Just two weeks after announcing that the new Pioneer League team in Modesto, California, would be called the Modesto Glow Riders, the team unveiled new branding on social media today indicating that their NEW new name is the Modesto Roadsters. The Glow Riders nickname and logo were met with such widespread antipathy that the team pulled the name and took another stab at it.
The Roadsters logo and name, which pay homage to the deep association the city of Modesto has with the 1973 movie American Graffiti, seems to be better aligned with what fans were expecting. American Graffiti, which was directed by Modesto native George Lucas, uses roadster cars and Modesto’s 1960s cruising culture as a framework for its story.
The new logo features a kit fox with clothes and greased back hair that one might have seen a high schooler wearing in the 1960s, driving a roadster car. Notably, the car’s license plate reads “CRUISER,” another team name that fans would have preferred over Glow Riders.
The new identity also features a stylized version of the Modesto arch, which bears the city’s official motto, “Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health.”
The Roadsters will make their on-field debut when the Pioneer League season begins in May.
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