Best & Worst Sports Logos - Major League Baseball Edition

In my previous blog post, I gave my take on the best and worst NHL logos.  I'd like to continue that theme while switching to baseball.  For now, I'm only going to focus on Major League Baseball logos.  There are a lot of great (and really bad) minor league baseball logos, so I'll deal with those in a separate post.

Judging/ranking baseball logos was much harder for me than doing the hockey logos.  First of all, there really aren't that many really good or really bad baseball logos.  Also, whereas hockey logos are generally obvious (most of them are right there on the jersey), oftentimes baseball logos don't appear anywhere on the uniform.  Some teams have logos on their caps or on their jerseys.  For other teams, the logo is completely absent from the uniforms altogether.

Having said that, here are my picks for the best and worst MLB logos.

Best Logos - National League

5.  Arizona Diamondbacks

The Dbacks have only been around for about 20 years and they've had about that many different logos and uniform combinations in that time.  They've changed their official team colors multiple times and have no fewer than 7 current uniform combinations.  Yes, they have a primary home uniform and primary road uniform and then 5 (yes, 5) alternate uniform combinations.  While most of those combinations are ugly, they do have 2 cool logos.

At left is their official logo, the one that normally appears on their caps.  It does a nice job of blending the "A" for Arizona and the coloring and tongue of the diamondback.  Pretty simple but effective.

This is their "alternate" logo that appears on their sleeve of some of their uniform combinations.  This one is also a play on the team name with the snake head being made out of a "d" and a "b" for diamondbacks.  Yes, I realize some people see the logo and think of something a little less innocent, but I still think it's a simple, clever logo. 





4. Atlanta Braves

The Braves are one of the few teams who actually have their logo appear on their uniform - similar to our number 1 team below.  I like that fact because most team's uniforms just have the team name and little else.

The tomahawk is a nod to the team name without using any pictures of Native Americans.  Similar to the Chicago Blackhawks alternate logo, it uses the tomahawk to evoke the team name.  Sharp!


3.  Philadelphia Phillies

While the Phillies logo doesn't appear anywhere on their uniform, I think the logo itself is great. 

The liberty bell is a nice touch, as it is an obvious nod to the most famous thing in Philadelphia and I'm a sucker of logos that - in a simple way - point to the city in which the team is based.  The fact that the team has a huge, neon light-up liberty bell in their stadium helps to tie it all together, too.




2.  New York Mets

 

While I dislike the Mets (they're pond scum!), I do think their logo is very cool.  For those who aren't aware, the Mets' colors - blue and orange - pay homage to the two former National League teams that were based in New York prior to leaving for the West Coast in the 1950s: blue for the Dodgers and orange for the Giants. 

 

The logo is a baseball with a skyline of New York in the background with a bridge (the Brooklyn Bridge, I presume) at the bottom.  Many of the buildings in the skyline actually have a meaning, too:  at the left is a church spire; symbolic of Brooklyn; the borough of churches; the second building from the left is the Williamsburgh Savings Bank; the tallest building in Brooklyn; next is the Woolworth Building; after a general skyline view of midtown comes the Empire State Building; at the far right is the United Nations Building.

 

So, it's a relatively simple logo that accomplishes a bunch of things well without being too busy.  Is it any wonder that the guy who came up with it was a sports cartoonist? 

1.  St. Louis Cardinals

Yeah, I know.  This is my favorite team.  I'm biased, blah blah blah.  In this case, I don't think that comes into play here.  This is simply, in my opinion, the best logo in baseball.  Like the Braves, this is one of the few logos that is also on the actual uniforms.  It's a classic logo that has appeared (with minor tweaks over the years) since the 1930s.

It graced the jerseys of Dizzy Dean and the Gashouse Gang in the 1930s, Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst in the 1940s, Bob Gibson and Lou Brock in the 1960s, Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee in the 1980s and the Cardinals of today.  The "birds on the bat" is an iconic logo for an iconic franchise and that makes it my pick for the top logo in the National League.



 

Worst Logo - National League

 

Washington Nationals

 

This one was easy and easily one of the worst logos in any sport.  How bad is it?  Here are two logos - one is the Nationals logo and the other is the Walgreens logo.  Can you tell which is which?

 

 

Do you see my point?  You can barely distinguish between the two logos!  By the way, the first one is the Walgreens logo, while the second logo is the Nationals logo.  That's the best they could come up with?  Actually, no.  They came up with something better, but (for some reason) they have elected to not use it:

 

I'll never understand why they went with the dumb, generic "W" logo than the interlocking "DC".

 

Best Logos - American League

 

4. Seattle Mariners

 

 

While I don't like this logo as much as one of their original logo (see below), this logo makes sense.  It has a compass and a baseball, which makes a lot of sense for a baseball team named after sailors.  The colors make sense for a team based in the Pacific Northwest, too, helping to complete a sharp overall logo. 

 

3. Baltimore Orioles

 

Affectionately known as the "cartoon bird," this logo - introduced in 2012 - is an updated version of the logo the Orioles used from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, the team's greatest period of success.  They replaced this logo with an ornithologically correct bird that graced their caps and helmets for the next 20+ years. 

The Orioles then re-introduced the cartoon bird in 2012.  I've always liked the cartoon bird and it's one of the rare team logos that appears on the team uniforms, which is another reason why it slides in at #3.

 

2.  Kansas City Royals

 

Missouri is home to two of the best logos in baseball - the aforementioned Cardinals logo - and the Royals.  The Royals logo has the crown for the team name - on a royal blue background - and the

"KC" for Kansas City.  Simple yet classic.  The fact that their main scoreboard at Kaufmann Stadium has that logo on the back of it (facing I-70) helps tie it all together.

 

1. Boston Red Sox

 

When your team name is the "red sox," your logo better have some red socks in it.  Boston's does. While the logo has received some small tweaks over the years, the pair of red socks has been a

constant since the 1920s.  Like the Cardinals' logo, it's a simple, classic logo for an iconic franchise.  It's just a shame the logo doesn't appear anywhere on their uniforms.

 

Worst Logo - American League

 

Tampa Bay Rays

 

This logo is so lame and generic, it's almost like some middle schooler designed it in a basic computer design class.  Originally, the team was known as the "Tampa Bay Devil Rays" and the logo included an outline of a manta ray. Not the best name or logo, but not bad.  Then, in 2008, they decided to drop the "Devil" from their name and just be known as the Tampa Bay Rays.  They also dropped any hint of the manta ray and instead include what the team calls a "sunburst" on the R.  So now it's tough to know if they are named of the animal or sun.  Either way, it stinks.

 

Best MLB Logos - Throwback/Retro Version

 

Sadly, some of the all-time best logos in MLB are old school, retro logos that teams no longer use outside of the occasional throwback uniform games.  In most cases, these logos have been replaced with something far inferior, which is a shame.

 

4.  Seattle Mariners (original logo, 1977-79)

 

The Mariners' original logo was an upside trident forming an "M."  The modified the logo in 1980,

while still sticking with the upside trident until 1987.  Simple yet effective, it has a nautical theme that also ties in to the team name.  Good stuff.

 

3. San Diego Padres (Swinging Friar logo, 1969-1984)

 

This is an awesome, creative logo that the Padres should have never dropped.  The team is named after the Franciscan friars who founded the city of San Diego is the 1700s.  As such, their original

logo was a friar swinging a baseball bat.  To come up with a logo the incorporates baseball and a religious leader that has historical significance in the community?  Brilliant!  How anyone decided that it was a good idea to dump this logo baffles me.





2. Houston Colt .45s

The team now known as the Houston Astros (which is a great name that ties in with the city's role in the country's history of space travel) was originally known as the Houston Colt .45s.  Maybe not the

most politically correct name and it doesn't really flow very well.  Perhaps that's why the team only used that name for three seasons before changing to the Astros.  Regardless, without that moniker, we never get this great logo.  A pistol with smoke from the barrel making the "C" in Colts.  Simple, clever and classic.




1. Milwaukee Brewers (ball-in-glove)

This logo is terrific and I don't understand why the Brewers ever dumped it and moved to their generic, M with a head of barley under it logo.  Like the Hartford Whalers logo that I praised in my blog post about NHL logos, this logo works on more than one level.  At first glance, it's a baseball

glove with a baseball in it.  But a closer look shows that the glove is made up of an "M" for Milwaukee and a "B" for Brewers.  While the Brewers dumped this logo in favor of something far less awesome in the mid-90s, they have brought it back as part of their alternate uniforms.  Instead of only giving people what they want (watch any Brewers game on TV and see how many people are wearing gear with the ball-in-glove logo on it) only every so often, the team should go back to this logo full time.  When you have one of the best logos in all of sports, why would you ever mess with it?



There you have it - my best and worst logos in MLB.  I'd be curious to hear your picks and whether or not you agree with mine.

Thanks for reading!