Major League Baseball logo

The Major League Baseball logo was designed by Jerry Dior in 1968 and was included on all on-field uniforms of Major League Baseball (MLB) employees beginning in the 1969 season.

The Major League Baseball logo.

Creation

According to Dior, the logo was created in a single afternoon. Contrary to popular belief, the silhouette was not modeled on Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew,[1] or any specific player[2] but was drawn with reference to photographs of several players.[3] The silhouette was chosen specifically because of its ambiguity: the batter could be right- or left-handed and of any ethnic background.[3]

The MLB "Batter" logo was commissioned by the Major League Baseball Centennial Committee, and was introduced by the new Baseball Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, to be used in preparations for, and celebration of, the 1869 - 1969 Professional Baseball Centennial Celebration held July 21, 1969 in Washington, DC.

Controversy

For many years, the authorship of the logo was a matter of some dispute as two graphic designers laid claim to creating the piece: Jerry Dior[4] (working for the marketing firm of Sandgren & Murtha) and James Sherman,[5] who is probably better known publicly as a comic book illustrator. In November 2008, ESPN writer Paul Lukas managed to clear the matter up and Dior's authorship is no longer in doubt.[3] Upon closely examining the logo, Sherman declared:

"That's not my logo, and I was totally unaware that it existed... The logo I created was very similar, but I designed it in the early 1980s. All I can say is that I was so sports-unaware that I didn't know about the earlier logo. I feel like a total idiot now that I didn't know about it. I'm flabbergasted."[3]

Popularity and influence

The logo has not been changed in the years since its adoption, except for small variations in the shades of blue and red, and that individual teams sometimes alter the coloring to match their uniform colors. Since its adoption, the basic model of an athlete (or equipment used for the sport) in silhouette flanked by red and blue color blocks has also been incorporated in the logos of the National Basketball Association (with Jerry West as its player model), Minor League Baseball, Women's National Basketball Association, Arena Football League, U.S. Figure Skating, Hockey Canada, American Hockey League, PGA Tour, National Lacrosse League, Indy Racing League, and Major League Gaming. It has also been parodied in Major League Eating.

Alan Siegel, who oversaw Dior's logo, deliberately based his NBA logo design off the MLB's in 1969 because NBA Commissioner J. Walter Kennedy wanted a family relationship between the sports seen as being All-American.[6]

References
  1. Drellich, Evan (May 17, 2011). "Killebrew a legend, but not the logo". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  2. "What is a Major League Baseball logo?". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  3. Lukas, Paul (November 10, 2008). "The mystery of the Major League Baseball logo designer". ESPN.com. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  4. Davis, David (October 23, 2008). "The Man Behind the MLB Logo". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 24, 2008.
  5. Cadigan, Glen (2003). The Legion Companion - Glen Cadigan, Mike Grell - Google Boeken. ISBN 9781893905221. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  6. Crowe, Jerry (April 27, 2010). "That iconic NBA silhouette can be traced back to him". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
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