Originally published at: Baseball team rebrands to honor Oregon's famed Exploding Whale | Boing Boing
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Wise rebranding.
Which one sounds more scary to opponents: “Emeralds” or “Exploding Whales”?
Duh.
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All the merch is sold out of most adult sizes.
They clearly underestimated demand.
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I am bummed! I used to attend Ems games back in the day with friends, would have totally bought that.
I was interested to learn that this is a new thing the teams are all doing. Essentially they figured out that wacky names and logos are free marketing and fund raising for them. Minor league teams are broke but goofy names are a really effective way to bring in money.
Historically they were named for the major league team that they feed into. So they’d be the “Bridgetown Mets” or whatever. But nobody is going to buy that merch. If you want a Mets thing you’re gonna buy the real Mets thing.
Also it amused me to learn that traditional baseball fans hate this because they all take themselves way too seriously.
All this is from this podcast, but I TL;DLed it for you.
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I’m getting a hat as soon as they put them up. So awesome.
Edit - if you also want one, per their Twitter, they will be available in April.
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I’m a moderately serious baseball fan and I love Minor League’s goofy names. I have been to ~25 MiLB parks and have hats from the ones with cool logos.
Here’s a cool video about the marketing team that comes up with a lot of these team names and logos – this video focusing on the Amarillo Sod Poodles.
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I just hope the announcer knows to say “blasting the ball like blubber, beyond all believable bounds” whenever they hit a home run.
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Maybe a certain type of traditional baseball fans, but goofy team names are nothing new, even at the major league level. The Atlanta Braves were once the Boston Bees and the Boston Beaneaters (I think that was was mostly a nickname and not official but still…). I would love for them to come up with a new name now, but all hell would probably break loose in Georgia. But I love the new names like the Cleveland Guardians and the Washington Commanders. And minor league team names are fun. And I would classify myself as a traditional fan. I hate the designated hitter, for example. But bring on all the wacky names!
I’m just the messenger. Listen to the story.
Finland have a good one too, in another sport
The Chicago Dogs could have done a better job with their uniform
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I did. Seems like his opinion is just based on his impression of minor league fans. Maybe he’s right, I don’t know, but the wacky names don’t bother me.
Those uniforms have ketchup though, which just doesn’t fly in Chicago.
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