Baseball By Design: Stories of Minor League Logos and Nicknames

As we launch the 2025 baseball season, longtime Minor League Baseball reporter and commentator Ben Hill stops by to discuss new logos, minor league baseball culture, and Weird Al Yankovich.  

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The Washington Wild Things have played in the independent Frontier League since 2002 with a logo that features a sunglasses-wearing animal. In this episode we delve into just what that animal is. 

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Thomas Harding has covered the Colorado Rockies for more than a quarter century, and during that time has developed an interest in sports design and even created some of his own logos. He joins from Spring Training in Arizona to discuss the history of Rockies branding, sports branding at large, and some of his own work.

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The Jupiter Hammerheads nickname was chosen by schoolchildren in the late '90s, and has endured to this day. Guests this week include

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Join your host for three days of Spring Training baseball with family and a few special guests, including T-Pat Stubbs, father of Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs. Hear the sights and sounds of the weekend, and ride along for a baseball experience every fan should have!

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Go Birds.

The Casper Ghosts only played for four seasons, but more than a decade after they vanished, their brand is popular and has fans clamoring for a return. Guests include:

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The Sioux City Explorers, an independent team in the American Association, play in a city whose claim to fame is that it's the site of the only death in Lewis and Clark Expedition. Guests include:

Guests include:

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The independent professional Cleburne Railroaders have been around since 2017, but the history of the name goes back to 1906. This episode explores the relationship of the railroad industry and baseball in Cleburne, Texas.

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Guy Gilchrist, known as “Jim Henson’s Cartoonist,” has had an amazing career creating characters for Henson creations like The Muppets, Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock, and others. He's also worked with cartoon icons like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, Tiny Toons, Pink Panther, and Disney.  

In addition to all of that, Guy is a big baseball fan and has created a handful of iconic minor league logos, including the subject of this episode, the New Britain Rock Cats (now the Hartford Yard Goats). He also created Jax, a character on the new MLB Network creation, the Traveling Spaceship Show. Guests include:

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This week's episode takes us to the (tart) cherry capital of the world, Traverse City, Michigan, home of the National Cherry Festival and collegiate summer ball's Traverse City Pit Spitters. Guests include:

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