When the gates open before a High Desert Mavericks baseball game, the loudspeakers play the song “Ride Ranger Ride” by iconic cowboy actor Roy Rogers. As staff puts the finishing touches on pregame preparations, the song’s harmonies ring throughout the stadium, indicating that it’s time for everyone to get their
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 Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky at @baseballbydesign, and he maintains the Countdown to Spring Training on Facebook. Paul is a Philadelphia sports fan, but he's not so bad.
MiLB to contract Bakersfield Blaze, High Desert Mavericks
The Single-A California League will lose two long-tenured teams at the end of the season. The Bakersfield Blaze and the High Desert Mavericks, the league’s lowest-attended teams, will cease operations and be dissolved when the 2016 season comes to an end. To keep the equilibrium throughout Minor League Baseball, two new
MiLB scraps Shuckers’ Mad Potter jerseys
With all the silliness in minor league baseball promotions in recent years, it’s something of a surprise that there are some things Minor League Baseball will NOT let teams put on a game jersey. When the Biloxi Shuckers, Double-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, unveiled their promotional schedule back in March, the
Star Spangled Baseball: The Story Behind the Frederick Keys
Fort McHenry, a star-shaped military facility in Baltimore, Maryland, was built in 1798. It’s been a national park since 1925, but before that, it featured prominently in a handful of wars, including World Wars I and II, and, most notably, the War of 1812. It was during a battle in September
SWB RailRiders to adopt Pierogies nickname for a day
The Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, will join an increasingly long line of minor league baseball teams donning promotional uniforms based on food. August 26, the RailRiders will go as the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Pierogies, an homage to the doughy Polish dumpling popular in eastern Europe. August
Greensboro to take the field as Jeansboro Grasshoppers
Greensboro, North Carolina, is home to the Single-A South Atlantic League Greensboro Grasshoppers, as well as the headquarters for that famed purveyor of denim, Wrangler. The hometown baseball team will stake their city’s claim to “Denim Capital of the World” and pay homage to their noteworthy neighbor by taking to the
Revolutionary Raccoon: The Story Behind the Hudson Valley Renegades
If you were to get on a boat in New York City and travel north for about 75 miles along the Hudson River, you would arrive at a tiny town of Wappingers Falls, New York. On your way there, you would pass countless historical sites related to the American Revolutionary
Bejewelled leotards most expensive Olympic uniforms ever
The USA women’s “Final Five” gymnastics team won gold in Rio, but it was the glitter coming from their uniforms that turned some observers’ heads. According to CNN Money, the leotards were bedazzled with as many as 5,000 Austrian Swarovski crystals embedded in the high-tech fabric with the help of a machine with robot arms, and
Going with the Flow: The Story Behind the Norfolk Tides
On the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States lies an amorphous geographic region designated as Tidewater. It comprises primarily southeastern Virginia, but also (depending on whom you ask and what sort of mood they’re in) parts of North Carolina and Maryland. The Tidewater region is flat and, because its water features—the
Beijing 2022 Olympic Committee Announces Call for Logos
The organizing committee for the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing is looking for designers to create logos for both the Olympics and the Paralympics. A lot of details are missing from the call for ideas, like technical specifications and whether the designers will actually be paid for their work, but the
Hockey team drops logo just because it was super racist
A team in the National College Prospects Hockey League unveiled a logo that was so racist they had to rebrand twice in a matter of days. The Lake Erie Warriors dropped their incredibly racist logo after it was widely decried for being incredibly racist. Following the furor, the team unceremoniously dubbed itself the Lake
Running Like a Viking: The Story Behind Ragnar Relays
If you’ve been hearing the word “Ragnar” a lot recently, it’s either because you’ve been watching the History Channel’s TV show “Vikings,” which details the exploits of Norse legend Ragnar Lothbrok, or you’re friends with one of those insufferable jerks who can’t stop talking about running. I happen to be