Everyone loved the Logo Month we did at TOC last December. Well now, we have more logo-related news for you that's sure to get beer drinkers excited. The short-season low-A Yakima Bears of the Northwest League moved after this season from Yakima, Washington, where they had played since 2001, to Hillsboro, Oregon. A new name and logo for the team were unveiled on Tuesday, and that name is…the Hillsboro Hops.
For those of you wondering: no, that's not a marijuana bud in the logo, it's a hop. A hop is one of the four components used to make beer (along with yeast, grain/barley, and water), and adds aroma, bitterness, and flavor. Oregon is the second highest hop producing state in the United States, and ironically, the team's former home in Yakima is the largest hop producing area in the country.
Of course, this is probably going to create some sort of giant hubbub about marketing alcohol to youth, but I don't think it's a big deal at all. The Milwaukee Brewers have been around for 43 years, and complaints about their name (and the name of their stadium, Miller Park) aren't exactly flooding the airwaves. Hell, the Rockies also play in a stadium named after a brewery (Coors Field), and the Cardinals' stadium is named not after former owner Gussie Busch (as the original Busch Stadium was), but instead Anheuser-Busch…another brewery!
At any rate, good for the Hops franchise for choosing a locally relevant name with a sharp logo. If that hop is on one of their caps as opposed to that stylized H, I'm gonna be all over that.
[MiLB.com]
