Daytona Cubs

185

Long time readers of the Bush League Factor will know that in the hockey section I've commented on more than one occasion on the fact that there are some team names which are actually really stupid names, but because everyone following the sport today grew up knowing the team name, no one really thinks about it. In hockey, the canonical example is the Toronto Maple Leafs. In baseball, I think Chicago Cubs is the equivalent. They've had that name since the early part of the 20th Century, and I think baseball fans are required to sign a contract saying they will pretend the name isn't laughable. (I realize I may be in violation of this contract by saying this. This is what I get for not reading the fine print.) The team had numerous names before "Cubs", the best of which was probably "Colts". I'm not sure why they settled on "Cubs" and not any of the other half dozen or so names they had in the preceding three decades, but for some reason, they did. And they've gone on to inflict it on a couple of their farm teams. At least in the case of Daytona, it makes a certain amount of sense. After all, the "Cubs" name implies youth (apparently the Chicago team was first given that nickname because it had a lot of young players at the time), and you tend to get younger players in Single-A.

Even in this instance, I think there are better options out there than using the parent team's name when that name is so weak. Heck, I think there are better options when the parent team has a good name. But this is the Florida State League, where creativity doesn't count for much. Out of 120 teams at the AAA, AA, Advanced A, or A level, twenty use their parent team's name. Six of those twenty are in the twelve-team Florida State League. I'm not sure why this is the case. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's because the average age for a resident of Florida is 97:

"Wow, Eunice, look at that score! I tell ya, the Cubs are really clobbering New York!"

"Henry, dear, that's not New York."

"Why, of course it is! They're the Yankees, aren't they?"

"That's the Tampa Yankees, dear, remember? And those are the Daytona Cubs."

"Whaddya mean, the Daytona Cubs? The Cubs are in Chicago, and so are we!"

"No, dear, we moved to Florida, remember? It was about thirty years ago, when you retired."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Eunice! Why would we ever leave a town as wonderful as Chicago?"

"Honey, we used to live in Pittsburgh."

"Oh...I was wondering why that logo didn't look familiar."

The reason the logo doesn't look familiar is that the Daytona Cubs don't use Chicago's logo. Here, at least, they showed a little creativity, not that I'm convinced that this is an improvement. First of all, the bear in the picture is a polar bear. Do you think a polar bear would fare well in Florida? I'm guessing no. The decapitated head of a polar cub is going to fare even worse. The polar cub is also wearing sunglasses that look like a remnant of the 1980s (the team debuted in the mid 90s, for the record), and the cap is, predictably, being worn backwards. Despite this, you can see the team logo on the cap just above the polar bear's eyes — i.e., on the back of the cap.

For some reason, the logo designer decided to make the bear a relatively small part of the logo. All in all, I'd say the bear accounts for no more than 20% of the logo. The rest of the logo is taken up by some spectacularly boring (is it possible to be boring in a spectacular way?) stuff: A diamond with pinstripes (two baseball references for the price of one!). The name in athletic-style block letters. The city's name in a scribble which, while definitely handwriting of a sort, isn't the standard baseball script. I don't know why there's a decapitated polar bear cub's head in the logo, but I'm glad there is. It's the closest thing to interesting the logo has. The rest of the logo looks like it's stuck in the year 1948.

Just like Henry.

Final Score: 185 points.
Penalties: Script, 7 pts; Offspring, 12 pts; Equipment (egregious...in addition to the bear's cap I' assuming the pinstripes come from a baseball uniform; I think I'm justified in doing this), 27 pts; Diamond, 16 pts; Letter, 24 pts; Humanoid, 30 pts; Cartoon, 47 pts; Name, 10 pts; Logo, 12 pts.
Bonuses: None