Sports Design Blog

Merry Christmas from SDB

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I am so thankful for the following that this blog has developed over the course of its first year. I have made many friends over the last 9 months, Marc, Dan, Paul, Erik D, Kirk, Hoolie, Johnny and so many more. It has been fun to share all of the sports design related madness I have stuck in my head with you. We have really added to a community that started with Paul at Uni-watch and have created another great gathering place for sports design minded fans.

I look forward to sharing more sports design wisdom with you in the new year. Merry Christmas to all of you!

Top 5: Halloween Teams

Since Halloween is upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to take a look at the Top 5 teams who's logos, mascots or colors best represent the holiday.

5. Cincinnati Bengals

No other sports team rocks the colors of Halloween better than the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals take to the NFL gridiron each week wearing various combinations of Halloween's official colors of orange and black. If you live in Cincinnati and you want to fit in with your family while they wear their Halloween themed clothing, just throw on your Bengals jersey and you are good to go. 

4. Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens make the list because of their affiliation with the legend of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is best known for his writing abilities in the genre of the mysterious and the macabre. During his time in Baltimore, he wrote the famous poem "The Raven" and the rest is history. The Baltimore Ravens adopted this nickname to pay tribute to the famous writer. This link to one of the greatest writers of classic macabre tales lands the Ravens at number four.

3. Richmond Spiders

Most known for their occasional trip to the NCAA Tournament and having made a Cinderella run or two over the years, the Richmond Spiders are a perfect symbol of Halloween. Everywhere you go you can see oversize spiders climbing up houses and spider webs spread all over the place in Halloween decorations around our neighborhoods. The Spiders make our list by using one of the classic characters of Halloween as their mascot.

2. Louisville Bats

The Louisville Bats are a minor league baseball team that plays in Louisville, Kentucky in the International League. The team's mascot is a tribute with a twist to the company located in Louisville with a long history in baseball, the Louisville Slugger company. Since the city is known for bats, this name makes perfect sense and is a clever twist on the theme. Since the team's mascot is not the bat that Louisville Slugger makes, but a bat we associate with vampires and Halloween, they make our list at number 2.

1. Casper Ghosts

Topping our list of the top 5 Halloween teams is the Casper Ghosts. The Ghosts are located in Casper Wyoming and play their baseball in the Pioneer League. The team's official colors are orange and black and they use a ghost as their mascot. The Ghosts take to the field each night in glow-in-the-dark caps. The team also has an agreement with Harvey Entertainment to use the real image of Casper the Friendly Ghost as an alternate mascot. No team can even touch the Ghosts as the champion of our list of the top 5 Halloween teams in sports.

Happy Fourth of July

As we head into the Independence Day weekend, I wanted to wish you all a happy Fourth of July. I hope you get to spend time with family, enjoy the great summer weather, and spend some time being thankful for this great country we live in.

The United States of America is a place with a rich history of people who have served our country and who stand up for the values and ideas that make this the greatest country on Earth. The United States of America is also a country that focuses on family and friends and this weekend we will see many families and friends throughout our land gather together to celebrate the birth of our great nation.

Happy Fourth of July to the readers of Sports Design Blog! Thanks to all of you who make this site so much fun to put together. It makes me feel great to know that so many of you stop by each day and get some enjoyment from what I do. Only in America! I'll be back on Monday with some more sports design goodness.

St. Patrick's Day Revisited

Well, so much for my theory that St. Patrick's Day would bring the Celtics luck. In an attempt to grab the St. Patrick's Day mojo from the Celtics, the Bulls showed up last night decked out in there own St. Patrick's Day Specials. The trick must have worked, as the Bulls beat the Celtics 127-121.

The St. Patrick's day greening was not limited to the Bulls/Celtics matchup. Lebron James and the Cavs did not switch to all green for the holiday, but King James paid tribute to the day by donning a special pair of green Nikes.

Several Major League Baseball teams got into the act as well. The Boston Red Sox donned green uniforms and had quite a St. Patrick's Day celebration. A few others teams who participated included the Cubs, Braves, Giants, Mets and Tigers.

In the NHL, the Phoenix Coyotes made the switch to green in uniforms that were already autographed for auction after use.

Well, that is about enough green, so tomorrow we can get back to discussing the graphics of the NCAA tournament and other relevant topics.

Happy St. Patrick's Day - Sports Style

 
Well today is St. Patrick's Day. The day we all wear green to insure we are not pinched by those around us. St. Patrick's Day is a great day for everyone to celebrate and unite in festive spirit, regardless of our ethnic origins. We can all be Irish for a day.

The sports world has embraced St. Patrick's Day as a day to celebrate as well. Many teams will drop their traditional colors today and will don the color green instead. The Pittsburgh Pirates got a head start yesterday, wearing green caps a day early.

I remember this tradition starting back in the 1970's. The Cincinnati Reds started dropping their traditional Red for the color green. Today, this tradition has spread to every league imaginable. Many saw Nate Robinson of the Knicks break out the green jersey recently in the NBA slam dunk competition.

This year, your team related St. Patrick's Day choices were nearly unlimited. On the sports apparel site FootballFanatics, you could find green gear for  every team imaginable. They had a selection of St. Patrick's day merchandise for every team, league and sport. Would you like your University of Kansas t-shirt in St. Patrick's Day green, no problem!

Of course, one team is naturally suited for this special day. There could be no better day to be a fan of the Boston Celtics. The Celtics are the perfect team to root for on this day. Boston takes on the Chicago Bulls tonight. This is probably the one day you don't want to be facing the Celtics, because they should have a little luck on their side!

So, enjoy the holiday, celebrate with friends, and don't get too confused when you turn on the broadcast of your favorite team and see them playing in oddly unfamiliar colors.