Baseball By Design: Stories of Minor League Logos and Nicknames

The Rocket City Trash Pandas made a splash with their new brand right before the 2020 season, then had to keep the momentum going in spite of a year lost to COVID. The team still set merchandise sales records with their patriotic astronaut raccoon logo and are now one of the best known in the minors. Trash Pandas Vice President Lindsey Knupp and Brandiose's Jason Klein join the podcast to talk about the ground-breaking brand.

And stay tuned for real live NASA engineer and actual rocket scientist Jay Hollenbeck of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, who is a former college baseball player and an avid fan of minor league baseball. Jay weighs in on the Trash Pandas brand.

Rocket City Trash Pandas

Brandiose

Marshall Space Flight Center

Baseball By Design

Curved Brim Media Network

The Idaho Falls Chukars base their identity on a bird that can best be described as a small, husky turkey. This week, Chukars Assistant GM Chris Hall, Pioneer League Vice President Henry Hunter, and Arkansas State Parks Director Shea Lewis (formerly of Idaho State Parks) stop by Baseball By Design to talk about what makes this bird the perfect foundation for a baseball team in southeast Idaho—plus we discuss exciting innovations in the Pioneer League at large.

Idaho Falls Chukars

Pioneer League

Arkansas State Parks

Baseball By Design

Curved Brim Media Network

The collegiate summer level Carolina Disco Turkeys have only played one full season, but they've taken the world of baseball branding by storm. Team president Greg Sullivan, artist Brittain Peck, and Matt Strangewayes of the Phoenix Zoo talk about what makes disco turkeys—or peacocks—an appropriate mascot for a team in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Carolina Disco Turkeys

Brittain Peck

Phoenix Zoo

Baseball By Design

Curved Brim Media Network

The iconic prison in Joliet, Illinois, opened in 1858 and has been highlighted in countless pieces of pop culture, from The Blues Brothers to Prison Break to songs by Bob Dylan and Memphis Minnie—and since 2011, the nickname of the Joliet Slammers baseball team, which plays in the independent Frontier League. In this episode of Baseball By Design, guests include Bill Waliewski, who was the Slammers' president when the team was founded; Dan Simon of Studio Simon, who created the identity; and Steven Wright, Curator of the Joliet Area Historical Museum and Old Joliet Prison Historic Site.

Joliet Slammers

Bill Waliewski

Dan Simon, Studio Simon

Joliet Area Historical Museum

Baseball By Design

Curved Brim Media Network

The Hartford Yard Goats are one of the most popular brands in Minor League Baseball. They're named for locomotive switchers in rail yards—appropriate to Hartford because the rail industry features prominently in the city's history. But the team's identity extends well beyond trains. General Manager Tim Restall, Brandiose designer Jason Klein, and sports journalist Suzie Hunter join Baseball By Design this week to talk about this little engine that could.

Hartford Yard Goats

Jason Klein, Brandiose

Suzie Hunter

Baseball By Design

Curved Brim Media Network

The erstwhile Bakersfield Blaze were not the most glamorous of franchises, but before they were contracted by Minor League Baseball, their backwards-facing ballpark was home to stories that feel like they're right out of a Hollywood movie—games that had to be paused as the sun set over the center field wall, the time they intentionally set the field on fire, a game played with a 12-man roster and a 44-year-old coach pitching. Longtime Blaze employees Philip Guiry and Tim Wheeler share these stories in inimitable fashion, and discuss the somewhat ignominious branding history of the long gone franchise.

Philip Guiry: Twitter

The defunct Bakersfield Blaze: Tweeting from Baseball Hell, to which they are banished

Baseball By Design

It's opening day for Triple-A baseball and other affiliated and independent leagues are getting underway soon! We can start taking those baseball road trips we've been planning all offseason! Guests this week include Benjamin Hill of MiLB.com, who has been to 182 minor league ballparks; Jeremy Soule, who in 2014 co-founded the annual Baseballpalooza road trip that Paul talks about all the time; and Patrick Noote of the website BaseballMapper.com, an invaluable tool for planning road trips. 

Ben Hill

Jeremy Soule

Patrick Noote

Baseball By Design

The Savannah Bananas have become a phenomenon in the world of baseball branding. Their popular logo represents more than just a baseball team, but rather an entirely new version of the sport. As the Banana Ball World Tour takes the country by storm, this episode visits with team owner Jesse Cole, designer Dan Simon of Studio Simon, and the Young Professor, who is providing entertainment to fans at sold-out stadiums where the Bananas are playing.

The Savannah Bananas

Dan Simon, Studio Simon

The Young Professor

Baseball By Design

The Beloit Snappers are no more, but their legend lives on, as told by Chris Kretz, the designer who created the logo in 1995, and Bobby Coon, the team's media director for five years in the 2010s. Find out how Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe, and Ken Griffey Jr. factor into the turtle-based logo.

Plus, stay tuned for a surprise post-credit sequence with Howard Aprill, a Wisconsin-based naturalist who is not only an expert on turtles, but who has been to multiple Snappers games, including opening day in the new ballpark, and who had lunch with Charlie Sheen on the set of Major League.

Chris Kretz

Bobby Coon

Baseball By Design

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, tells the incredibly important story of the baseball teams and players who endured unspeakable hardships to succeed, against all odds, in the face of a segregated America. Similarly, the museum itself has overcome obstacles—most notably a global pandemic that shut their doors for the better part of a year—to succeed when the odds were stacked against them.

The museum's digital marketing strategist Kiona Sinks kept the story of the Negro Leagues alive and in the forefront of the minds of baseball fans in spite of the shuttered gates—with assists from museum president Bob Kendrick, actor Taye Diggs, and Barack Obama, to name a few. Kiona shares the stories and strategies that have launched the museum to national prominence in recent years.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Kiona Sinks

Baseball By Design