happy - 8 members - including Jodie whose only goal is to be happy

School/Career - a surprising 9 members - however many of those are listed after get married and have children

Live in Australia - 1 member - that's a very specific goal Nicole L.

I don't want to judge one way or the other. But while the liberal in me finds it a little weird that most of these young women list marriage and family above career and whanot, I find their decency refreshing when compared to other minor league dance teams. For example the Central Valley Coyotes, a group of girls who may have single handedly set feminism back 20 years.

Team: Utah Blaze
League: Arena Football League
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Arena: EnergySolutions Arena
Mascot: Chief
Dance Team: Harley Davidson Utah Blaze Dance Team
Online Store: At the AFL Store

Ignorance: The Key to Player Procurement

2007-05-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading a really interesting article in Baseball America's Independent Preview section about the struggles that independent managers have when putting together a team (sadly, it's a subscriber only article). It got me to thinking about my own baseball career and how much responsibility I had on my first full-time baseball job despite having absolutely no idea what I was doing.

In 2001 I worked for the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings as the Director of Public/Media Relations. It was my first full-time position in baseball and turned out to be the last full season that I spent with a team. It was one hell of a horrible season. Attendance lagged, our team stunk going 40-56 under the "leadership" of George "The Boomer" Scott and Harlingen, Texas wasn't really my idea of a great place to live. Nonetheless, I was doing what I loved and tried to make the most out of it.

Sometime early in the season, Boomer walked into the front office, and bellowed "hey big man! You got any players for me?" For a couple days I had no idea what he was talking about. Our general manager handled all of the player procurement duties, why would he ask me? I had no contacts, I didn't know anybody in baseball and I didn't have the foggiest idea where to start.

So I went to the Minor League Baseball website and started scouring the transactions page looking for any left-hander that was released from High-A or above. I compiled a short list of guys that I thought might have a chance at playing in our league, but again, I had no idea what to do next. How do I ever get a hold of these guys? It's not like their or their agent's phone numbers were published anywhere and I didn't expect that MLB teams would be willing to share information with a random PR guy in a low-level independent league.

It turned out I was wrong. I grabbed the BA Baseball Directory and started calling Major League team's minor league or scouting departments asking anybody I could if they had contact information for any of these guys. I had no idea if this was proper etiquette or if I would get laughed off of the phone, but it was worth a shot. Surprisingly, given the chilly relationships between MiLB and the independents, I found most every organization to be very accommodating. I even managed to get the Reds to give me Deion Sander's information (including personal cell number) after he was released.

Then, once I had their information, I started calling the players to find out their story and see if they had any interest in playing for us. This is where it usually got interesting. I called one guy who had been released from Double-A despite being a high draft pick with really impressive numbers. His father answered the phone and after explaining who I was and asking if his son was available or interested in playing independent ball, he very shortly explained to me that his son was released because he was undergoing treatment for manic depression and that he probably was finished playing baseball. I felt horrible because the tone of his voice was very sad and he was a little bit angry (he had asked the organization not to release his son's information).

Calling these guys was both horrifying and rewarding, sometimes at the same time. I could always tell that these guys were depressed that they had been released. I would be too if I was fired and had to face the fact that my dream career might be over at 25. Once I explained myself, some guys sounded insulted at the prospect of playing indy ball while others were excited to get a call from anybody. Others had already moved on lining up jobs or going back to school.

For example, I called a pitcher that I knew who had just been released from the Elmira Pioneers and he answered while on his way to his first law school class. I told to him to forget that I ever called, we wouldn't sign him even if he wanted to come play for us. I wasn't about to have a guy delay his law career for a team that was already 10 games under .500.

Once I made contact and figured out if they were interested, I passed them along to Boomer and our GM for the final decision. We signed a couple of these guys, some turned out to be good and some were bad.

After figuring out that I could get away with this method (which to this day I don't know if it was truly kosher or not)I had it down so that by the time Boomer walked into the office each day, I had a packet of information on every player released the previous day. So when he yelled "hey big man! I need a first baseman...find one!" I had one handy and ready to go.

Anyway, it was fascinating and kind of gratifying to read that independent managers with a lot more contacts and experience basically do the exact same thing that I used to do and struggle with it in the same way that I did.

Northwest Arkansas Naturals

2007-05-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

A big thank you goes out to Mike, an avid SLP reader that emailed while I was away to alert me to the fact that the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (currently the Wichita Wranglers, who will be moving after the 2007 season) would be releasing their logo today. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite up and running after my vacation in time to scoop up the story so by now the boards over at Sportslogos.net have already done a pretty thorough job of ripping this logo to shreds. Oh well, I might as well pile on.

I have to agree with one of the posters who said that the logo isn't ugly, it's just bad design. It's a big mess of random ingredients that don't do a good job of illustrating each other in any way.

The hills and waterfall are supposed to illustrate the Natural part of the nickname but they look about as natural as the ones in Angels Stadium. The hill looks more like a building and the waterfall like a fountain shooting out of the top of the building. The pool at the bottom of the waterfall has depth and a little bit of a 3D effect but it is ruined because the clouds (?) of mist are totally flat.

The thunderbolt in the word Natural is supposed to tie back to the movie The Natural but the wordmark doesn't help illustrate the concept of natural that the hills and waterfall are trying to convey. And something is wrong with the thunderbolt. I can't figure out what it is, but it looks off. Something doesn't line up quite right or there is something wrong with the shading or maybe it just has to look like that because it's in the middle of an "N". Either way, it looks wrong.

And don't even get me started on the baseball and double swoosh thing. That is without a doubt the worst part of this logo. It doesn't relate to anything and doesn't belong anywhere near the rest of this logo. It's just plain horrible.

Someone suggested that this logo is probably a victim of too many hands at work. The designer probably had a much cleaner design originally but management got involved and asked them to add all sorts of extras that ended up making the logo too busy. It's definitely a good explanation and probably what happened to make this logo such a mess but it doesn't excuse some of the more technical problems like the "N" or the two swooshes behind the baseball (which might exist to mirror the waterfalls pattern).

However it came to be, this logo is a massive disappointment. A great opportunity for a very special logo has been wasted on a bloated, unnatural compilation.

Team: Northwest Arkansas Naturals
League: Texas League
Location: Springdale, Arkansas

Hey Hey! It's an SLP Hiatus!

2007-05-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we are off to New York until Memorial Day. All of Down With Pants! omnimedia will most likely be on hiatus until then. I'm not a high tech traveler, I don't carry a laptop with me everywhere so I will be out of the computer loop for a while unless I find a friendly internet cafe somewhere.

Heck, it's not like I've been blowing you away with the sheer volume of posts lately anyway. One a week? Man, I'm kicking butt and taking names!

So enjoy a few more days off from me and I will see y'all on the flipside.

Oxnard Chupacabras

2007-05-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

Recently I joined an online fantasy indoor football league in which we run our clubs like we would if we were the owners and operators of a real life team. This includes designing a logo, creating a website, managing promotions and all that other crazy stuff you get to do when you own a minor league franchise. I don't know how this will ever be measured or how any of it will work but I figure it should be a fun experiment. What the heck, might as well.

While designing the above logo for my Oxnard Chupacabras I learned a couple of important lessons about logo design that made me think more about what I do on this blog.

The first lesson that I learned is that it is very, very difficult and time consuming to design a graphics heavy logo from scratch. I couldn't do it. I tried a few different things but I just don't have the knowledge or the experience working with Photoshop to design something that complex. Because of this, I now have a lot more respect and a lot more empathy toward graphic designers.

However, I also learned that it isn't that hard to come up with something attractive and somewhat professional if you are in a pinch and can't do something more complex. With virtually no design experience, no training and pretty crappy software I was able to design something that is at least clean and interesting. It's not a great logo by any means, but in my opinion, it tops quite a few of the logos that I have reviewed over the years. I now have a lot less respect for teams that put out cheap, unprofessional crap.

Another thing that I learned is that I really enjoy designing. I don't think I could ever do it as a profession. I don't think I have the artistic ability to succeed and the perfectionist that lives inside of me would take over and drive me crazy in the long run, but I can see myself doing it on a freelance kind of thing or as a hobby more often. I need to learn a lot more about graphic design if I were to do so, but I'm definitely willing and excited to learn.

Team: Oxnard Chupacabras - check out the website, I'm really proud of the start I got on it.
League: Internet Indoor Football League
Location: Oxnard, California
Arena: The totally fake Ventura County Events Center. Sadly, there is no arena in the VC.
Online Store: Someday soon!

Los Angeles Riptide

2007-05-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

How did I miss the fact that Los Angeles has had a Major League Lacrosse team since 2005?

The Los Angeles Riptide debuted last season at the Home Depot Center and went 6-6 and yet somehow managed to stay completely anonymous to me despite my never ending search for affordable, sports entertainment in this area. They open their 2007 season in Chicago on May 19th and return for their home opener on May 27th against the New Jersey Pride.

I've never been to a lacrosse game so I might have to check it out if I have some free time this summer. I'm really excited to support a team that loves Star Wars nearly as much as I do. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that they used the Sarlacc of The Great Pit of Carkoon eating a rather boring surfboard shaped wordmark. First Boba Fett and now his board? It's a charmed life for this Tatooine Terror.

What's that? It's supposed to be a shark? Are you sure? I choose not to believe you.

Team: Los Angeles Riptide
League: Major League Lacrosse - Updated, sorry!
Location: Carson, California
Stadium: Home Depot Center
Online Store: The Sarlacc on a t-shirt!

Outer Banks Daredevils

2007-05-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

Since sometimes it seems like I have nothing nice to say about the world of sports logos and instead of going negative like I easily could do given all the news coming out of the USBL and the IBL, today I bring to you one of my all-time favorite logos: the Outer Banks Daredevils. .

There is so much that I love about this logo, I don't even know where to begin. So instead of trying to figure out why I like it so much or over analyze it's merits, I'll just present it to you, in all of it's glory, and let you decide whether or not I am right to include it in my top ten best baseball logos.

Team: Outer Banks Daredevils
League: Coastal Plains League
Location: Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina - 5,897 citizens strong
Stadium: First Flight Baseball Complex
Merchandise: Most everything is sold out right now

Santa Barbara Breakers vs. Chico Force

2007-04-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I traveled up to beautiful Santa Barbara, California to check out the area's only professional basketball team, the Santa Barbara Breakers of the IBL. Welcome to the Sports Pavilion on the campus of Santa Barbara City College...

An announced crowd of 725 (probably more like 400-500 actually in the stands) rooted the Breakers on to a 128-115 victory over the Chico Force. Former UCLA star Toby Bailey led the way for the Breakers with 35 points while Allen Purnell added 23. Tyree Jones and Larry Smith both scored 22 for the Force in the loss.

Those are the facts, now onto my impressions of my first minor league basketball game. First of all, the Sports Pavilion at SBCC is a dump. One of the dingiest, dirtiest buildings that I have ever been in. The entrance is a shambles, the ticket office is an unfinished room, the area where you go back to the bathrooms is disgusting, the seats are uncomfortable and rickety and the lighting in the gym messed up my eyes and gave me a headache. I probably won't go to another Breakers game because of the Sports Pavilion alone.

Another reason I won't be back to a Breakers game is because of false advertisement. On every single one of the team's publications (like the schedule they handed me with my ticket purchase seen above) and on all of the ticketing websites the Breakers list their ticket prices as $6, $10, $14, $18, and $25 for regular seating. When I got to the game, the ticket prices listed were $8.50, $12.50, $16.50, $20.50 and $27.50. They fail to mention that there is an extra $2.50 charge on all tickets. I know some places charge extra for day-of-game tickets but this isn't made clear anywhere and I feel like it's a bit of a shady bait-and-switch tactic on the part of the Breakers.

Also, like I predicted when I took them to task for their ticket prices in an earlier post, they were sold out of the cheap seats and I had to purchase a $12.50 ticket. Now take a look at the first picture again, do you see anyone sitting in the top corners of the bleachers? I don't. There never was anybody sitting in those seats even before the game. Even in an empty building, usually there are a few honest people that sit in their assigned seats at least until the end of the first half, but not tonight. I can't prove anything, but I don't think that the cheap tickets actually exist. Is this another bait-and-switch ploy by the Breakers?

I feel a little bit ripped off by the game play as well. The Breakers made a big deal about signing former Utah Jazz star Bryon Russell, but he has yet to play in a game. There also was no Samaki Walker or Fred Vinson or Mike Efevberha or Shantay Leggins. Heck, there wasn't even local kid Santiago Aguirre to root for. Toby Bailey (seen above pouting after scoring 35 points, sorry for the poor picture) and Billy Knight aren't bad, but what happened to the rest of this "star studded" roster?

And while the game was fast paced and high scoring it wasn't very interesting or exciting. It's basically just a bunch of guys playing pickup basketball trying to score as many points as possible for themselves. This is a big problem throughout minor league basketball and is one of the reasons that fans don't ever get invested in these smaller teams. Players are just looking to catch the attention of somebody higher up in the food chain so team play that leads to more interesting basketball goes straight out the window.

The Breakers do try to put on a show, albeit a bush league one. They have a cheers squad that does a little bit of dancing and throws t-shirts into the crowd. They have some random guy that stomps his feet and yells at the crowd during timeouts, but only in the first half for some reason. They play repetitive pump-you-up music throughout the entire game. And the players all sign autographs on the court following the final buzzer. Nothing is very imaginative or creative, they do just enough to get by.

There were only a couple positives that I could single out. There were a lot of kids at the game that were really, really excited to be there. They danced around on the floor, slapped five with the guys, even got into the huddle at one point during a timeout and yelled "BREAKERS" louder than the players did.

They also seem to be doing a fair amount of sales of their replica jersey. I saw quite a few people shell out $50 for the blue jersey with a big sweeping Santa Barbara across the chest. It's probably because it was the only piece of merchandise that wasn't completely boring. And at least the Breakers have team jerseys. Chico's jerseys were blank other than the number.

So while I wish that I could say that my Santa Barbara Breakers experience was better, I just cannot report anything more than being completely underwhelmed and a little bit angry at the team. Minor league sports has to provide to it's customers the feeling that you are getting more than what you paid for. But between the bait-and-switch tactics and the boring game play, after the game I felt like I spent far too much money on an inferior product. I sincerely doubt that I will be back.

Everett Aquasox

2007-04-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

I got an email earlier this week from Dan (thanks Dan!) requesting that I review the Everett Aquasox logo. Unfortunately, I will have to abstain from making a true judgment because I am extremely biased. You see, just for fun, kind of a as a hobby, I spent the 2004 season working as an usher for the Aquasox. It had a great time even though I got stuck out in the bleachers on most nights (lots and lots of unruly kids running around), so I have a big soft spot in my heart for their logo.

Here's me as the "Fantastic Frog", AKA, employee of the previous night.

Me and the Aquasox mascots, Frank and Webbly. Webbly tried to get a little fresh.

One thing that I can say about the Aquasox logo is this, it is extremely popular amongst their fans. Sometimes we look at a logo and don't understand that just because it doesn't do anything for us doesn't mean that it doesn't work for the team. I think that's what a lot of people see when they look at the Aquasox logo. They see a nickname that isn't really a word and a frog with two big red eyes and four red feet catching a baseball.

But what you don't see is how kids and adults alike respond to the logo and everything that goes with it when you are actually at the game. It just works and that, as a fan of logos, is all you can really ask for.

Team: Everett Aquasox
League: Northwest League
Location: Everett, Washington
Stadium: Everett Memorial Field - best ballpark anywhere for kids
Mascots: Frank and Webbly
Online Store: Their hats are cheaper than other websites

I Miss Eckersley

2007-04-24T23:43:00.000-07:00

Dennis Eckersley's Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame plaque seen while waiting for a delayed flight out of the San Francisco Airport. Is there a current major leaguer that looks that trashy? I can't think of one.