The Syracuse Chiefs (International League, Washington-AAA) have unveiled a special “100th season of International League Baseball” patch which the club will wear on all team jerseys throughout the upcoming 2014 season.
The Chiefs haven’t actually played 100 seasons in the International League, what this patch is doing is combining all the different seasons in which a team from Syracuse played in the International League… add ’em all up and you get 100. This includes the Syracuse Stars who existed for a handful of seasons in the 1880s and again in the 1920s. The Chiefs came and went and came back again over the years but made their IL debut in 1934.
On the home-plate shaped patch are four logos from the history of the Chiefs, one in each quadrant. So, it’s time to play one of my favourite games… what design element is from what historical era!
Logo in the top left is from the Chiefs’ days as a New York Yankees affiliate in the 1970s, top right we jump ahead a few decades to their time as the Blue Jays’ top farm club while known as the Syracuse Sky Chiefs in the late 90s and into the 2000s. Bottom left again with the Blue Jays, the only native imagery to get into the patch, the cap logo worn from the late 80s through the mid 90s. Finally, bottom right shows their current branding (which is still leftover from their Blue Jays days — notice it’s similar to the Jays’ 2004-11 black/graphite logo?) now affiliated with the Washington Nationals.
The logo was designed by Anthony Cianchetta, the team’s director of multi-media production, good work Anthony.
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