No. 1: Baltimore Orioles

Orioles magic!

I know, I know. Favoritism! Fanaticism! (Un)fairness and (im)balance! J’accuse!

Fair enough. I suppose there’s a certain amount of validity to those sentiments. But let me just point out that in my Top Logos of the NFL countdown, my Washington Redskins only made it to number seven. So let’s just assume I’m being impartial for argument’s sake.

The anthropomorphic cartoon bird was first introduced to fans in 1955, albeit in a much different, less polished iteration. After a few changes (including a simple block letter “B”, and more ornithologically accurate renderings of Maryland’s state bird), the cartoon bird that O’s fans came to know and love through the Earl Weaver era and much of the Cal Ripken, Jr. era was introduced in 1966 and was the mainstay cap logo for the Orioles through the 1988 season.

The Oriole Bird, simply put,  is easily the most friendly and inviting mascot in US professional sports. Bar none. You can keep your Phanatic, your Mariner Moose, your Mr. & Mrs. Redlegs, your Mr. Met, your Chief Wahoo … there is no comparison. The logo represents an economy of color and detail, yet expresses so much character. If it’s difficult to quantify in two dimensions, I highly recommend that anyone who finds themself in the Mid-Atlantic region in the warmer months head to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for one of the best sporting event experiences, particularly to see the Oriole Bird in the flesh (or feather, as it were.) C-Rock knows what’s up.

No. 4: Toronto Blue Jays

Baseball, eh?

It wasn’t until about a year and a half ago when I was watching the Orioles play the Blue Jays that I realized how much I missed the old Toronto unis. The tone-on-tone blue palette works so well, and contrasts nicely with the red symbolizing the Canadian flag. It’s a real shame that the ball club felt they needed to mess with the old design, but I guess I can kind of understand the reasoning behind it; it was largely unchanged for the first 25 years of the team’s existence, and it did have a somewhat dated retro 70s/80s feel. Plus, the single best way a sports franchise can drum up merchandising dollars is to change uniforms.

That being said, it’s somewhat disheartening that they went in the direction they did; there’s something very late 20th/early 21st century about the current logo and uniform in terms of the color palette and very streamlined design, but it’s not particularly timeless. It already looks pretty dated, and a little too much like a minor league uniform for comfort. There’s a good reason that the Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers have left well enough alone over the last 70-80 years: baseball is a business, and every bit of marketing material, from letterhead to the logos on the team’s caps should reinforce and strengthen the brand. The easiest way to achieve that sort of brand positioning is to simplify. It’s no surprise that Tampa Bay is finally selling merchandise—winning helps, but so does not having a gradient-heavy manta ray on your uniform.

No. 10: New York Yankees

Ugh. Evil. Empire.

This one squeaks in purely for the same reason the Dallas Cowboys logo made it into the countdown for the NFL: Its ubiquity.

This thing is EVERYWHERE! One of the most frustrating things about the Yankees is their status as the flagship franchise of Major League Baseball. I literally hate going to Orioles games in Baltimore when these guys are in town, primarily because their massive fanbase eradicates anything resembling home field advantage.

That being said, this is mostly sour grapes. If the O’s had 27 world championships under their belt, I probably would not care an iota.

The Boys of Summer, Or How I Learned to Love a Giant, Anthropomorphic Bird.

One down, three to go.

As shown by my previous countdown of favorite NFL team logos, I love sports. And while I’m a devoted Washington Redskins fan, my moods don’t typically rise and fall with their wins and losses during the football season. This might have something to do with their notoriously mediocre-to-poor play since the end of the Joe Gibbs Mk I era in 1993. But that alone doesn’t really explain it, because my favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, have been equally mediocre over the last twelve seasons (“mediocre” is generous; they haven’t made the playoffs since 1997. At least the ‘Skins made it to the first round in 2005 and 2007.) And the baseball season, at 162 games, is over 10x longer than the NFL regular season. Factor in the potential number of playoff games, and the number balloons to 181, versus 19 in football. So there is less at stake from game to game in baseball, yet an Orioles loss affects me much more than a Redskins loss, which is completely illogical. I’ve made a conscious effort over my lifetime to not identify myself as either a “baseball guy” or a “football guy”, but the fact is that I’m much more emotionally invested in baseball in general and the Orioles specifically than I am in the Redskins or football as a whole. The only “rational” explanation that I’ve been able to come up with is the fact that I played organized Little League baseball throughout my childhood, while I was forbidden from participating in football because I “might get hurt”. Thanks, Mom. Tell that to Kirby Puckett!

With ALL this in mind, let’s dive right in to the top ten countdown of my favorite MLB logos!

Infinite Playlist #3

‘I want For Nothing’ by Wye Oak, from sophomore album The Knot.

On “The Big Sleep”: I’ve never been so excited about dying!

FACT: If I’m enshrined in a Yankees urn or casket, I will assuredly come back as a zombie and eat your brains.