Infinite Playlist #13, Part 2

This past weekend, the Redskins bounced back from their embarrassing Week 3 loss to the lowly Detroit Lions with an ugly but desperately needed win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It made me think of my grandfather, a huge ‘Skins booster who never got the chance to see them dig their way out of 17 years of failure and disappointment.

‘Stardust’ by Hoagy Carmichael was one of his favorite songs.

People in Philadelphia think Michael Vick deserves a second chance (Of course they do.)

MONSTER.

I would rather watch the Redskins go 0-16 from here to eternity than hire a puppy murderer. Congratulations, Andy Reid—this is a classless, win-at-all-costs move right out of the Buddy Ryan playbook. And Jeff Lurie, I had no idea you were such a fan of Al Davis-esque personnel decisions. From now on I’ll just be referring to the Eagles as the Oakland Raiders-East. I love how Roger Goodell has developed this reputation as a “disciplinarian” since becoming NFL commissioner, yet people like Donte Stallworth and Michael Vick get slaps on the wrist and repeated opportunities to make millions of dollars in the face of the reality that they are killers. Perfect. Totally makes sense. Especially within the context of sports punishments.

“Sorry Charlie Hustle; I understand you were just trying to “make things a little interesting”, but you disgraced the integrity of the game, so we’re going to have to ban you from baseball for life. But those young guys over there who unwind by running over pedestrians and butchering dogs, they’re going to get a time-out. Completely fair, really.”

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!

I’m back, bitches!

Actually, I never really left. But my blogging definitely took a nosedive in January after I got laid off—one last parting gift courtesy of the George W. Bush era. In the intervening months, I have:

-Taken and crushed the PRAXIS II test
-Been re-hired by the company that laid me off
-Become a married man
-Become a father-figure to two new cats
-Watched A LOT of Baltimore Orioles baseball games (wait until next year!)
-Watched Daniel Snyder return to his old bank-breaking, free agent-chasing ways
-Been steadily disappointed by President Obama’s moderate-ness (sack up, man! If you’re gonna go, go big!)

In any event, I hope to start posting more frequently, if only b/c I’m going to start posting more off-the-cuff musings and try not to get too wrapped up in long, rambling posts (too late!)

No. 7: Washington Redskins

Chief Z

OK, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m a life-long Redskins fan. I’m not going to get mired into the argument of whether or not the name of the team is culturally insensitive/offensive (it is.) That being said, this list is about logos, not names. And as a visual representation of a sports team, this is one of my favorites.

Like I said in my Tampa Bay Buccaneers entry, I usually am not a fan of “character” logos—they’re overly-busy and don’t communicate visual information very quickly. There’s a lot more detail to take in, and when you’re talking about a high-energy sport like football, immediate impact is key.

First off, I love the colors. Burgundy and gold aren’t what you’d call a very intuitive pairing, but they work so well together. The gold circle and tail feathers create a beautiful frame around the Native American head, almost like a stylized dreamcatcher. The illustration of the Native American himself is a little problematic. While nowhere near as unrepentantly offensive, cartoonish, or poorly executed as the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo or the Chicago Blackhawks’ Native American mascot, it still makes liberal use of cartoonish visual cliches associated with Native Americans—the “red” skin, the large nose—and I can easily understand the indignity it foments. However, the facial expression of the Native American is, to my eyes, mesmerizing. Every time I look at this logo, I see this perfectly balanced, subtle combination of pride, dignity and sadness. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Maybe my (admittedly) overwhelming “white guilt” is creating visual signifiers that aren’t there as a way to rationalize my fandom. Maybe it’s just a logo. I just don’t know.

Ultimately, as much as I love my team, it’s the twenty-first century. Do we really want to continue marginalizing swaths of our “society” (no matter how steadfastly we tried to disenfranchise and/or eradicate this particular segment over the last 400 years), even if it’s disguised as innocuous sportsmanship? I think it’s long past time for a change. But please—don’t pussify it like you did to my beloved Bullets!