The Hartford Yard Goats, double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, are the latest minor league team to adopt a promotional food-based identity. Continuing a trend masterfully set by the wildly successful Fresno Grizzlies’ and their alternate Tacos identity back in 2015, the Yard Goats announced that they would play a game August 12 as the Hartford Steamed Burgers. (We’re going with “Steamed Burgers,” which is what the logo says, and not “Steamed Cheeseburgers,” which is what is in the tweet below and in the team’s press release.)
Yard Goats will play one game as the Hartford Steamed Cheeseburgers this season. In homage to the steamed cheeseburger which was invented in Connecticut. pic.twitter.com/qXxjj85M0l
— Hartford Yard Goats (@GoYardGoats) February 8, 2018
The logo depicts a cheeseburger who is rightfully angry (er, steamed) that someone has taken a bite out of him. The type is set in a ketchupy red with a mustardy yellow underscore.
The steamed cheeseburger (which is exactly what you think it is) traces its roots to a 1930s restaurant called Jack’s Lunch in Middleton, Connecticut, where the burgers were “cooked in a tall copper box filled with simmering water for 18 tin trays of square ground-beef patties,” according to the book “Middletown (Images of America).” Today, steamed cheeseburgers are found most famously at Ted’s Restaurant in Meriden, Connecticut, which opened in 1959 and was known for staying open until the wee hours of the morning to cater to factory workers.
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