Logo Links Mar 8, 2012: Yankees Farm Team New Name, NHL St Pattys Day Jerseys

Logo Links is a quick look at what’s taken place in the logo and uniform world over the past 24-hours, here are your logo links for Thursday, March 8th, 2012:

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees Change Name

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, the International League, Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees announced yesterday that they will temporarily be known as the Empire State Yankees. The name will only stick for the duration of the 2012 season when they will return to their name from last season.

The name change is due to the renovation of the home park of the S/W-B Yankees forcing the club to play their 2012 schedule on the road. Their “home” games will be split amongst several upstate-New York stadiums with the majority being played at Rochester’s Frontier Field, also the home of the Rochester Red Wings, the Minnesota Twins Triple-A affiliate.

As you can see above, there is a logo change associated with the name change, the switch is as simple as replacing “Scranton/Wilkes-Barre” with “Empire State” in their existing logo package.

Fan reaction, as one could imagine, is not positive, as of this posting the only comment on the article from their official website shares this displeasure: “This is a slap in the face of the people of Northeast Pennsylvania. Their home is in PA. All parties associated with this stupidity should be ashamed.”

This isn’t the only time a team has temporarily changed their name; most recently fans should remember the displaced New Orleans Hornets were renamed the NO/Oklahoma City Hornets for the 2005/06 and 2006/07 NBA seasons while the city recovered from Hurricane Katrina.

New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins St. Patrick’s Day jerseys

The New Jersey Devils announced on Tuesday that they will once-again be wearing their retro red and green 1980’s uniforms for their home game on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Devils have donned the retro uniforms on the 17th of March for the past three seasons now. (Special thanks to @Mike_Iannaccone for the tip and the pic)

Meanwhile, in Boston the Bruins posted a photo on their Twitter feed of a green practice jersey complete with clover patches. While there has been no official announcement from what I have seen, it would only make sense that the Boston Bruins plan on wearing these jerseys during their pre-game skate before their March 17th tilt against the Philadelphia Flyers.

We’re still more than a week away from St. Patty’s Day, and I’m sure in the coming days we’ll see more teams from more sports unveil special green uniforms. Typically a few Major League Baseball teams will wear green caps or green jerseys while there is an handful of NBA teams, such as the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors, which wear green uniforms during the week of the 17th.

And the rest…

The NBA’s Sacramento Kings appear to be safe for the next few decades as Sacramento City Council has approved a new arena plan to keep the team in the California capital, you may recall that the Kings appeared as good as gone to Anaheim by the end of the 2010-11 season

The State of Oregon is continuing what the NCAA has started and is considering a ban to prohibit any Oregon high school team from using a Native American mascot

Speaking of mascots, and earlier the Yankees, did you know the New York Yankees had a mascot? I sure-as-heck didn’t, but here’s the story, and unfortunately no photo, of Dandy the bird.

UPDATE: Photos! Thanks to reader Paul Pelkonen for this link to photos of the Yankees mascot “Dandy”, check it out here