With Josh Willingham’s ninth-inning ground out to Brandon Inge last night the Detroit Tigers clinched their first division championship in 25 long seasons (and they shouldn’t have even won that AL East title in 1987 but that’s another rant for another day)… more importantly it gave us our first glimpse at Major League Baseball’s 2011 championship merchandise.
After the game the Detroit Tigers were sporting these fabulous Central Division Championship t-shirts complete with retro split-lettering and a depiction of the entranceway into Comerica Park:
Major League Baseball has produced versions for the teams that have a shot to win the other divisions (plus they made a Boston Red Sox one just for kicks). Each version features the main entranceway to that team’s home ballpark, it looks great and it’s a step toward making championship shirts more than just “slap the logo on the shirt” – I’m looking at you NHL.
Here’s the other teams:
New York Yankees 2011 AL East Champs t-shirt
Boston Red Sox 2011 AL East Champs t-shirt
Texas Rangers "Back to Back" 2011 AL West Champs t-shirt
Los Angeles Angels 2011 AL West Champs t-shirt
Philadelphia Phillies "5 in a row" 2011 NL East Champs t-shirt
Arizona Diamondbacks 2011 NL West Champs t-shirt
What’s interesting is that there wasn’t one for the Milwaukee Brewers or any other NL Central team… I’m sure we’ll be able to locate theirs in the coming days.
The Tigers were also wearing their championship caps which are just generic “We made the playoffs!” rather than celebrating a particular title – perhaps it’s easier to produce these across the board rather than make a Division version and a Wild-Card version for all the possibilities.
Click on any of the caps below to see a full-sized version:
Milwaukee Brewers
New York Yankees
Detroit Tigers
Boston Red Sox
Texas Rangers
Philadelphia Phillies
Arizona Diamondbacks
Atlanta Braves
The more I look at those 2011 MLB Playoffs caps the more I think about the old Tampa Bay Devil Rays logo…
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Chris Creamer is the founder of SportsLogos.Net and has been maintaining it since June 1997. You can follow him on Twitter at @sportslogosnet or contact him via email at ccreamer@sportslogos.net
TOM
Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 13:15I really like those shirts. Nice touch putting in the "back to back" and "5 in a row" for the Phillies and Rangers. I also like the ballparks good good stuff, I'll buy one if there's a red sox wild card one.
Junior
Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 13:41Lifetime Phillies fan, thrilled they won. Saw these last night and ugh! I like the shirt design layout, but the font used reminds me of some 70's disco album cover. (I do like how they added "5 in a Row" - for Texas: "Back to Back") Is it supposed to resemble a diner sign and futuristic neon lettering? The hats..they are just plain hideous. Those look like $5 bootlegs I would find at a flea market. Good observation on the old Tampa Ray lettering and the obscene "MLB Playoffs" font on the hats.
Riley
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 14:38what i like about the shirts is that, like you said, they're individual. they all represent the teams that won the division with the stadium on it, as well as the 'back to back' and '5 in a row'. im looking for where you found these shirts of the different champions (yanks, red sox, angels, rangers). im interested to see if they have other teams as well, i have the 2010 nl west division champion shirt of the giants, and i also found a 2010 national league wild card for them....which makes me think they make shirts for all contenders.
Brad
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 20:55The 2011 Looks like the toronto blue jays scrip from 77 to 96
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