The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, single-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, announced today, on National Pig Day, that they will pay tribute to the tradition of Carolina barbecue—as well as a huge local barbecue festival—with a pig-based alternate identity. They’ll take the field as the Q’s to coincide with Kannapolis’s noted festival, Jiggy with the Piggy.
When the team rebranded from its Dale Earnhardt-based brand, the Intimidators, in 2019, the Cannon Ballers identity they ultimately went with was the runaway leader in the clubhouse throughout the process. But the Q’s identity, created by Dan Simon of Studio Simon, was another of the concepts the team explored.
“We kind of knew from day one that we wanted to be the Cannon Ballers,” said Kannapolis general manager Matt Millward. “Once we got through the first steps we wanted to see different perspectives. Q’s was one that really stood out.”
While Q’s stood out, one of the factors that held it back as a primary identity was that it was based on food, which is common in the minors, but more on theme nights than as a central brand.
“Carolina barbecue is a thing. This was a great name for a team in Carolina,” Dan Simon said. “This was one of the names presented and it got some traction. It was being considered, but Cannon Ballers was clearly the way to go. Ultimately, they decided, [Q’s] will work really well as an alternate identity.”
The identity is based on an as-yet-unnamed pig character—”just a fun pig,” per Millward—and the single letter Q. I was surprised to learn in speaking with both Millward and Simon that the Q is not a reference to the shape of a pig’s tail, but rather just to barbecue itself. A brand based on a single letter might be commonplace for fans of some MLB teams, but it is unusual in the minors.
“You’ve got the A’s, and you’ve got the O’s,” Millward said. “Outside of that, in minor league baseball, as a primary name, there’s not a single-letter name.”
One baseball branding trope that the team implemented against the better judgment of grammarians everywhere is the use of an apostrophe to pluralize the letter Q.
“Proper grammar and punctuation are important to me,” Simon said when I questioned him on the use of the apostrophe. “It’s wrong, it’s just plain wrong. The reason for doing this is that it has become a baseball convention. It’s a baseball thing, so we do it even though it’s wrong.”
The identity features a color palette of black, two shades of pink, and kelly green—the latter of which is not a wink and a nod to Millward’s favorite NFL team, the Eagles, but rather it’s the color of Kannapolis’s local high school, A.L. Brown High School. It’s all part of the team’s desire to be a part of their local community.
“I love the logo, I love the designs, but our ultimate intentions are with the community in mind,” Millward said.
The new brand will mesh well with the team’s plans to open a brewpub called Towel City Tavern just beyond their right-field wall later this season. The restaurant, part of a new five-story development, will serve—what else?—beer and barbecue.
