Casper Ghosts

When it comes to Minor League Baseball, teams generally have absolutely no fear in the way they name their teams, design their logos, insane mascots, or submit their fans to the wackiest promotions, for that I salute them. For if it were not for Minor League Baseball's inability to feel shame, we would not have such great logos on New Era caps that we currently have, instead we could possibly have just the same blend that we see in Major League Baseball, even though they are always respectable.

One of my favourite Minor League Baseball logos is the city of Casper, which decided to take the play on words and emulate the name of that old cartoon that we've all probably seen at least once in our lifetimes, Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper, Wyoming didn't think their logo needed to be all that friendly though, and through the process of taking the city's name and putting it through the mind of an eight year old we are submitted to the magic embroidered below.

The Casper Ghosts originated as the Butte Copper Kings in Butte, Montana, but the team ended up in its current location of Casper, Wyoming until 2001 when they became the Single-A Affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, but the team was then known as the Casper Rockies. After 7 solid seasons as the Casper Rockies the creativity set in and come opening day of 2008 the Casper Ghosts hit the field.

The embroidered on the front of the cap for the Casper Ghosts is a fierce skull-like face which represents the ghoul, along with this is a simple baseball stitching on the top which makes it appear as if it's a baseball. The background and outline of the logo is embroidered with a shading technique that creates a haze giving the cap an eerie look to it.

One of the most simple and unique aspects of the cap that won't be appreciated until it dawns upon the viewer is the fact that when viewed in the dark a “G” appears due to the glow-in-the-dark threading used for the certain area. The hidden “G” in the hat is what really takes this cap up a notch, and really adds to the cool factor.

As of the end of the 2011 season, the Casper Ghosts will be moving out of their ballpark of Mike Lansing Field and will relocate to Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colorado. This move will effectively kill the team name and the brief history the team had, and the team will revert back to the name Rockies. The team called the Casper Ghosts were short lived, and I'm sure they will be missed.

Is that the Pizza Hut symbol in purple and grey?

Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers, like the Toronto Blue Jays, went through a 90's with a lack of identify, and saw a pair of logo changes before they finally settled on something that they found fitting for their group. However unlike the Toronto Blue Jays, the Milwaukee Brewers most recent uniform and logo change were very classy and respectable, and didn't require “finding one's self” re-haul a decade later.

The most famous of the Milwaukee Brewers classic logo consisted of a modest blue and yellow colour mixture, the logo itself was a personal mystery to myself up until a few months ago, much like the Montréal Expos, I couldn't read between the lines to learn the true meaning behind the logo, and I know many people have been the same way regarding the two. The logo appears to be just a baseball glove, but it in actuality is an “m” and a “b” making the letters corresponding to the team *m*ilwaukee *b*rewers. From a design standpoint, this is extremely sophisticated, but it's unfortunate that the logo was a mystery to so many, and most likely still is.

In 1994, Major League Baseball adopted a new expanded playoff system which forced the original playoff format to change thus creating two new divisions, which forced the Milwaukee Brewers to switch from the old American League East Division to the newly formed American League Central Division. During this transition, the Brewers made a move to rebrand their team which completely changed their uniform scheme and base team colours, the changes moved from the pale blue and yellow to a gold, green, and navy blue scheme. The caps that came with the new team consisted of the M and B which were stylized to interlock within each other which were abruptly retired in 1996 and replaced with just a taller version of the “M”. The new logo was utilized briefly while still in the American League, but with the expansion of baseball to create the Arizona and Tampa Bay franchises, the Brewers voluntarily moved to the National League Central.

Following the 1999 season, the Milwaukee Brewers had become excited with anticipation of the completion of the construction of Miller Park, and a brand new rebranding of the team had formed. The team kept the current colour scheme to a point, but dropped green completely from their uniforms, hats, and logos.

These are the caps that the team still wears to this day, and they are one of the classiest and most unique caps in all of baseball. The caps are a base Heather Grey with a white stylized “M” which is outlined with gold, and underlined with a gold embroidered stalk of wheat which echos the team name with its symbolism. These caps are worn both home and away by the team and is mimicked on their batting helmets extremely accurately.

In my personal opinion, these are some of the best On-Field Fitteds that are currently being worn in Major League Baseball, they are some of the most intriguing caps that exist and show boldness with modesty all in one with their colour and design choices which click so well. Since the Milwaukee Brewers are one of the hottest and most up and coming teams in baseball, you better pick this up before people hop off of the Phillies Bandwagon and onto the Brewers!

Florida Marlins 1996 - 2011

As I'm sure some have heard, the 2011 season will be the final season for the Florida Marlins, next season the team will be rebranded as the Miami Marlins and will move into their new stadium in downtown Miami complete with a retractable dome.

Now with the new stadium, the team decided that it was time to reboot the entire team much like the way the Tampa Bay Rays and the Arizona Diamondbacks did; change the uniforms 100%. The Florida Marlins are different however, being that they are getting up there in age a little and have had an established logo that hasn't been ignored by many merchandise producers or consumers, but the team felt that it was time to make a change to start new in their brand new ballpark.

The new logo shown here has been extremely controversial when it comes to its design, many people don't like it and believe it to look more like a football or college logo. It is hard to believe that Miami would just throw this together without putting some deep seeded thought into it, plus this is Miami so what else were we to expect?

The Florida Marlins will be getting brand new caps, we all know this, but what they look like is still up in question, but there has been a lot of speculation over what the caps would look like. The basic designs appear to be the logo seen above, simply slapped onto a New Era cap, but I have to believe these will not be what the caps actually do look like. I would believe it to be extremely uninteresting to take the team's primary logo and slap it onto the hat, but that is what most teams do so maybe Miami will do something traditional for once.

Now we won't know what the Marlins new caps will look like until 11-11-11, so until then I decided that it may be time for me to pick up one of the Marlins current ballcaps, since it will be retired after the end of the season. I wouldn't be surprised if the cap is all ready discontinued, but regardless it was a great buy for me to make. While walking into the local sports store at my mall, I started to poke around the Marlins caps and located one without the sticker in my size, so I decided to rescue it because no one would likely buy it due to its lack of sticker.

When I got the cap home, I really got to looking to it and finally appreciated this cap for what it is. I never really cared for "the fish" before and thought it was an overall uninteresting cap, however I was wrong. The cap has very strong and in depth embroidery, it displays elements of both complexity and simplicity in the same logo, and they flow together beautifully. One thing that always bothered me about the cap from a distance was that the base of the cap was just straight black, I always thought that it was just bland and was missing something. I'm still not convinced that it was missing something though, but the black base cap really makes the logo pop.

This cap is highly recommended for two reasons:
7/10

1. The logo and design is extremely unique, and it is a dying breed. The metallic thread makes the accurately designed Marlin really stick out, and the mixture of threading on the fish makes it a great work of embroidery.
2. It's discontinued, so buy it before it's gone.