Lehigh Valley IronPigs - UPDATED!!!

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

Open Thread: Steely McBeam

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...

East Kentucky Miners & Indiana Ice Miners

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...

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

Here are the answers...

1. 500-1
2. Lack of creativity
3. 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.
4. It has gotten so bad in the ice mining industry that they had to retrain them to play hockey.
5. 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.
6. 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

Today in Sports Logos

Today I bring you a new feature here on The Sports Logo Pundit. In an attempt to keep up with what seems like a never ending amount of sports logo news that I am notoriously slow to react to, from here on out I will do what I can to gather that news and present it semi-daily along with the normal reviews. I really would like this to be a post-a-day blog containing up to date news, but I don't always have the time or motivation to think about and then write a full review. So we are going to this new quick wrap, linky style format for the off days. Anyway, watch for Today in Sports Logos often and if you have any tips, please don't hesitate to email me.

New ABA Team of the Day - Say goodbye to the Las Vegas Venom and hello to the Las Vegas Lights. The over/under for amount of games played next season by the Lights is currently listed at three. (OurSportsCentral)

USBL Loses Two - The new USBL season is off to a rough start. First the Boston ownership group pulled out days before the season leaving the league to field the coachless New Jersey Meteors for one game against Albany. Then today the Meteors and the Long Island Primetime folded. (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)

Sonics Gone? - The Washington State legislature decided that they would not be voting on the financing package for a new arena for the Seattle Supersonics during this session. In response, Clayton Bennett popped open the bubbly, smoked a cigar and celebrated with all of the lobbyists that he kept as far away from Olympia as possible. (Seattle PI)

Corporate Ballpark Deal of the Day - The Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League announced today that five year old Falconi Field will now be known as CONSOL Energy Park. The over /under for years until CONSOL Energy is swallowed up and renamed causing the park to also rename itself currently sits at two. (Ballpark Digest)

2006 MLB All-Star Logo

First of all I have to say sorry. I didn't realize that I had gone almost a whole week without a post. I was thinking I made that last post on Thursday but I guess it was actually Tuesday. I must be getting old, the brain isn't working all that great anymore.

Michael emailed me asking if I had seen the 2006 All-Star Game logo that the Pittsburgh Pirates revealed last week. No I had not seen it, so thank you for the tip! I have been doing some reading and this logo really isn't turning the cranks of anybody in Pittsburgh and I can totally understand that, although I don't agree with it because I know what really is behind this logo and I am very proud of MLB for taking a stand.

The 2006 All-Star Game is going to be sports first coming out of the closet party. Finally the Billy Beans and Derek Jeters of the baseball world will be acknowledged and accepted for who they are. I personally think it is great. It is about time that a major pro sport took a stand. Most of these games are pretty homo-erotic anyway, so why not just come out and admit that there are gay men playing these games. I just think Pittsburgh is kind of an odd choice of a city to host a party like this.

Lancaster Barnstormers

Today's random review is of one of my favorite new logos in baseball this season. The Lancaster Barnstomers of the Atlantic League went for simple yet striking and have pulled it off quite nicely.

First of all, I love the cursive uppercase "L" on just about anything. I always wished that my name began with an "L" so I could write it super fancy like that. I really like the simplicity of this logo. It's nothing fancy but still is very striking because of the angles the script creates and the contrast between the background colors and the white lettering.

And I like that they didn't force anything. They could have had a pig or a cow or some other barnyard animal front and center on their logo but they held back and reserved that for the kid's page on their website. It takes a lot of restraint to not use a cartoon figure on your caps anymore. It makes a for a very wearable logo for both adults and children.

Harrisburg City Islanders

This is arguably one of the most effective names in all of professional sports. It's not terribly creative or exciting or anything like that, but those aspects are not that important. What makes this name great is that it tells you exactly where the USL's second division Harrisburg City Islanders play...City Island.

City Island sits right smack dab in the middle of the Susquehanna River and is home to both the City Islanders and the Harrisburg Senators baseball team. If you live in Harrisburg or in the surrounding areas, I'd have to imagine you know how to get to City Island. It's a major destination.

So imagine yourself sitting around at home reading the sports page and you notice that the City Islanders are playing tonight. What the hell, you might as well go and check it out, but you've never been to one of their games. No problem, just head onto City Island to the soccer stadium. Pretty simple. No research, no mapquesting, no big deal. People are lazy and some won't take the time to look up directions. This name takes away a major barrier to people coming to see your games. They should know where they are going without any hassle.

I'm not that fond of the logo, although if they are trying to be funny by putting a palm tree and a sun in the logo then I'm fine with it. Otherwise it doesn't really make any sense. But the logo isn't nearly as important or interesting as the choice of name. Kudos to the City Islanders!

Bucknell Bison

Continuing with our "Who Are These Schools?" series, today we look at the team who shocked #3 seed Kansas 64-63 Friday night, the #14th seeded Bucknell Bison. It was the first ever tournament win for the Lewisburg, Pennsylvania school and the first ever win for a Patriot League team in the NCAA Tournament.

Founded in 1846, Bucknell is one of the most prestigious colleges in the country according to it's website and it's athletic programs historically rank as some of the best academically. Only about 3,500 students attend Bucknell making it one of the smallest schools in the tournament.

For a very old college that supposedly is so darn good it has very little about it's history on the website and virtually nothing about it's athletic history so even I can't tell you that much about Bucknell. Oh well, I did learn that the Gilmore Girl's (one of my favorite shows. I know, I'm kind of a wuss) Edward Herrmann is a 1965 graduate of Bucknell.

Their logo isn't too bad for what it's worth. It's one of those new fangled logos that looks very impersonal but it isn't objectionable. It's nice and colorful and looks good and fierce. They haven't been using this logo for very long and I'd be willing to bet that they had a great looking classic logo before trying to spice it up with this action Bison but I couldn't find any info about anything on their website so what can I tell you.

I did learn their fight song though. It's pretty simple so you can sing along at home while rooting for them to beat #6 seeded Wisconsin on Sunday...

'Ray Bucknell, 'Ray Bucknell, 'Ray for the orange and blue;
'Ray, 'Ray, 'Ray, 'Ray, 'Ray for the orange and blue!