The Double-A Erie SeaWolves unveiled an alternate identity just moments ago, highlighting one of western Pennsylvania’s favorite regional foods, Pepperoni Balls. Erie enters the Minor League Baseball food frenzy with a food item that was popularized by Stanganelli’s Italian Foods, which started making them in 1961.
The logo, created by Dan Simon of Studio Simon, features an anthropomorphized pepperoni ball finishing the follow-through of swinging a baseball bat, his eyes lifted to the sky as though watching the arc of a fly ball, and a determined look on his doughy body, punctuated by an important detail: a pepperoni tongue peeking out of his mouth.
“If I had just done the pepperoni like before you eat it, it’s just a dough ball,” Simon said. “I wanted a piece of pepperoni coming out of it, and it just hit me like a lightning bolt, I could make it his tongue.”
Minor League Baseball teams have been turning to local food items as alternate brands for years, beginning with the Fresno Tacos in 2015, and that trend shows no sign of waning.
“As long as teams can think of food-themed identities that have not yet been done, I don’t think fans will ever get tired of them,” Simon said. “They’re always fun.”
The team also announced it is partnering with Stanganelli’s Italian Foods of Erie to be the official Pepperoni Ball provider of the SeaWolves, and that Stanganelli’s Pepperoni Balls will be available at UPMC Park throughout the 2023 season.
The SeaWolves will take the field as the Pepperoni Balls August 4 and 5.
