MLB Commercial Connect

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I recently came across a thread over at the SportsLogos.net forums where user coco1997 created a series of "what-if" concepts:

Originally Posted by coco1997

I think most people ... would agree that one of the worst developments in MLB in recent years has been the advent of ad patches. With a few exceptions, ad patches clash terribly with their respective team's uniform colors and most of the time are just downright distracting. That got me thinking, what if companies lent their logos, colors and branding to an entire uniform? Rather than use big faceless banks or insurance companies, I thought it would be more fun to use companies people know and like, whose logos and colors they recognize, and most importantly, which have specific ties to each team's city.

I asked for, and received, permission to convert the end result for use with OOTP. So with that, here is coco1997's MLB Commercial Connect.

While he did not post the teams in alphabetical order, I will be doing so. Also, there are a few instances where I have deviated from the concepts as originally posted. The bullet-pointed information about the uniforms are coco1997's words from his original thread, with a few editorial comments from me where appropriate.

I will be posting the teams individually, however the entire set can also be downloaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/s9adf...nnect.zip/file

First up:

Arizona Diamondbacks x U-Haul

• Founded in Utah in 1945, the rental truck, trailer and self-storage company has been headquartered in Phoenix since 1967.
• My design uses U-Haul's primary colors of black and orange, while the pop of green comes from the "19.95" price listing that appears on the side of the company's vehicles (Note: The green is used in the form of from numerals, which OOTP does not support).
• The wordmark, numbers and cap logo are underscored with a thick orange stripe, a la the U-Haul logo.

If I did this right, these should be available on the Steam Workshop.

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Atlanta Braves x Coca-Cola

• There are few companies more quintessentially American than Coca-Cola, which was founded in Atlanta in 1886 and has been headquartered there ever since.
• My idea here was for the uniform itself to look like a Coke bottle, hence the red jersey--which features a script in the style of the famous Coca-Cola logo and numbers in the stye of the Diet Coke branding--and dark cola brown-colored pants (Note - I added the Coca-Cola "dynamic ribbon" as a stripe on the pants).

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Baltimore Orioles x Old Bay

• I think most people probably saw this one coming. The popular spice blend was founded in Baltimore in 1939 by a Jewish refugee and has been produced by the McCormick Company since 1990.
• I tried to mimic the color blocking of an actual Old Bay can, with a yellow jersey, blue horizontal ribbon with white letters and a red cap (representing the lid).
• The cap and sleeve feature the "B" from the "Unique Blend, etc." script (Note: I opted for a color-modified version of the O's "smiling bird" logo for the sleeve).

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Boston Red Sox x Dunkin'

• Dunkin' Donuts was founded in a suburb of Boston in 1948 and has been a huge part of New England culture for decades. Look no further than longtime Bostonian Ben Affleck.
• Though Dunkin's primary colors are magenta and orange, I used dark (coffee) brown as the base color. The jersey features contrasting sleeves, a la the Padres' City Connect.
• I kept Boston's classic "B" for the cap logo, as that's what the team has done with both of their City Connects so far.

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Chicago Cubs x Vienna Beef

• There are a couple different directions I could have gone in for the Cubs, the most obvious one being the Wrigley Company, but nothing says "Chicago" like a Chicago style hot dog, and there isn't a single self-respecting hot dog joint in the Chicagoland area that doesn't have this poster or some variation of it hanging on one of its walls.
• Vienna would have also worked for the White Sox, but I'll be going with something a bit more Southside adjacent for the Cubs' crosstown rivals.

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Chicago White Sox x Tootsie Roll

• Tootsie Roll was invented in New York in 1907 but since 1968 has been headquartered in Chicago, about a half hour north of Rate Field. I know this because I drive past it nearly every day for work.
• The company's branding meshes really nicely with the Southsiders' 1982-86 look, with its thick stripes and bold Cooper Black-style letters.
• Color-wise, brown replaces navy, with red used in a similar fashion.

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Cincinnati Reds x Graeter's Ice Cream

• In my research for this project, I was surprised to learn that Graeter's Ice Cream has been around nearly exactly as long as the Reds--since 1870, while MLB's oldest ballclub was incorporated in 1869. And though Graeter's is mainly found in Ohio and Kentucky, they have locations as far as Chicago and Pittsburgh and are available in 46 states.
• Graeter's just recently introduced a brand refresh, which includes shades of maroon and gold, a new "Queen City" crown logo and that beautiful "Graeter's" script, all of which lend themselves really nicely to a baseball uniform.

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Colorado Rockies x Coors

• For Colorado, it makes sense that I would choose Coors, the American-style lager founded in Golden (about 26 minutes west of Denver) in 1873 and the Rockies ballpark's namesake.
• I originally had something much different planned for the Rockies (silver, bright red and blue, inspired by the Coors Light can) but decided to change directions and base my design on the beer's Banquet label, which feels more old school and timeless. The scripts and numbers are done in the classic "Coors" script style (Note: I went with the secondary font used for "Light" and other words in their marketing), while the sleeves and socks feature the heraldic griffins from the label

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Detroit Tigers x Little Caesars

• Former Tigers owner Mike Ilitch (who passed in 2017) famously founded Little Caesars in a suburb of Detroit in 1959. As such, Little Caesars is found everywhere in Comerica Park, and the team even introduced a very on-brand home run celebration last year. I could have went with General Motors for this one, but the Little Caesars branding was much more fun and lent itself better to a uniform design.
• The uniform is orange and black and uses a wordmark and numbers in the Little Caesars style, while the sleeves and pants feature the repeating "Lc" pattern found on the mascot's toga. Also included on the sides of the cap are the laurel wreath worn by Caesar (Note: the laurel wreath is omitted as it was too difficult to place properly).
• Last but not least, I poached the logo of the Detroit Caesers--a slow pitch softball league that existed for a few seasons in the late '70s--for the sleeve patch.

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Houston Astros x Whataburger

• Texas' favorite fast food chain was actually founded in Corpus Christi, not Houston, but there is a connection to the Astros. Houston has more Whataburger locations than any other Texas city (tied with San Antonio with 58), and the Astros' AA affiliate of the past 34 seasons, the Corpus Christi Hooks, play at Whataburger Field.
• I respect Whataburger for keeping the exact same logo for the past 50+ years, and it was fun to try Houston as a one-color team. The overall design here evokes the tequila sunrise era Astros, with the fun twist that the thick stripes on the jersey are vertical instead of horizonal, a la the restaurants' iconic A-frame roofs.
• The encircled jersey numbers come from Whataburger's table tents.

(Note that I went with the city name instead of the team name)

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Kansas City Royals x Hallmark

• Hallmark has been based in Kansas City since 1910, when founder Joyce Hall moved there from Nebraska.
• This choice works pretty organically with the Royals' identity, as Hallmark's colors are purple and gold--ones commonly associated with royalty--and they even use a crown in their logo (Note: The Royals' logo was, in fact, designed by Hallmark).

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Los Angeles Angels x Disney

• For the Halos I had to go with the Walt Disney Company, which was founded in Los Angeles in 1923, with "The Happiest Place on Earth" sitting just three and a half miles from Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
• I was a little stumped about what color scheme to use to represent Disney until I thought of the pink, blue and gold of the iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle at the heart of Disneyland.
• The wordmark, numbers and cap logo are all done up in the classic Disneyland entrance sign style.

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Los Angeles Dodgers x 76

• When I think of Dodger Stadium, I often think of the big 76 signs above the scoreboards in left and right field. Union Oil was a longtime sponsor of the Dodgers, dating back to their relocation from Brooklyn to LA in 1958, and Dodger Stadium used to be the only MLB ballpark with a functioning gas station on its premises; the station remains but has since been converted into an event space.
• For the reigning back-to-back champs, I went with a primarily orange look, with a checkerboard trim on the sleeves & pants and a wordmark & numbers in the "76" logo style.

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Miami Marlins x Burger King

• The first Burger King opened in Miami in 1954, and the company has remained headquartered there while expanding to over 6,500 locations across all 50 states.
• Burger King's new employee uniforms (introduced last year) were just begging to get the baseball uniform treatment. I went with a pullover look, adding a "MIAMI" wordmark in the Burger King typeface as well as front numbers, and the result looks like the lovechild of the late '70s Padres and Astros.
• The cap and socks feature a crowned "M" logo.

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Milwaukee Brewers x Miller

• The Miller Brewing Company was founded in Milwaukee in 1855 and served as the namesake of the Brewers' ballpark for 20 years.
• For this set, I used red and wheat gold from the beer's High Life label, with the "Brewers" script in the classic "Miller" logo style and the numbers coming from the "HIGH LIFE" wordmark.
• The Miller "M" conveniently doubles as an abbreviation for "Milwaukee" on the cap logo.

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Minnesota Twins x Target

• The first Target store opened in 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota, about 15 minutes outside of Minneapolis, while the Twins have called Target Field home since 2010.
• Target's branding has remained pretty consistent since the beginning, so the Twins get a clean red and white look, with wordmarks and numbers in the Target logo style.
• The sleeve patch puts a spin on the Twins' Minnesota silhouette logo, with the Target logo denoting the location of the original Target in Roseville.

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New York Mets x Macy's

• The storied department store chain was founded in Manhattan in 1858 and has expanded to over 450 locations in the 150+ years since.
• Macy's branding has always been simple but elegant, with their logo consisting of some combination of black and/or red since the very beginning. I decided to go with a sleek mono-black look that suggests the men's formalwear you might find in one of their stores (Note - I went with a different version that coco1997 also posted featuring a predominatly red and white scheme).

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New York Yankees x Tiffany's

• There's a legitimate connection between the Yankees and legendary jewelry house Tiffany & Co, which was founded in Brooklyn in 1837. The Yankees' iconic "NY" logo is inspired by the NYC Medal of Valor, designed by Louis Tiffany in 1877 for NYPD patrolman John McDowell.
• For this design, I used the greenish-blue from the famous Tiffany jewelry box--you know, the one your wife or girlfriend has been bugging you for years to get her. Coincidentally, the color is similar to the Liberty green accessories Yankees players began wearing last season.
• The cap and sleeves feature the interlocking "NY" Medal of Valor logo on which the Yankees' logo is based, while the socks use a bow design.

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(Oakland) Athletics x Dreyer's

• I went back and forth on what to do with the A's, given their current precarious situation of temporarily playing in Sacramento and not yet calling Las Vegas their home. I decided to go with Dreyer's, the ice cream company founded in Oaktown in 1928 and now headquartered in Walnut Creek, about an hour southwest of Sacramento. If you're unfamiliar with Dreyer's, you may know it better as Edy's, which is what it's called in the Midwest and on the East Coast.
• This set uses Dreyer's classic brown and gold color scheme, while the sleeves and socks feature the famous striping pattern from the Dreyer's/Edy's lids.

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ALTERNATE - (Sacramento) Athletics x Blue Diamond

(Note - this is not one done by coco1997, but one that I did myself in the spirit of the project given the A's liminal state.)

• Blue Diamond Growers was founded in Sacramento in 1910 and remains headquartered there until this day.
• They recently underwent a brand refresh, which is where the basis for this set comes from.