THE FICTIONAL SCENARIO WHERE I NEARLY DOUBLED THE SIZE OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL AND REBRANDED EVERY TEAM
I love baseball. I love branding. I love the combination of these two things.
Sports logos, jerseys, team uniforms, nicknames, all that. I get thrilled by announcements like the San Diego Padres going back to their brown color scheme. Or by the Phillies rocking their powder-blue throwback jerseys on certain nights. I even love the downright weird branding that goes on in Minor League Baseball. Where else will you see teams take risks with names like the Chihuahuas, the Trash Pandas, or the Booyah!?
It goes without saying, then, that I tend to have pretty strong opinions when it comes to logos, uniforms, and branding across baseball. Opinions like:
Way too many teams use the primary red and blue color scheme.
The MLB would benefit from the trend towards sleek minimalism in logos going on in the NBA right now.
Unique team names relevant to the location are always more interesting.
The Diamondbacks should get over their identity crisis and go back to the teal-and-purple look they started with.
High socks are a classic look that should be mandated.
The idea of Major League Baseball expanding also intrigues me. I see articles all the time about how baseball expansion is inevitable. I hear about strong movements in places like Portland and Montreal to try and get teams up and running over there. I would love to #BringBacktheExpos. Then there are a bunch of cities that aren’t realistic baseball towns at all that I still love enough to fantasize about being added to the league. New Orleans. Vancouver. OKC.
So I decided to let my imagination run wild and dream of a scenario where Major League Baseball expanded to 56 teams. Yes, almost doubling in size. I also humored my designer side and began a project to create uniforms and logos for each of them- even the teams that already exist.
I present to you, my dream team of teams.
So… a 56-team league? How would this far-fetched idea even work?
Well, this is totally fictional, so pretty much anything is possible. I could create six teams in Martha’s Vineyard if I so chose. But actually, I loosely based the idea on English Football, where the connections between almost 150 different leagues creates the possibility of 7,000 teams participating. Promotion and relegation allows a team’s performance to advance them upwards or downwards in different divisions, so that some teams frequently move between levels 1 & 2, 2 & 3, and so on. At least in theory, the smallest most obscure team has a shot of being a true underdog.
So in this scenario, 28 teams actively play at the top level each season– two leagues, eight divisions, four teams per division. However, each division permanently consists of seven teams, three of which are do not play in the top level each season. After each season, the 5th & 6th ranked teams have a chance to earn their way into the top level through their record against each other, and by challenging the 3rd and 4th ranked teams in play-in series.
It’s complicated, I know, but it allowed me to dream up more teams.
So how does the league look like under this arrangement?
That’s the fun part.
THE AMERICAN LEAGUE
AL WEST
California Angels
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Salt Lake City Bees
Sacramento Solons
Vancouver Ospreys
Mexico City Ozomatli
AL south
Texas Rangers
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals
San Antonio Scorpios
OKC Monarchs
Louisville Bats
Austin Armadillos
AL NORTH
Cleveland Spiders
Chicago White Sox
Detroit Tigers
Toronto Blue Jays
Minnesota Twins
Calgary Snowdogs
Buffalo Bisons
AL EAST
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Carolina Pilots
Holy City Deacons
New England Claws
Puerto Rico Gargolas
THE NATIONAL LEAGUE
nl WEST
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Francisco Giants
Colorado Rockies
San Diego Padres
Phoenix Rattlers
Portland Pines
Las Vegas Aces
NL south
Miami Marlins
Atlanta Braves
Tampa Bay Stingrays
New Orleans Krewe
Orlando Orcas
Jacksonville Torpedoes
Memphis Pharoahs
NL NORTH
Chicago Cubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Columbus Agents
Indiana Flayers
Omaha Knights
NL EAST
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
New York Mets
Montreal Expos
Washington Nationals
Ottawa Owls
Nashville Outlaws
And now for the even more fun part… the full on branding. I’m going one division at a time, so stay tuned for the ones that have yet to be posted.
THE REBRAND
I decided to impose a few rules on myself for this rebrand project.
For each team I designed the following: A primary logo, two secondary logos, three script logos, a minimalist logo, and two cap logos.
I also designed four jerseys per team: a white home jersey, road greys, an alternate in some form of team colors, and a “city jersey” inspired by the locale-based NBA jerseys.
One of my enforced rules was that no more than two teams could share the exact same color scheme- I wanted to force bolder color palette choices.
I forced myself to redesign every team, no matter how “classic” their current look is. For some, it meant more minor tweaks, or only modifying some logos. But I didn’t want to get away with just hitting copy and paste for the Yankees, Tigers, or Dodgers.
Anyways, here’s what I came up with:
The American League East
The Yankees and Red Sox rivalry continues, and the Orioles maintain their legacy in the mix. Speaking of rivals, a Carolina rivalry is born as an old team is resurrected in Charlotte and a new one rises in Charleston. New England also gets a second team, while expansion also spreads us into baseball lovin’ Puerto Rico.
THE AMERICAN LEAGUE SOUTH
(Coming Soon)
THE AMERICAN LEAGUE NORTH
(Coming Soon)
THE AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST
(Coming Soon)
THE NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST
(Coming Soon)
THE NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH
(Coming Soon)
THE NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL
(Coming Soon)
THE NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST
(Coming Soon)