Augusta GreenJackets

219

This may be a first. Sports equipment in sports logos is of course nothing new. You'll find no dearth of hockey teams with hockey sticks in their logos, soccer teams with soccer balls in their logos, baseball teams with baseball bats in their logos, and so forth. But the Augusta GreenJackets may be the first team in the history of sports whose logo includes equipment that can't be used by the team when playing the game they play. No, not the golf clubs; I'm talking about the aluminum bat.

Okay, I am talking about the golf clubs. For those who are wondering why the team has golf clubs in the logo, it's the same reason the team is called "GreenJackets". Both of these things are a reference to the The Masters, the golf tournament held every year near in Augusta. Apparently, the winner of this tournament is rewarded with a green sportsjacket. This is a reward? You don't see a lot of green sportsjackets in daily life, and there's a reason for that. No one looks quite right in a green sportsjacket. I can't put my finger on what that it, but it nevertheless is the case. (In case you're wondering how I would know, my uncle was principal at and I attended a school whose team colors were green and blue; my uncle and a couple of the coaches had green sportsjackets. None of them could quite pull off the green sportsjacket, no matter how well they pulled off wearing other sportsjackets and suits.) But somehow wearing a green sportsjacket is a big reward in the golf world. Then again, it's not like golfers have a reputation for being snazzy dressers. For all I know, the idea is that golfers are trying to look tacky, and only the best are allowed that clothing article which is the epitome of tacky, the green sportsjacket. I suppose I could watch some golf and find out, but I think I'd rather pour lye into my eyes than watch golf.

In any case, this golf tournament is the source of the GreenJackets name (and also the name of the now-defunct hockey team, the Augusta Lynx, who were at least halfway subtle about it). And apparently, the team is worried that you won't get the reference, so they threw the golf clubs into the logo for good measure. This is either an amusing twist on the whole "sports equipment in the logo" concept or else the dumbest thing I've ever seen, and I really have no idea which. Maybe that makes it an example of misunderstood genius. I doubt it, but I'll go along with it just so I don't have to think about it any longer.

When you look at the scoring for this team, you will note that I give them the half-penalty for "diamond". This may be a bit of a reach, but allow me to turn your attention to the general shape of the wasp. The bottom comes together at a point, much like a baseball field comes together at the point which is home plate. From there it radiates out in a roughly diagonal line, ending at the corners formed by its elbows. Then there's an arc connecting the two corners, much like the arc that forms the outfield wall in a baseball stadium. It's not a perfect representation by any stretch, but it's not hard to believe that they deliberately shaped the bee the way they did in order to include a subtle reference to a baseball field, particularly since they emphasized it by not drawing legs or a stinger. Indeed, even the coloring — a sandy area around home plate and a green outfield — suggests a baseball diamond.

So why only a half-penalty? Well, for starters, I'm not completely convinced that it was on purpose. Second, if it was deliberate then in my opinion it was pretty darned clever and I don't want to penalize them too much for it. Finally, given how many other penalties they get and how much I'm piling on with the equipment (I'm treating each golf club as an egregious piece of equipment), I figured I had to be nice somewhere.

Final Score: 219 points.
Penalties: Wordplay, 23 pts; Software, 27 pts; Compound, 34 pts; Equipment (quintuply-egregious), 93 pts; Diamond (half-penalty), 8 pts; Humanoid, 30 pts; Name, 10 pts.
Bonuses: Local, -6 pts.