We’ve been inundated with minor league baseball promotions featuring Star Wars and Ghostbusters jerseys this year, so when a team decides to take on another cultural icon, it kind of catches us off guard. Next Friday night…yes… #HarryPotter Night with jerseys and a Snitch Baseball Giveaway https://t.co/kS0DfHmCWn pic.twitter.com/BiWLceUdmA — Lakewood
Author: Paul Caputo
Paul Caputo is a grown man who collects plastic ice cream helmet sundaes from minor league baseball stadiums because he likes logos that much. Paul is the host of the Baseball By Design podcast and he is the author of the first book published by SportsLogos.net, The Story Behind the Nickname: The Origins of 100 Classic, Contemporary, and Wacky Minor League Baseball Team Names (also available on Kindle). He can be found on Twitter at @Count2Baseball and he maintains the Countdown to Spring Training on Facebook. Paul is a Philadelphia sports fan, but he's not so bad.
Nothing Normal about them: The story behind the Cornbelters
Stretching across the plains of the midwestern United States, you’ll find a part of the continent defined in many ways by its most prominent crop. Last year, four states produced more than a billion bushels of corn each: Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Minnesota. “They refer to it as the Corn
El Paso Chihuahuas to wear retro Padres uniforms
New will meet old this weekend in El Paso, Texas. The minor league baseball team that some point to as the pinnacle of the current era of wacky team names will adopt a look some point to as the pinnacle of awful Major League uniforms. The Padres’ brown and mustard uniforms of the 1970s have found a certain
Phillies will wear totally sweet pillbox hats on throwback night
The Phillies will throw it back to the 1970s with retro uniforms and sweet, sweet pillbox hats for two games this summer (pictured above in a photo by Phillies beat writer Ryan Lawrence). June 3 and 5, when the Phils play the Brewers (who have some pretty nice throwbacks of their
Asheville Tourists proclaim their town Beer City
There are a lot of places in North America that could lay claim to the title “Beer City,” but only one of them took the initiative to put the slogan on their baseball team’s uniforms. The Asheville Tourists will change their name for one night to the Beer City Tourists, opening the
Pilot Episode: The Story Behind the Lakeland Flying Tigers
In March of 1941, the US was not yet officially involved in World War II—that would come in December after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite their official neutrality, though, the Americans were sending supplies to allies like Britain, Russia, and China. With China on the cusp of succumbing to Japanese invasion, one
Savannah Bananas tickets have a certain appeal
The Savannah Bananas made a splash this offseason when they unveiled their fun new identity, selling merchandise like crazy, trending on Twitter, and being featured on all sorts of new sites. Now they’ve upped the ante with bright yellow, banana-shaped tickets. And it’s not just the season tickets pictured here that
South Korea Unveils Zika-Proof Olympic Uniforms
The Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are on track to be a huge disaster, but the South Korean team will show up in Brazil prepared for at least one of the issues plaguing the games. To protect its athletes against the dreaded Zika virus, South Korea’s newly unveiled
The Citrus Bowl is now Camping World Stadium
Orlando’s iconic Citrus Bowl now bears the name of the nation’s self-proclaimed purveyor of “RVs, RV accessories, and RV-related services.” The stadium, which since its opening in 1936, has gone by the names Orlando Stadium, Tangerine Bowl, Citrus Bowl, Orlando Stadium, Florida Citrus Bowl, and most recently, Orlando Citrus
The Iconic Silver Fern of New Zealand: The Story of the All Blacks
I recently returned from New Zealand, a nation known for its sweeping landscapes, its creative methods of killing invasive rats, and, of course, its imposing and wildly successful rugby team. New Zealand is a place where the question of visual identity and national branding has been on the forefront of the
New Orleans Zephyrs to change name next season
When the Denver Zephyrs moved to New Orleans before the 1993 season, they kept the team’s nickname, which derived from a steel passenger train that ran between Denver and Chicago. While New Orleans had no connection to the train, it did have its own Zephyr—an iconic roller coaster at a local
Wicked Curve: The Story Behind the Corpus Christi Hooks
Corpus Christi, Texas, sits on the Gulf of Mexico, where recreational and commercial fishing are a big deal. So when you look at the identity for the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, the connection to fishing is obvious. And indeed, if you call up the Hooks and ask them about the