With the Orioles announcing on Tuesday that they’d be returning to their old smiling bird logo (along with the news last week about the Padres going back to the swingin’ friar), the staff of the Outside Corner got to brainstorming some older logos we’d like to see make a more full-time comeback in the majors. Some of these logos are seen on alternate caps and jerseys that the team wears maybe a couple of times a year, but we feel that they need to be around for every game. Here are five of our choices.
1) Seattle Mariners Trident Logo (1980-1986)
I think this is pretty awesome. Others disagreed. The Mariners best record with the old trident was ten games under .500, so it wasn’t a very successful representation of the team. The Mariners would get the compass involved in 1993, and include teal in their color scheme, which immediately makes it worthy of being stricken from the record.
2) Atlanta Braves Cursive A Logo (1972-1980)
I wanted to use the old “screaming Brave” logo here, but my fellow editors told me that if I posted that, it would possibly ignite a politically incorrect mess that could bring me to my knees….so I decided against it. I love this logo. Simple, yet elegant. The Braves brought it back this year for the Civil Rights Game against the Phillies, and I immediately bought a cap and t-shirt that reside in my regular arsenal.
3) San Francisco Giants Script Logo (1947-1976)
The Giants carried this logo with them from New York to San Francisco when they changed coasts in 1958, and held the new logo for nearly 20 years by the bay before switching to an orange ball in 1977, and dumping the script altogether in 1982. For a team that has been synonymous with Barry Bonds for most of the past two decades, changing the logo would be a nice way to distance themselves from him. But then again, they won a World Championship with the old logo last year. I don’t think they’d want to bail on the memories tied to the current logo so soon.
4) Toronto Blue Jays Initial Logo (1977-1996)
We reported near the end of the summer that a modified version of this one is coming back for the 2012 season, but nothing has been officially unveiled yet. That’s a good thing, because this is a sharp logo that makes sure to make a nod towards the fact that the Blue Jays are the only Canadian team in the MLB. Their current logo, while nice looking, doesn’t feature a maple leaf at all. And considering that the maple leaf is essentially iconic in Canada, that’s borderline criminal.
5) Pittsburgh Pirates Wanted Logo (1968-1986)
This just seems so incredibly campy, and I love it. The pirate looks more like an actor than some sort of hardened criminal, and the cartoon skull on his hat looks downright silly. But I love the poster design. This guy was replaced by the “super serious pirate with a bushy mustache logo”, and that’s downright criminal. Pittsburgh won a pair of World Championships with this guy around, and that’s a rare piece of black and gold merchandise I wouldn’t feel awkward about wearing.
All credit for the images and information in this post goes to the fabulous SportsLogos.net, an invaluable resource and a site where you can easily drop an hour without even knowing it.
